Former Crystal Palace and Millwall keeper Tom King’s brutally honest assessment of his AFC Wimbledon loan

Tom King says his loan spell at AFC Wimbledon was the “greatest learning experience” of his career.

The 27-year-old Salford City shotstopper, who faces his former club tomorrow, has also criticised his performances while at Kingsmeadow and regrets the “rash” comments he made after Neal Ardley’s departure.

King joined the Dons following their promotion to League One on a season-long loan from Millwall for the 2018-19 campaign.

When asked about his memories from his time with the Dons, King told the South London Press: “Quite negative ones. I didn’t quite find my best form, and I really struggled to piece things together. I look back on my time at Wimbledon as the greatest learning experience of my career to date.

“It’s where I really hit a crossroads in my career – whether I was going to fully dedicate myself 100 per cent to my craft and my trade, or I was going to go the other way and let my career fizzle out.”

The former Crystal Palace academy keeper – 23 at the time – lost his place in the side under Ardley to Joe McDonnell eight games into the campaign and was forced to settle for a place on the bench for 14 league games running.

“I look back at the experiences in my career,” said King. “I have gone through some really unbelievable times, but I can’t say that I learnt any more about myself than from my time at Wimbledon. Off the pitch now, I have completely turned my life around. The late nights and the unprofessionalism are things of the past. You saw in my performances [at Wimbledon] that the way I lived off the pitch was completely wrong – I only have myself to blame for that.”

With Wimbledon bottom of the table, King returned to the side following Wally Downes’ appointment, helping to earn back-to-back wins against Wycombe and Plymouth and a point at home to Blackpool.

But in our paper, King said following Ardley’s dismissal: “On a personal level, I don’t think it’s got anything to do with him being unlucky. You earn your luck by how hard you work. I know Neal Ardley is well respected at this football club – so I won’t say anything too damaging. For some of the lads, it just wore thin a little bit.”

Reflecting on his own comments five years later and without being prompted to talk about the quotes he gave, King said: “Some of the comments that I made when Neal was sacked were completely unreasonable and rash.

“It was just one of those things that you have to learn from in your career, and thankfully I have done that.

“I spoke with Chris Gunter on the last Wales camp. I said: ‘I wish I got to work with Bayzo a little bit later in my career when I was a little bit more mature and understood the way and the intensity of how he wanted to work.’

“Since my time at Wimbledon, I have matched that intensity with my training, work and dedication to my craft. I’m only seeing the results in my career.”

King was recalled by Millwall in January midway through his loan spell with the Dons following the arrival of Aaron Ramsdale from Bournemouth.

King only featured 16 times in all competitions, while Ramsdale was inducted into Wimbledon’s Team of the Decade for his performances in the second half of the 2018-19 season.

“Going back in January, and with the arrival of Aaron and what he did from January until the end of the season, it probably put an extra spotlight on how poorly I had done in my time at Wimbledon,” King admitted.

“The crossroads is tough, because you never know where your career is going to take you.

“I got recalled by Milwall in that January to go back because I found myself out of the team at Wimbledon.

“You then spend four or five months training with some lads that are younger than you. Training with the U18s or the U21s felt like a punishment, which was completely fair.

“I was at a state of realisation of where you ask yourself: ‘Do you really want to be a footballer? Or do you just like telling people you’re a footballer?’

“There are a lot of young lads who struggle with that in their careers.

“The idea of being a footballer is nice, and the rewards are nice, but how much do you want to go out and be the best on the pitch and try and work on something every day, not just turn up, go through the motions, and expect that it’s all going to come to you?

“Not to blow my own trumpet, but with the dedication that I put in now, I don’t really see anyone else in this league or the league above putting in the same amount that I do to expertly go through my craft and be the best in my position.”

King has rebuilt his career since being released by Millwall in the summer after his Wimbledon loan spell was cut short.

He immediately joined Newport County, spending two seasons with the Welsh side and agonisingly missing out on promotion to League One following a 1-0 defeat in the play-off final at Wembley to Morecambe.

Now at Salford City, where he has recorded the most appearances for one club [56], King’s performances have seen him called up to recent Wales squads in preparation for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

He faces his old side Wimbledon on Saturday, with Salford just a point outside the play-off places in League Two and Johnnie Jackson’s side unbeaten in their last six outings.

“It’s going to be a really good game on Saturday,” added King. “Alex Pearce is a good friend of mine. I was actually five seconds away from when he was having his first meeting with Johnnie in Spain at Jed Wallace’s wedding.

“I said to Pearcy that they were in a false position at the start of the season. You could see that once the players learned how to gel and come together, it would all come together.

“They’re in good form, but we [Salford] have a real chance [of promotion] this season. The dressing room we have built under the change of manager is very different – it’s much younger, and you have a lot of young lads that want to learn.

“We haven’t quite found our form in terms of putting the ball in the back of the net, but we’re defending expertly. Hopefully, we [Salford] can come out on top on Saturday.”