GILLINGHAM’S cut-price sale of top scorer Marlon King to Nottingham Forest for a knockdown £950,000 underlined the financial pressures on the club.

The 23-year-old, whose asking price was between £1.2 and £1.5 million three months ago, has moved to the City Ground for £750,000 after agreeing personal terms. The rest of the fee will be phased in.

Forest financed the deal after selling 12-goal Marlon Harewood to West Ham for £500,000. It later emerged that Gillingham chairman Paul Scally failed in an attempt to sell King to the Hammers whose manager Alan Pardew insisted that Harewood was his first choice.

King’s sale was thrashed out in talks involving Mr Scally, Forest opposite number Nigel Doughty, King’s agent Mark Curtis and the Barnet chairman Tony Kleanthous, whose club were owed money from a sell-on clause.

In a dramatic turn of events, the deal only went through after Mr Kleanthous was persuaded to accept considerably less under threat of the deal collapsing.

When Barnet sold King to Gillingham for £250,000 in June, 2000, a 20 per cent sell-on clause on anything over £500,000 was inserted in the deal.

Mr Scally said: “The deal was partly needs must and partly the fact that Marlon doesn’t want to be here and wants to play for Nottingham Forest."

Player-manager Andy Hessenthaler, who had been looking forward to King returning from injury and bolstering his goal-shy attack, was philosophical about losing his most prized asset.

He said: “Financially we couldn’t refuse the deal. If the money is going to help this football club, then great. It’s tough losing one of your best players but I understand the reasons. We’ve got to get on with it.”

Though Gillingham stood by King following his imprisonment last year and continued paying his wages, relations between the club and King had become strained.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Gillingham players are waiting to see if the sudden influx of cash into Priestfield’s empty coffers will stave off the threat of them having to defer their wages.

Since last week’s meeting between Mr Scally and representatives of the players’ union, the Professional Footballers’ Association, the squad have been agonising over whether or not to accept the PFA paying their long overdue bonuses in return for them deferring wages.

A decision was to have been made this week but that was overtaken by King’s sale.