Could we risk losing King?

[basskadet]

It is now thought that Spurs are preparing to offer King a contract extension. However, it is widely believed that any new contract will encourage him to retire from International football with the aim of prolonging his career, & compensating him for that retirement. It is also thought to incorporate a pay-as-you-play structure due to his knee injuries.

Apparently King has said that any such contract he would immediately reject without thinking. He has no intention of fully retiring from International football & he would consider a pay-as-you-play contract an insult after his years of loyalty.

I know there's an argument that we may be better without him as his knee injury disrupts the progression of our other talented CBs like Dawson but I would hate to see him leave and especially in these circumstances.

If Spurs cannot offer him a proper contract they need to just be straight with the guy. Its starting to leave a sour taste in my mouth.

[CmonyouSpurs]

He is a legend for me and we must do all we can to keep him. You can clearly see the difference without the presence of King in our defence.

[grandgramparabbi]

I say sign him to a fair deal. He doesn't strike me as the unreasonable type.
Does anyone know if he considered micro-fracture knee surgery?
From everything I read it seems his cartilage is all shot and this seems the surgery which replaces it. I believe the success rate is fifty/fifty so that may be the reason but when it works it actually works and removes all problems.
The question seems to be: whether to undertake the risky surgery and be out of it for a year and then be problem-free (Amare Stoudamire from the NBA made a complete recovery and he had similar problems) or play it out like now, constant discomfort, playing one game a week maybe and running the risk of the problem becoming worse.
What would you do?

[basskadet]

I think he had that surgery G, that's partly to blame for his current situation as he was the 50% that it did not work for. I maybe wrong as I know little about the subject, but I know that King had the keyhole surgery on his knee & that operation can cause its own problems.

[P UNIT 1980]

If they try and squeze him they are idiots. Top class idiots.

He has been a loyal player for us and we should show the same loyalty.

Offer him 1 year deals but dont mug him off with a cop out deal of "if you get injured playing for us we wont pay ya"!!!

Like many players he probably never wants to retire from international footy as he would always answer the call of his country.

This club still has many things to learn about football and the first thing is that it isnt played in the boardroom!!!

[basskadet]

I'm tempted to say that this is papertalk trying to stir things up. Harry has already said publicly that Spurs need to offer King a proper contract & he also publicly stated his desire to see King play once more for England. I can't see how after the manager making such public comments, if the board are indeed 100% behind Harry (which they have appeared to be so far), why they would then offer such a pony contract. Harry has made it clear how important King is to him.

I think this is press bull.

[grandgramparabbi]

Here, I found something about the surgery. It is at the same time hilarious and very frightening:

"The dreaded procedure - which replaces cartilage with coagulated blood - has derailed many an NBA career and was famously described by a Sports Guy reader as leaving your knees feeling like "frozen monkey fist in chunky gravy."

I blew out my knee a couple of years ago playing basketball and, I can tell you, it's no picnic.
I truly feel for the guy...

[P UNIT 1980]

Mate its just the rags anti Spurs sentiments again trying to build on the Cappello story and the "massive rift" between the 2 managers.

Bunch of parasites who trawl inter-net forums for stories as opposed to actually doing their job of unearthing journalistic gems.

If you are reading this you are lazy (insert own expletive due to the clampdown on swearing)!!!

[kevfball63]

If we let King go it will be because he is not happy with the terms of the contract , but this pay as you play is to protect the club from getting financially mugged . Yes King is a legend but i see on here the other day that he has only played 200 games for us in his whole carreer . Now as far as i'm concerned thats less than 50% = so i'm not too sure that we should be taking what actually looks like a bigger risk by guaranteeing him wages . I've always wanted performance related wages - that way everybody gets a fair deal .

Now i'm gonna tell ya what me dad said to that .

He reckons that if you have that situation then the players will start kickin lumps out of each other in training trying to injure the player thats challenging for his position so as he get picked .

Now is this what happened with the Bent injury to Defoe ??

I want King to stay but i dont want him holding us to ransom either . This my freinds is where Harry comes into the mix , he'll sort it out .

[basskadet]

I still don't like the way we appear to be dallying over things. Just give him a bl***y contract! I get the wording of these things take time & I get that King's is perhaps a special situation but they have enough experience of these things & there is a part of me that feels that, if King was as important to Spurs as they make out, they'd be falling over themselves to get that renewed contract to him.

I just hope our board pulls there fingers out over this so they can show up these silly stories rather than inflame them.

[SAspursfan]

Would be really sad to see him go. But, I can really understand where Harry's coming from with trying to protect and prolong his playing career, by encouraging him to give up international football.

Harry has the unenviable task of never knowing when King will be available to play. Not exactly the ideal situation for a manager to be in.

I totally understand Ledleys position also. He has been a superstar on many ocassions and would be sorely missed by Spurs, should he leave.

Would other teams snap him up, with his dodgy knee? Brilliant when he is on the field, but how often will he be, off the field in the future. Would top clubs pay good wages and never know from week to week whether he could play and would they protect him like Spurs do at present?

IMO Ledley should quit internationals, permanently, if he wishes to prolong his playing days.

[basskadet]

I don't believe its a case of him holding us to ransom Kev. Its simply about wages and being fair to a man who has been at the club for 10 years, regardless of how many appearances he's made (btw, he's made 240 excluding the 30+ he has managed this season. I think the figure is closer to 300 in all).

I know we all go on about the astronomical wages these guys get but you have to think that their careers are over by the time they are 35 & then they have no qualifications to go into anything else. The club is worried about Ledley's injury but so is Ledley. He's worried he might be out of employment at 29, and not earning a proper income. Whether he's playing or not, he is Spurs' biggest asset. He sells shirts, he spreads our name & he is widely respected throughout the club. He just wants a bit of recognition for that & to know that he will be financially OK if anything should go wrong. Its not about holding the club to ransom, that's what (spit) Sol did. I'm sure he just wants a fair package & certainly won't be asking for anymore than he already gets. He has to expect some compromise but I can fully understand why a pay-as-you-play does not help him out in the slightest & why he would see it as an insult.

[LLOYDY]

boardroom memebers sort it out, spurs without ledders is a weaker spurs team.

[Corey 504]

it would be sad to see king get let go, he is a top class player when he is on the field, but they fact that his knee injury plagues him so often i can see where they are coming from.


but it is King and i think they should give him a fair contract, but make it for a year or two. he is a high risk player with that knee and with one awkward challenge on that and its done for him.

i dont know, i see both sides, but i surely dont want to see him go.

[Yid04Life]

[quote=basskadet;77668] I know we all go on about the astronomical wages these guys get but you have to think that their careers are over by the time they are 35 & then they have no qualifications to go into anything else. [quote]

Yeah I sure would hate to be a retired millionaire at the age of 35, what a horrible life :P