Doug King makes Coventry City transfer claim on player now contracted to Nottingham Forest | OneFootball

Doug King revealed Coventry City were keen on Marko Stamenic in the summer before he joined Nottingham Forest.

Coventry City owner Doug King has revealed that they were keen on signing Marko Stamenic in the transfer window, although he is confident they have enough midfield options at the club.

It was a busy summer for the Sky Blues after they missed out on the play-offs and reached the FA Cup semi-final, with the club targeting quality as they looked to make that next step this season.

It had been said that Stamenic was a target for Coventry, with reports stating that the Championship side had agreed a fee with Red Star for the New Zealand international.

Doug King discusses Coventry City midfield situation

In the end, Coventry wouldn’t sign Stamenic, with the 22-year-old agreeing a deal with Nottingham Forest instead, although they immediately loaned the midfielder to Olympiacos.

That was seen as a disappointment to some Coventry fans, who felt a major midfield signing had been needed since Gustavo Hamer’s departure.

And, speaking to Coventry Live, King gave his thoughts on the midfield, as he admitted that Stamenic was on their radar in the past, but he hinted that his arrival may have prompted Ben Sheaf to move on.

“Listen, we looked at a lot of players and went after a couple of players, of which Marko Stamenic was one of them.

“Everyone is obsessed with the midfield and obviously there has been a few injuries there but we have high quality in there. I mean, how many midfielders do we want? We have the four that we know about (Eccles, Sheaf, Torp, Rudoni), we have Kai Andrews, Jamie Allen, had Kasey Palmer... We have Joel (Latibeaudiere) who can play in there. Maybe we should have nine or ten, do you know what I mean?

“Everybody has their view on everything but we felt if we could get a high quality number six in at some point it would give us flexibility in respect of whether there could maybe some outgoings – I think Ben Sheaf mentioned that he had an approach in the summer – so we don’t know how it would have all played out.

“This is a little difficult for me because we’re quite a private football club but obviously what’s gone down (with the dismissal of Mark Robins) needs to be explained. But in general, I am a private business and I don’t like to talk about plans because I have competitors, and for me this is a bit awkward, and the forum was a bit awkward because I will have employees who will be upset. But sometimes we have to be what we have got to be and we’ve been transparent about what happened.”

Next Coventry City boss will need support

Things haven’t really worked out for Stamenic in Greece, as he has failed to nail down a regular place in the XI at Olympiacos, and they certainly haven’t played out the way Coventry wanted.

Mark Robins’ sacking was a major call from the owner, and there’s serious pressure on King to get this next appointment right.

Then, whoever is brought in will need backing in January, which will come at the right time considering they will have had weeks to assess the squad.

It remains to be seen whether midfield is where they want to target, but there is a lot of talent in the Coventry squad, so it will be a case of making tweaks rather than ripping things up and starting again.