I’m going to take a punt and say not. The back surgery did for him. A fully fit Paul Mullin would have posed a threat right up to Championship level even in his 30s. What’s left is a pale husk of that and none of his chunnering about how hard done by Parky he was will change that.
Had he been Olly Palmer and replaced by the awful and unfit Jay Rodriguez then, yeah, cause for complaint. However, he was replaced by Sam Smith. Smith is half the player peak Mullin was but he runs defenders ragged, buys free kicks at least as well as peak Mullin and can poach enough goals out of nowhere to more than justify being picked ahead of him. Fully fit Smith doesn’t match fully fit Mullin but no-one is going to see a fully fit Mullin between now and his retirement and Sam Smith got us into the Championship. It will be amusing if Alexander leaves Bradford for Blackburn. Second piece of poor due diligence by team Mullin after his ill-fated spell at Wigan under the awful Ryan Lowe.
Interesting L1 Jack Marriott is having s great season. No-one in their right mind would describe him as a Championship player. Mulls won’t get near him between now and the end of his loan spell.
Interesting to hear even Elliot Lee chunnering now about how nice it’ll be to play on loan for a manager who has faith in him.
Lee was a spent force in the Championship with Luton. He carved his way through the National League brilliantly with us and kept us going for that first third of the season in L2 ,when Mullin was first injured, by banging in crucial goals. Truth was that even in that spell he wasn’t playing well and for the rest of the season it became obvious that he wasn’t playing well and was too easily closed down. In L1 inferior players began to find him easy to close down and less skilled players became more relevant to our midfield.
There’s an interesting narrative growing about both players being hard done by at Wrexham. Both were done.
In the case of Mullin there isn’t a Wrexham fan alive who wishes that wasn’t so… but it is.
Great & interesting summary there Mike. Certainly agree with the Elliot Lee comments; he had reached the end with us but at least he had the chance of a decent run with Wrexham and it will be interesting to see how he fares with Doncaster and a ‘better manager’. Marriott was always a capable striker albeit struggling with some sides but is certainly knocking them in this season. Based on what I saw yesterday, Mullin is still a striker that knows where he needs to be but agreed that his best days may have passed - I am comparing him to the list of impotent strikers that we have ended up with.
Having moaned about Ipswich’s pedestrian play from the back it was great to see the winner against Derby yesterday - a classic back to front goal. Some stato has analysed the move
Walton → Davis → Neil → Davis → Neil → Akpom → Furlong → McAteer → Furlong → Neil → O’Shea → Neil → Mehmeti → McAteer → Davis → goal
15 passes
8 players
53 touches
56 seconds
The difference is the lad Neil from Sunderland, his instinct is to get moving forwards, inject pace and break the lines. His first pass to Lief Davis was not to feet but 10 yards ahead of him so he had to go forward. Great stuff.
Despite the 0-0 away I still say Ipswich were the best side we’ve played this season. The possession isn’t pointless. It moved us from side to side ceaselessly and rested us to the max. What you didn’t quite have then, which I think you have now, was the players breaking the lines at the right moment. Beating a resurgent Derby was an impressive performance and result.
I am genuinely concerned about the next two weeks. I think it makes or breaks our season. At home to Ipswich in the FA Cup on Friday. In theory a free hit but actually takes on huge psychological significance given that we’re away at Bristol City on the Tuesday and then at home to Ipswich the following Saturday.
Parky would ordinarily pick a full team for the FA Cup. Given what comes after I think there will be key changes. I can see walking error Danny Ward back in goal, Dan Scarr in ahead of “someone” in the back three and ditto Vyner if fit for his debut. I can’t comment on Vyner but, whilst Scarr has been mostly superb this season, replacing 3 of the back line will have consequences.
Up front, I can see Smith and Rodriguez starting with Moore, Broadhead and Windass on the bench.
Midfield? Who knows? Cacace and James are likely out for all three games. No kraft wing back left. Thomason has deputised mostly well but it’s not a big game solution. Rathbone and Dobson must start but may not given the next two games and aaaagh. A strong sense we throw the FA Cup game but then blow at least one of those next two games.
I ended up liking Marriott a lot. Definition of a journeyman but a really good one and a great character. Came in at the end of the L2 campaign and seemed to offer nothing albeit he’d not been fit or played much. Opened the L1 campaign with the goal which ought to have been goal of the season, looked a player transformed and was on a great run when he broke his leg and effectively ended his career with us.
He had a fantastic quirk which you couldn’t unsee once you’d spotted it.
Mullin would chase down the player with the ball with the sole intent of going through him, over him or whatever it took to get around him and snatch the ball. Jack would always stop short of physical contact and always just go to the back of the player and try to toe poke a leg politely around. A strong sense of “No, after you sir. I do apologise.”
Another brilliant performance from City and their latest recruit Toure.
Who needs Sargent?
First Makama and then Toure, I’m sure Clement can walk on water.
Football is a wonderful game.
I believe the expression is…”Well, I’ll be *****ed!”
There was a game v Leicester at the Dell several decades ago (but I was in attendance) when LC were 3-1 up at half time, went down to 10 men after a sending off, and Saints won the second half 3-0.
On another occasion at the Dell, Leicester ran out 5-3 winners in a torrential downpour, with Peter Shilton scoring from his own area when his kick got caught in the wind and flew over Campbell Forsysth’s head…I was there as well! And then there was the infamous 9-1 thrashing (thankfully I missed that one being in Bristol).
Saints vs Leicester - never a dull match. And Jaime V. would always score - we joked that if JV was wheeled out on crutches, he’d still stick it in the net!
Fair play. An extraordinary night of football all round across both the EFL and the National League. Birmingham blew a chance to get ahead of us into a play off place. Norwich have won 1 game less than us. Southampton have won the same as us. Bonkers league.
Surely the case that if Vardy was on crutches he’d almost certainly take someone out with them? Possibly Mrs. Rooney?
I suspect we’re looking at a L1 return for Leicester in due course. Morphed from a decent ex PL squad to the worst team we’ve played all season in barely a few months. Something very rotten there.
Fingers crossed that the remarkable turnaround he has instigated continues apace with the appropriate financial backing from the board during the summer.
Of course, most of the real praise must go to our genius of a sporting director………. Amazing to see how many of our previously disinterested &, in my opinion at least, hopeless looking players have started to perform & actually look as if they are at last enjoying wearing the shirt.
Team spirit counts for a lot &, for the present, we have definitely re-discovered ours.
Knapper does a good job with unknown young players. It’s when the price goes up, especially in Eastern Europe, he has a problem. I hope he has now realises this and looks exclusively for the Makama type player.
Regarding Attanasio I can only praise him as an owner. Sensible, constructive approach while at the same time providing the necessary financial backing, the ideal owner for our club.
I’m sorry but I can’t resist . The move from the relegation zone to the heady heights of 16th has clearly made you both far too giddy. What happened to Knapper is no better than Webber and must go?
I am of course the man who described Matty James and George Dobson as “placeholders” only to have my words firmly rammed back down my throat so I’ll cut you some slack just this once .
I still think we need a more broadly experienced sporting director than Knapper but in the meantime limit any damage to low spending where I think the stats he seems to be reliant upon are probably more relevant.
Obviously the best thing that has happened to Norwich is Phillip Clement who has totally transformed the club. I’m sure he has, due to circumstances, a far larger grip on the club than his predecessors. More manager than just coach.
Some interesting snippets about the transfer window from one of our more prominent podcasts after an interview with Shaun Harvey.
Devlin - a player admired by the club and Parky for a while, “not a deal for now” - Pompey wanted to keep him at any cost because they don’t want to get relegated
Adam Armstrong - no concrete interest from us, Saints used our name to raise his price.
As ever with Shaun one is never sure he’s aware of the consequences of putting stuff out there in terms of future dealings with either club. Now our excellent CEO has sidelined him into a non Executive role, stuff like this is a way of pandering to his own egotistical belief he’s still at the heart of the machine.
Putting aside the debatable wisdom of either revelation I nevertheless have little doubt both are true.
As a Pompey fan, I was very pleased to see the club reject Wrexham’s approach for Devlin. He’s one of our few younger players who is very clearly getting better and better every season. Strong, hard-working, rarely injured, and very versatile in the positions he can play. I’m confident that he’s going to go onto bigger things (and clubs) and the club will get a good fee for him. While I’d rather we hadn’t sold Callum Lang for over £2m to Preston, I can understand that it was good business. Lang is 27 and won’t get better. Terry Devlin is only 22 and has just broken into the NI senior squad. He’s on an upward trajectory.
. The move from the relegation zone to the heady heights of 16th has clearly made you both far too giddy. What happened to Knapper is no better than Webber and must go?
.