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<\/p>\nWrexham hero Paul Mullin has revealed that he considered quitting the game altogether after a difficult spell at Tranmere Rovers left him out in the cold. The Liverpudlian is a household name these days after firing the Red Dragons to the National League title last season with a record 114 points. The 29-year-old also became one of the stars of the hugely popular Disney Plus TV series ‘Welcome to Wrexham’, cementing his popularity on both sides of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n
Mullin has plundered 110 goals for the North Wales club in less than two and a half seasons at the Racecourse Ground, but although his hero status is firmly intact at Wrexham, it has not always been so easy for the prolific marksman.<\/p>\n
After turning out for both Everton and boyhood club Liverpool at youth level, Mullin was let go by the Reds after current Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper, who was a youth coach for the Merseyside club at the time, told him he needed to look elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Mullin went on to play for Morecambe and Swindon Town before returning to Merseyside in 2018 to join League Two side Tranmere Rovers. The Birkenhead club qualified for the play-offs before clinching promotion to League One with a 1-0 victory against Newport County at Wembley, but Mullin was an unused substitute and his involvement over the season was marginal at best.<\/p>\n
Rovers boss Micky Mellon would regularly prefer fans’ favourite James Norwood up front, leaving Mullin out in the cold. Now the Wrexham striker has revealed in his new autobiography ‘My Wrexham Story’ how Mellon’s treatment of him made retirement from football a genuine consideration.<\/p>\n
Mullin wrote: “Playing under Micky had brought me to the unbelievable position where I actually hated football. Hated it. I didn\u2019t want to be at training, nothing. I just couldn\u2019t see the point anymore. No matter what I did, how I played, it made no difference. Micky didn\u2019t like me and that was that. One morning I actually said to Mollie, \u2018I don\u2019t want to go. I\u2019m not going to play anyway. I can\u2019t be arsed anymore. I just want to stay at home.\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Micky never did properly justify why I wasn\u2019t playing. There was one time I went into his office and asked him straight what the issue was. \u2018You need to run more,\u2019 he said. I got the stats \u2013 I ran the third most in the team. That then changed to \u2018You need to sprint more.\u2019 I was done.<\/p>\n
“What can you say to someone who\u2019s always going to throw some nonsense back in your face? It might seem that I\u2019m bitter about my time at Tranmere, but really I\u2019m not. To be honest, I\u2019m grateful for it because it led to everything that\u2019s happened since.<\/p>\n
“I learned so much from Micky, about myself and about how I work best in a team. Inadvertently he made me mentally stronger than I\u2019d ever been. Tranmere didn\u2019t defeat me or get me down, the situation did. I fell out of love with football because I wasn\u2019t playing.”<\/p>\n
Mullin went on to reveal how he felt Jim Bentley was a much better manager for him at Morecambe as he was always pulling the positives out of his game.<\/p>\n
The striker added: “Micky was just the wrong manager for me. Jim Bentley, on the other hand, was exactly right. Jim pointed out the positives, Micky the negatives. Jim cared for people.<\/p>\n
“If Micky cared for people, he rarely showed it. If you weren\u2019t playing on Saturday, he wouldn\u2019t speak to you. He picked his team and that was that. If that\u2019s his way, fair enough, but I always remember something Alex Ferguson said years ago. Fergie reckoned that the most important players for a manager are the ones who aren\u2019t playing because they\u2019re the ones a boss will need at some point. With Micky, I didn\u2019t feel respected at all. No matter what I did, nothing was ever good enough.”<\/p>\n
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