Tom King

[wolfslair]

Because the next Murray or Ikeme will do well out on loan at another club, and if and when they do, they'll easily be able to get past King. This has obviously been done to help the young keepers.

We have to as a club make sure the out of our control circumstances that curtailed fabios development are not repeated!

You can’t help injury ripping through the squad depth of a few players meaning the youth is needed as there are no senior pros left.

But you can help the youth being thrust in when they aren’t ready because we didn’t have enough senior cover there.

As with the GK’s the club got the build and depth of this specialist department PERFECTLY CORRECT!!!!!!

You don’t need perfect, like for like replacements in every player in the depth chart for a role, sometimes you just need a senior ready body! Inexpensive wages, but ready in that “break glass in case of emergency” situation.

 

[WV10Wolf]

Because Tom King is a professional? But we probably could have and it wouldn’t make much difference to the first team. Who would you like as a third choice keeper?

Why is the onus on me to suggest an alternative? We spend lots of money on a recruitment team. For a third choice GK you want someone who is over 30 with years of experience and hundreds of games behind them in the top two divisions, someone like Wayne Hennessy for example, thought that may not be popular. John Ruddy would have been perfect.

 

[Mugwump]

 

[WolfLing]

He's our Scott Carson. More of a coach and positive influence around the club, than a player.

 

[Northampton_wolf]

Good for tom in truth, i hear hes a good character in the dressing room and is spoke well of. Equally having a keeper who is happy to be third choice is rare. So its good news, to keep allowing development of u21 keepers

 

[Northampton_wolf]

Strange one on the face of it. One minute we haven't got a pot to **** in and the next we're giving long contracts to journeyman players. Just hope that like Baldrick, Hobbs has a cunning play.

He will be on pittence compared to a big signing, he was at cobblers, he probably on 5 or 6k

 

[SuperGran]

John Ruddy would have been perfect.

First choice at blues. Not sure why you think he’d swap that for third choice here?

 

[Flump]

I hope you’re right. Not sure the likes of Moulden will want to hang around too long though! Class shines through. He will get a lower half championship club easily.. (That’s all Wolves were when Ikeme & Murray broke through)

So you think Moulden would rather be our 3rd choice keeper if we didn't have King, than go out on loan?

Ikeme and even Murray as an early developer still had plenty of loans before breaking through.

 

[Mugwump]

I dont mind the signing tbh, its just the length of the contract that has me puzzled.

 

[SmiffyWolf]

What next Hobbs announcement of Fabio Silva 15 year deal .

 

[WolfLing]

He will be on pittence compared to a big signing, he was at cobblers, he probably on 5 or 6k

He will probably be on more than he would be on as a lower league regular. Enough to make it worth his while sacrificing his playing career for the role he has here.

Like you say, maybe somewhere between £5-10k. A drop in the ocean for a Premier League club.

 

[Minimalist]

He's our Scott Carson. More of a coach and positive influence around the club, than a player.

Wouldn’t surprise me if he’s doing coaching badges and is here as much as a pathway to that end.
Handy for us that he can fill the role of third choice keeper while maintaining motivation and a positive attitude.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

So you think Moulden would rather be our 3rd choice keeper if we didn't have King, than go out on loan?

Ikeme and even Murray as an early developer still had plenty of loans before breaking through.

I certainly believe Moulden should get a chance of a pre season with us like Cundle and Lembikisa. Other two I have high hopes for. Then let Gary be the judge. Older heads only get older. We need some young guns. The class of 24 some would say. Players will only improve by playing games. So loans aren’t too bad. Only if they are happy to continue to be loaned. As a club we are now sitting in a very good position. Time to build on it.

Youth production can be our best friend. Also make us lots of money.

King fills the HG quota. So that’s happy for us

 

[Northampton_wolf]

I certainly believe Moulden should get a chance of a pre season with us like Cundle and Lembikisa. Other two I have high hopes for. Then let Gary be the judge. Older heads only get older. We need some young guns. The class of 24 some would say. Players will only improve by playing games. So loans aren’t too bad. Only if they are happy to continue to be loaned. As a club we are now sitting in a very good position. Time to build on it.

Youth production can be our best friend. Also make us lots of money.

Lemebikisa will get a chance at preseason with gary as will hooever, cundle, chiquinho. they will make a decision and then ship em out if they arent to be part of the team.

They like cundle and hodge they just dont know if they will make premier league footballers above what we have.

I mean look at giles

 

[Minimalist]

It’s hard enough to find a keeper prepared to be second choice, must be even harder for the role of third choice.
Plenty of seasons in recent years we haven’t even had a third choice. For a while I think sondegaard was technically third choice, would he have been any better than King if we’d had to use him? I doubt it, kings extra experience would help him in a pressured situation. I think we’re lucky to have king as third choice rather than potentially have to use a teenager that has no senior appearances to his name.

 

[WV10Wolf]

First choice at blues. Not sure why you think he’d swap that for third choice here?

He didn’t want to leave in the first place did he?

 

[SuperGran]

He didn’t want to leave in the first place did he?

I think he’d prefer playing every week there than sitting on the bench here

 

[WolfLing]

Yes he can

Still holds the world record I think. We have a world record breaking goalkeeper in our ranks.

 

[SA Wolf]

He will be on pittence compared to a big signing, he was at cobblers, he probably on 5 or 6k

Maybe, but it's a pittance we probably didn't need to extend further, especially as we're supposed to be making savings. We have young keepers on a pittance who could possibly fill that role. As I say; strange one.

 

[Minimalist]

He didn’t want to leave in the first place did he?

Think he actually wanted to be given the chance to to be first choice when Patricio left.

 

[Northampton_wolf]

Maybe, but it's a pittance we probably didn't need to extend further, especially as we're supposed to be making savings. We have young keepers on a pittance who could possibly fill that role. As I say; strange one.

How does a young keeper fill a third keeper role, when they need gametime and experience, they should be out on loan getting regular game time.

hes a huge characther respected in dressing room provides experience at both league an dinternational level, a good role model and is a good coach role.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

Lemebikisa will get a chance at preseason with gary as will hooever, cundle, chiquinho. they will make a decision and then ship em out if they arent to be part of the team.

They like cundle and hodge they just dont know if they will make premier league footballers above what we have.

I mean look at giles

Lembikisa will go on loan again because of his age. Hoever I’m not sure Lage slagged him and Fabio off for not putting effort into training. Downward spiral for Lage ever since that happened.

Cundle and Hodge maybe worth keeping until January. Our vital league cup run and injuries they are better bench options. If we sell Bouby a space becomes available

Giles is a strange one. The club wanted to keep him but we needed the money for FFP.

If we can make 4/5m on Hodge and Cundle you can see why we sell them on. Pure profit.

Look at vile selling their kids for good money. Unfortunately some of them are proving to be quite decent. It’s up to us to make sure we have the right balance.

Some will work their way back up. I do believe Cundle will have a good career. If we use a midfield 3 he would thrive.

I trust the club chiefs like Hobbs to get the calls right. Especially on the likes of King

 

[Northampton_wolf]

On King’s importance to the dressing room

“In my role working with Gary, we’re trying to create a culture, a togetherness within the training ground and the team, and hopefully the fans can see how connected the team and the staff are. The players are really connected to the fans too and part of creating that culture is generally the players not at the forefront of everything and nobody epitomises someone that drives a culture through his intensity in training every day, his work ethic and his personality more than Kingy.

“I can’t underplay how important Kingy is to what we’re doing here. That goes alongside his goalkeeping which is improving day in, day out. He has a lot of league football and international experience, and it makes three really competitive goalkeepers.”

 

[Minimalist]

How does a young keeper fill a third keeper role, when they need gametime and experience, they should be out on loan getting regular game time.

hes a huge characther respected in dressing room provides experience at both league an dinternational level, a good role model and is a good coach role.

I suppose the argument is that whoever is the current u21 keeper can also be third choice. Overall I don’t think it matters either way as so unlikely to be used, but it must put the squad in a stronger position if you can have a senior player like king in that role. Unless you happen to have an exceptional u21 keeper that for some reason isn’t out on loan.

 

[fleck1]

Some people love to get their knickers in a twist. He won't play, he's filling the Scott Carson role (cheap homegrown so ticks a box), he'll sit on the bench in cup games and make up the numbers in training and warm ups. It allows youngsters like Moulden to be loaned out in search of game time rather than kicking balls at Jose at 2pm on a Saturday.

 

[Flump]

I certainly believe Moulden should get a chance of a pre season with us like Cundle and Lembikisa. Other two I have high hopes for.

Yes, but you think every young player is a future star!

Players will only improve by playing games.

...yes, and by having King rotting as 3rd choice, Moulden can go out and play more games on loan. That's literally the whole point.

 

[Corporate Wolf]

Fair play to the bloke and his agent.

Let's be honest if any of our employers told us that we had guaranteed job security for 3.5 years with a slight increase in wages; most of us would be over the moon .

 

[Matt]

Why is the onus on me to suggest an alternative? We spend lots of money on a recruitment team. For a third choice GK you want someone who is over 30 with years of experience and hundreds of games behind them in the top two divisions, someone like Wayne Hennessy for example, thought that may not be popular. John Ruddy would have been perfect.

There’s no onus on you to name a name, I was just curious as to what kind of player you’d expect as a third choice keeper that’s all. I agree that would be great, but are there many of those around willing to sit as third choice? Again, I’m not asking you to name any! I’m just not sure there are many of them. I doubt Ruddy would be happy to be third choice behind Bentley and vice versa.

 

[WolfLing]

Some people love to get their knickers in a twist. He won't play, he's filling the Scott Carson role (cheap homegrown so ticks a box), he'll sit on the bench in cup games and make up the numbers in training and warm ups. It allows youngsters like Moulden to be loaned out in search of game time rather than kicking balls at Jose at 2pm on a Saturday.

20 years ago when playing Champ Man, I used to sign a few late 30's, ex-International players on free transfers, to play in my U21 side as one of 3 overage players, hoping that their professionalism and positive attitude would rub off on the youngsters.

Clubs have started doing that now, with Tom Huddlestone playing for United's youth side, and the likes of Scott Carson being happy with a supporting role at City.

I used to give them a game in dead rubbers at the end of the season. Think King might get a game if we can't move up or down a league place in the final game.

 

[glorybox]

I think the wider issue is that the second choice isn't up to it. If Bentley was third choice it would make more sense.

 

[Golden_Wolf]

Seems a weird one to me.
He's clearly not at the level we need... and there's youth goalkeepers like Louie Moulden who are probably on significantly less wages, with a massive upside if they happen to come good

Is it that weird though? Have King here means the young keepers we have can go & get first team football instead of playing u23s & being 3rd choice.

Seems a sensible decision.

 

[Jefe]

Neil cutler is well respected and obviously thinks differently he also sees him every day in training which is a bit different from making judgment on a 5 minute appearance in a preseason friendly.

Come on. Tom King was bombed out at both Salford City and Northampton Town of League Two because he couldn't get into their first teams. It is not remotely controversial for @Erick1011 to say he is not at the required level. I'd go one further by saying he is crap, and only finds himself at a Premier League club so we can game the homegrown quota for cheap, while allowing younger goalies like Moulden to go out on loan. Bloke must feel like he won the lottery, gets a big pay increase to just train for four hours a day with a bunch of Premier League players. Great work if you can get it.

 

[Black Country Wanderer]

Good luck to the bloke
He pushing 30, never really been top top class, seems happy to take on a semi trainer job while allowing upcoming youngsters to go out on loan
I understand people saying he has no ambition,but at his age the ambition is to stay where you are, on ,for him,decent wages and have job security surely
He knows that probably the only way is down from here ,so keep doing what your doing,obviously respected for doing exactly that with a smile on his face

 

[wolfslair]

People

Good luck to the bloke
He pushing 30, never really been top top class, seems happy to take on a semi trainer job while allowing upcoming youngsters to go out on loan
I understand people saying he has no ambition,but at his age the ambition is to stay where you are, on ,for him,decent wages and have job security surely
He knows that probably the only way is down from here ,so keep doing what your doing,obviously respected for doing exactly that with a smile on his face

Couldn’t agree more mate!!

The career of a professional sportsman is short and not long time to earn like “the normal world” he deserves the right to earn as much as he can, while he can!

Up to him how he chooses to do it, he is still living most people’s dream to just be a pro footballer. He might not play, but is in a position many who don’t or didn’t get there would kill for!

 

[UEAwolf]

On King’s importance to the dressing room

“In my role working with Gary, we’re trying to create a culture, a togetherness within the training ground and the team, and hopefully the fans can see how connected the team and the staff are. The players are really connected to the fans too and part of creating that culture is generally the players not at the forefront of everything and nobody epitomises someone that drives a culture through his intensity in training every day, his work ethic and his personality more than Kingy.

“I can’t underplay how important Kingy is to what we’re doing here. That goes alongside his goalkeeping which is improving day in, day out. He has a lot of league football and international experience, and it makes three really competitive goalkeepers.”

I have an (admittedly, irrational) dislike for nicknames - particularly being referred to in press releases - at the best of times.

They obviously took some time in coming up with 'Kingy'. God forbid they call him Tom.

 

[SquaddieWolf]

Fair play to the bloke and his agent.

Let's be honest if any of our employers told us that we had guaranteed job security for 3.5 years with a slight increase in wages; most of us would be over the moon .

Especially if they told me I wouldn't have to do anything lol

 

[wolfslair]

Fair play to the bloke and his agent.

Let's be honest if any of our employers told us that we had guaranteed job security for 3.5 years with a slight increase in wages; most of us would be over the moon .

Cheap guaranteed homegrown status player for us too! Chance to try and develop the next Murray or Ikeme using good loans.

Makes massive sense

 

[wolfslair]

Especially if they told me I wouldn't have to do anything lol

Means he might be able to save his body and play lower league for more years when the contract is done and be a better player with all the elite coaching cutler.

Great business and career move for king

 

[Boss Hogg]

Still think he should have a competitive game every now and then, even if it is just u21, just so he remembers how to catch a ball

 

[StaffordWolf]

Yes he can

Taking 'playing out from the back' to another level.