King Abdicates To Birmingham For More Royalties

So Marlon King has proved once again to have the morals of a gutter rat after signing for local rivals Birmingham just days after telephoning Coventry City manager Andy Thorn to tell him he was staying at the Sky Blues.

King has admitted in subsequent interviews that the phone call did take place, and he agreed to stay. He then only changed his mind because the club didn’t forward the contract to him immediately, Birmingham came in with a late (better) offer and he decided to go there instead. 

Now there’s nothing illegal with that. It’s not the first time it’s happened in football and won’t be the last. People get gazumped in the housing market all the time, so it’s hardly surprising a man with the dubious background King (as well as his agent Tony Finnigan) has would renege on such an agreement. 

It’s particularly amusing to see the reaction of some Sky Blue fans displaying surprise and disgust that a man with so many numerous and wide-ranging convictions and willing to cheat on his pregnant wife could even contemplate such unethical behaviour. 

But the situation was completely unnecessary. Firstly, King had been in possession of the written contract offer for at least a month. He kept Coventry waiting for a decision for all that time then complains that the club didn’t drop everything at an instant to get a contract to him to sign. 

King could have taken the original contract offer with him to sign in case he made a decision while he was away on holiday. The interview also shows that Marlon had access to e-mail wherever he was staying. Why didn’t he put it in writing in a quick e-mail that he was willing to accept the terms and would they forward him the contract to sign? 

For me the reason seems quite clear – King had no intention of ever signing a contract with the Sky Blues. It was merely a ploy to speed up the process of getting other clubs to make him an offer and improve the terms contained within them. 

It’s amazing that after having so long to decide his future, King suddenly makes the decision to stay when he’s in a place which is difficult for the Sky Blues to actually get him to sign something binding, and he chooses to make that acceptance via a quick phone call, something difficult to prove legally. 

So the phone call takes place. King and/or his agent know that the City board and management will be eager to release the news to aid season ticket sales and maybe influence other people like Westwood and Gunnarsson to sign their contracts, as well as make themselves look good, and in the process alert other clubs that they’d better make an offer quick. Which Birmingham duly do and King gets what he wants. 

Had the Sky Blues actually done what King suggested and e-mailed him the contract to sign, I have little doubt his response would have been along the lines of “I’m on a family holiday, you can’t expect me to sort it out right now. I’ll do it when I get back.”. 

But the conduct of King and his agent isn’t what has riled me the most, because I expect that kind of behaviour from such characters. It’s the naivety and amateurism shown once again by Coventry City and its board in releasing information before it’s rubber-stamped. Yes, the fans clamour for more transparency and information, but you’re board members to make professional, intelligent decisions in the best interests of Coventry City FC, and if that upsets some people so be it. 

Some people have suggested that maybe releasing this information was actually a ploy by the board to get other clubs to offer King a deal so he’d go elsewhere, as the club couldn’t afford the contract they’d offered, and that even though it’d make them look a bit foolish it had to be done. 

Either way, King Rat is dead. Viva la revolucion!