Here is an article by Nat, a regular contributor on the forum. It is his take on Marlon King’s release from prison.

If you look at Marlon King from purely his footballing track record, there can be no doubt that spells at clubs such as Watford, Forest and Gillingham amongst others have made him into one of the most prolific strikers outside the Premiership. Better still he’s thirty, in his prime and a free agent at the moment, so there should be an avalanche of Football League clubs and probably a few lower-table Premier League outfits after his signature.

But as we all know, he is only a free agent because he’s spent nine months on loan to Her Majesty’s Prison service and has only just secured his early release. King has a rap-sheet a mile long. Thirteen convictions since 1997, including wounding another player, dishonesty and receiving a stolen BMW (which landed him a nine-month sentence in Prison in 2002) were bad enough, but his criminal nadir arrived when he was jailed last October for ABH and sexual assault on a woman in a nightclub. His most recent indiscretion is probably his most serious, and has raised a debate as to whether he should be allowed a future place in football at all.

Now it would be wrong to infer that, should King make a comeback in football he would be the only player to do so after a spell in nick. Notable examples of players coming back after such spells would be our then winger Jermaine Pennant, who came straight back into the Blues team with an electronic tag on his shin. Tony Adams went on to captain Arsenal to two league titles and England in three major tournaments after he did three months for drink-driving. Lee Hughes is banging the goals in for Notts County after killing one person and injuring another in a hit-and-run car accident. It can be done, the old adage that a person can live a normal life after a punishment is as true with footballers as anyone else.

However, my opinion is that a player is an ambassador for the club he plays for on and off the pitch. It’s no good serving a punishment if your going to behave in the same way before. I used to think that there were certain bad-boy players who were perhaps beyond redemption. Lee Bowyer was one, I honestly thought he was bad news when he signed for us in January ‘09, I didn’t want him near a Blues shirt. I’m happy to admit I was wrong; his performances on the whole have been very good for us, and by all accounts he is a model pro far removed from the troublesome image his name used to paint. But for me, the apparent reformation of Joey Barton is the most remarkable yet. I watched an interview with him towards the back end of last season. Far from being the volatile, rather despicable character we’d grown weary of hearing about in the past, he came across as eloquent and rather charming who had given up drinking, which was self-admittedly his aggression trigger. It makes me think that if he can be reformed, anyone can.

Hypothetically, should King be barred from playing football in Britain again, where would it end? Who sets the moral boundaries of who deserves to play Professional football and who doesn’t? At the moment, Plymouth ‘Keeper Luke McCormick is in Prison for a car accident where he killed two children whilst under the influence. Once he serves his sentence would he be allowed to continue his career? To ban King would open a can of uncontrollable worms, where there would be so many grey areas trying to judge the merits of one bad-boy’s case as to whether he should be able to play.

Then again, when you talk about Lee Hughes, Tony Adams and Luke McCormick, they were in reality one-time offenders. This week saw the end of King’s SECOND Prison sentence, and as I said his list of convictions runs into double figures. It could be argued that this would prove that he has been given chance after chance after indiscretions and seems unable to appreciate the magnitude of his poor conduct. The list of convictions could be said to prove that, unlike Lee Bowyer, unlike even Joey Barton, he is beyond rehabilitation, and that he should be kept well away from football.

In addition, the nature of King’s offence might make being a footballer impractical. The fact that he has been convicted of sexual assault means he is now on the sex offenders register. He would never, ever pass a CRB check, so how would he say, be able to come into contact with a young mascot. Technically, it would be impossible for him to play with a player who is under-18. Even if he wanted to play and a club wanted to sign him, the circumstances of his most recent offence could make it impossible. In addition, would parents of mascots or young players want King near their children? I’d imagine there may even be a fair few players who might have second thoughts about playing with him, it could split a dressing room.

I write this article as a man. Talking about the nature of King’s most recent offence, it would be crude to dispel the female football supporter’s point of view. It would be understandable if a woman felt that she couldn’t give her full backing to King if he was playing for her club, when his previous behaviour seems to show he has absolutely no respect for women. Any club that signs King would be running the risk of alienating a lot of their female support. If I was in a woman’s shoes, would I part with my money so that it ended up in the bank account of a sex offender?

In conclusion, I don’t think he should be barred from playing football, because it would be infeasible to do so more than anything else. However I wouldn’t really want Marlon King at my club. His past behaviour makes my skin crawl, and the fact that his rap sheet is so long would make me think he’s a liability in the future, that his behaviour could hinder his performance and that of the club. He needs a manager who can control rogues; Aidy Boothroyd at Coventry or Neil Warnock at QPR maybe. But wherever he goes, he really needs to be in a last chance saloon. A club will come in for him because he scores goals below the Premiership, but if he misbehaves again, surely he will have completely blown it.