Why football will always be shamed by the second chances it offers people like Marlon King and Joey Barton: The Big Lunchtime Read, by Simon Mullock

By Simon Mullock in Mirror Football Blog

Published 12:45 30/10/09

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You can be sure that Marlon King will have somebody waiting for him when he finishes his porridge.

Whether that someone will be his wife Julia remains to be seen given that handing out upper cuts and hooks to women now appears to be something of a character trait.

But lurking outside Wormwood Scrubs or whichever of Her Majesty’s jails becomes home for the Jamaican striker for the next 18 months, there will be an agent and a club chairman ready to hand King another “last chance” to put his snout into the football trough.

Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has been lauded for handing out the kind of swift justice that was beyond the country’s law courts after 13 previous convictions.

And I have to say that I expected nothing less from a man who has made a fortune thanks to his reputation of being hard but fair in all aspects of his life.

But that’s why I now have to ask what the hell Dave Whelan was doing letting Marlon King wear a Wigan Athletic shirt in the first place?

Everyone knew that King had previous.

What wasn’t so widely known was just how much previous. Thirteen counts to be precise, ranging from violence against women to motoring offences.

Apologists from Wigan – and Gillingham, Nottingham Forest, Leeds, Watford, Middlesbrough and Hull – will of course claim that King did his crime and served his time. That it would have been wrong of them to look beyond his talent and close the door on his opportunity for rehabilitation.

That’s something I can certainly relate to.

But how many second chances does one man deserve?

King wouldn’t have been able to secure gainful employment in a bank or at a nursery school – not with convictions for dishonesty and violence on his record.

Yet numerous clubs were willing to turn a blind eye to his past and allow him to pull on their shirt. To become a role model to the thousands of kids who have football running through their veins.

And that’s because the bottom line, as with most things in football, is cold, hard cash.

Joey Barton was allowed to get away with stubbing out a lit cigar in the eye of a young Manchester City professional.

He followed that up by punching a 15-year-old Everton fan in a Bangkok bar before team-mate Ousmane Dabo was left looking like the “Elephant Man” according to the Frenchman himself after another assault.

Joey’s reward? A £6million move to Newcastle and a subsequent six-month stretch in Strangeways for battering a 16-year-old in a McDonalds.

Barton says he is merely misunderstood. Too true, I definitely can’t understand why he’s on another last chance.

Lee Hughes was a £3m centre-forward for West Brom when he was sentenced to six years for causing death by dangerous driving.

The court was told that he had fled the scene of his crime so he couldn’t be breathalysed.

Since his release Hughes has been banging the goals in on a regular basis for Oldham and Notts County.

Marlon King will be aged 30 when he comes out of stir.

But you can be sure there will be clubs ready to hand him their No 9 shirt because there will be a Premier League-class striker up for grabs on the cheap.

And it stinks.

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