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 picture: Club secretary Alan Gower with Stuart King: After receiving the Kent League
Golden Boot at the end of season presentation night held at The Stanley
Ballrooms in Chatham, Whitstable’s young striker 18 year old Stuart King
confirmed he will be signing again ready for the clubs first season in the
Ryman League. King said: “It’s a new adventure
for the club as it’s the first time they have been promoted and one that I am
looking forward to after winning the Kent League golden boot. I now want
to test myself at a higher level with Whitstable and prove to myself that I can
go even further."
I want to become a
better player; I feel that under Marc’s (Marc Seager; Whitstable’s manager)
guidance I can continue to improve and repay the faith he has shown in me since
I joined the club. It’s always difficult changing clubs, Herne Bay is my home
Town so it was a wrench for me to leave but circumstances meant that I moved on
and it’s turned out to be a great move for me. It’s been very flattering that a number of clubs have shown
interest in me,” (Margate, Ramsgate and Dover have all been linked with the
young striker) “and there has been some very attractive offers made, but anyone
who knows me knows that money is not my motivation, If the opportunity came
along for me to play full time football, then the manager and the club have
told me they would back my decision; but for the moment I just want to play
football with a good bunch of team-mates who are also quality footballers. I
settled in well at the club, I am basically a quite person but the lads all
made me feel very welcome and it only took me a couple of games to settle in, I
missed out on the lad’s trip to Magalouf the other week which was
Steve Marshall’s stag do, I was unable to go due to my work commitments. But me
and a bunch of the lads, team-mates Garry Sayer, Alex Hossick, Michael Addcock
and Robb Thomas and few others are off to Tenerife for a week to let our hair
down before we start to think about life in the Ryman League.”
 picture: Richard Tennant (aka Doggy Dickie) with his children presenting a momento to Stuart King: King, who has a photographic
memory for football can recall in minute detail all the goals he has scored for
Town since joining last season. His tally of 30 goals in 41 appearance is a
strike rate any player would be proud of yet he is able to re-call not only the
game details but also who passed him the ball, the side of the goal he scored
in and which foot he scored with, also if he missed or hit the woodwork.
“I am aware that I am a nightmare
to talk to after a game, I seem to stay in a zone just re-living the match and
I know I am not very good company for a few hours afterwards. I suppose it’s
because I take it so seriously, and although it sounds funny I do genuinely get
upset if I do not score, fortunately that does not happen too often,” joked the
young striker.
Manager Marc Seager: Expressed his
delight at King deciding to stay with Town: “Stuart re-signing is like the
capture of a new player,” said Seager: “he is still not the finished article as
he will admit himself, and it’s frightening that he has won the Golden Boot in
the Kent League at such a young age. The good thing is that he knows that we at
the club have his best interest at heart, the better he becomes as a player
then it will mean that we are progressing in the right direction. In Simon
Halsey we have a very talented coach who will continue to work with all the
players, so that they and Stuart are as best prepared for each game as
possible. Stuart has some quality
players around him; he is comfortable with his team-mates on and off the pitch
and can only get better as a player and as a person, we are really looking
forward to next season, bring it on.”
WTFC chairman Tony Rouse also praised King; who was by
far the youngest of those at the Kent League presentation: “He was a credit to
the football club, I was very pleased with the way he behaved throughout the
presentation and he genuinely seemed to have enjoyed the whole evening. An
event like that can be a bit daunting for a young lad but fair play to Stuart
he took it all in his stride and it is a measure of how much he has grown up
since he joined the club, that he was so at ease in company a generation or
more older. It was just a pity that his parents were not there because they
would have been very proud of the way he conducted himself. Late in the evening
he even took to the dance floor, which was something I never expected to see
after his fist few weeks at the club.”
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