Coventry City transfer news from CoventryLive: Former Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford discusses the background behind his time with the Sky Blues.
Patrick Bamford said that Doug King changed his mind about signing him for Coventry City after the former Leeds United striker was invited to join the club.
After being released from Elland Road in the summer, the 32-year-old joined the Sky Blues as a free agent at Ryton, firstly to improve on his fitness but with the goal of signing for the league leaders.
However, he alleges that the City owner reconsidered because the club was performing so well, and Bamford accepted an offer from Championship rivals Sheffield United to relocate to Bramall Lane instead.
Bamford told the Sheffield Star: “Obviously, I’ve got a family to think about.” Then the Coventry one sprang up. It was an interesting one, and I clearly recognized Frank (Lampard) from my time at Chelsea. So I went down, thinking that working with the squad would be preferable to training alone.
“I had clearly been working hard every day with the person I work with, but it wasn’t the same. Training with the team is far more effective. So I walked down there, and everything was pretty well done.
“And then the owner decided he didn’t want to execute the transaction, so the team flew. Which they are. I have no bad sentiments toward him; everything is OK. I definitely spoke with Frank, who apologized and simply stated he was glad to have me in there.
“that’s a shame that didn’t go through, but I just wanted to express my gratitude to him for allowing me to exercise and, obviously, improve my fitness. Which actually helped because, when I got in here, it made it much simpler to get started.
“So, when it fell through, Chris called me. We spoke for 20 minutes on the phone, I arrived on Wednesday, and everything was completed in two hours. So I didn’t really need much convincing. And, obviously, I’ve spoken with Chris before, a few months back.
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