There has been a lot of talk regarding us being linked with Marlon King, most of it negative. Personally I think I’d prefer it if he didn’t come – however John has stuck his head up to put another side to things.
The proposed transfer of Marlon King from Coventry City to Birmingham City appears to have kicked the Blue half of Birmingham into a frenzy. After allegedly agreeing a verbal deal to sign on for another year at Coventry, speculation suggests that Alex McLeish has hijacked the deal is close to bringing King to St Andrews where he is expected to earn £15,000 per week wages.
Marlon King is not exactly the cleanest character in English football. He has convictions for 14 offences, including theft, criminal damage, attempting to obtain property by deception, fraudulent use of vehicle license document, driving without insurance, speeding, drink driving, seriously wounding a teammate, and assaulting women. When celebrating his wife’s pregnancy, King committed the heinous crime of them all – assaulted a woman and smashed her in her the face when told to stop – a crime that saw him imprisoned for 18 months. Since then, he has joined Coventry City, kept a relatively low profile and scored 12 goals in 28 games.
The fact is, like him or not, Marlon King is a proven goalscorer at Championship level and this is the reason he should come to Blues. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t particularly want King at Birmingham but not because of his past. I don’t see the point of signing up a 31-year-old to help achieve promotion only to discard him once we have gone up – I would much rather spend the money by investing in a youthful team that can last a couple of years in the top flight with Birmingham. That’s not to say that I will be refunding my season ticket or supporting a different team as many on Twitter and Facebook have threatened.
Should King to Birmingham I will be happy we finally have a proven goalscorer. 48 goals in 102 games for Watford and 40 in 101 for Gillingham prove his calibre. In a career spanning ten years, he scored nigh on 130 goals at lower league level, has the strength and depth to beat players and is a frightening prospect for defenders to play against. Yes, he has done wrong in the past but so had Lee Bowyer and Jermaine Pennant when they came to Blues. Giggs and Rooney aren’t exactly angels but I guarantee you would cheer both of those at Blues!
Those who state they will not cheer King on are clearly not true Birmingham fans. Anyone who wears the badge will have my support on the pitch and as for those saying they don’t want to cheer on a woman beater – you don’t have to – cheer on a footballer. Its not as though King will be cage fighting a defenceless woman for 90 minutes – he will be going past defenders and scoring goals for your beloved Birmingham City – cheer him on for that. He continues to protest his innocence and that is up to him but he has served his time in prison and now he needs to serve time on the pitch – where he is best.
Like it or not, Birmingham City are now a Championship team and it sounds like we no longer have the cash to gamble on foreign players. Even if we did, wouldn’t you rather have King or has proved he can score goals than obscurities like Carlos Costly, Luciano Figuero or Nikolai Zigic – who has only shown us around 5 decent games. King is a player who can benefit Birmingham if he joins – he hasn’t become a hero at Coventry for nothing. He’s become a hero because he has kept his head down and scored the goals that took them from relegation fears to mid-table security. Think about it – if you learned Obafemi Martins had done time in prison for rape – would you be clamouring to hand the Carling Cup over to Arsenal because of off-the pitch ethics? I thought not, just as you won;t be asking to stay in the Championship if King comes to Birmingham and scores the goals to take us back up to the Premiership…..
I couldnt care less what he’s done off the pitch, if he comes to Blues and scores 20 goals and gets us promoted then great. I think a lot of fans need to face facts, we are an average club who’ve just been relegated, again, we have an owner without enough money to run a football club, we have small attendence’s that are getting smaller and we cant attract good players, and the decent players we do have will be jumping ship to bigger, better clubs at the first opportuinity. Beggars cant be chooses.
You are talking rubbish when you say that anyone who will not cheer King on is clearly not a true Birmingham fan. I believe myself to be a true Blues supporter, Blues is my club and always will be but not at any price. If Blues issued a statement saying kill all Villa fans would you go out and do it. You are saying wining is everything and win at any cost; well I’m sorry I can not be a party to that kind of attitude. Football is a part of my life and I have pride in calling Blues my club. Yes we have had players who have not been saints and have been in trouble with the law but this man is on another level. This man smashed a young women’s face in because she would not have sex with him. You say anyone who wears the badge will have your support on the pitch, well on the pitch or off the pitch he is still the same man. I will not go to the Blue’s if King comes I don’t think I could look my wife and daughter in the face and say I watched and cheered a blues player on today, ho yes he happens to be a women beater.
Marlon King should not be allowed to come to the Blues. There are plenty of strikers with a decent record of scoring in the championship. Okay we may have to pay some money but will the players we have , look at him thinking that guy is a woman beater. They have to go home to their family. the team and the cause comes first.
I personally agree with Ivar and Brian. Just because he’s not smashing a young woman in the face when he’s playing football does not mean he deserves any respect whatsoever. He’s got over a dozen offences to his name and is not the sort of person i want to be cheering on. As ivan says there are many other options avaliable, most of whom are not 31 years old and a convicted criminal.
The bloke is utter scum, added to the list of his crimes he shows no loyalty to Coventry who took him off the scrap heap.
I say there’s no point in any of us getting our knickers in a twist whilst this is still a maybe. I’m not in enough possession of the facts to say that he’s scum, or even that he’s not. What I will say is the following. We have had troubled players at blues before, but to the same extent? I would be suprised if Chinese culture, something the club must want to adhere to? surely wouldn’t want such a heavily convicted criminal playing for a respected team? Finally, and to me this is the key… Most average blokes I know would be willing to punch a guy who ‘Tried it on with his mrs’ especially if he persevered after she said no. I also think if this guy happened to “smash her face” afterwards, they would happily see him rot in prison, not content that he’s paid his dues, and now earning half the average Joe’s year’s salary a week by putting on a shirt he won’t respect beyond his next wage packet (see his respect for coventry despite verbal contract) and for that matter wearing a shirt that could be worn by Asante for example. I also think any fan who wants him at Blues should be willing to look the victim in the eye and say, “He’s paid his debt to society, he has a right to ply his trade as a well paid footballer, and I hope he scores bags of goals.” I won’t refuse to attend should he sign, but I state now I don’t want him. I also urge all those who would turn a blind eye to previous form, to ask themselves “What if it were my daughter, sister, wife?”
According to Tatts, King is set to have a medical tomorrow.
I’m not happy to be honest, regardless of his troubled past – he’s 31 for crying out loud. Hardly a signing for the future. Even when he was younger, he wasn’t that good.
You are welcome to him.I fetch my 10 year old daughter with me to watch cov as its my team and I love them but always felt that him representing my club was wrong.This is the nature of footy now.Any other situation and this man would be sent to cov (sorry)but because he offers the chance of a bit of success hes cheered on.Dont do it let him go lesta they have got a history of rapists in their side.(remember lamanga)
Blues would have to be crazy to sign King. Period. End of matter. This (almost) risks my lifelong support of BCFC – it is that stupid on so many fronts: too old, too bad off the field, too lacking in real credentials…etc. KRO, nevertheless.