Never A Sense of Closure at Wrexham

Is it my imagination, or do we sign back a disproportionate number of ex-players?

Andy Morrell is the latest one who looks like he might come back for another stint at The Racecourse. His exploits when we were promoted seven years ago have assured him a place in the club's history, but should he return he'll have to buck a trend if he's not to tarnish that reputation.

When you consider the high number of players who've come back for more, there seem to have been plenty more who didn't live up to expectations in their second spell with us. Gary Bennett, Chris Armstrong, Juan Ugarte, Mark Jones, Lee Roche, Scott Green and Mike Ingham spring immediately to mind.

Leaving the debit column behind, successes are harder to find. Mickey Thomas perhaps; Kevin Russell wasn't the same player up front but reinvented himself as an effective midfielder; and Lee Jones, hampered as he was by injuries in his three subsequent spells, had a decent enough strike rate.

There's an interesting pattern when you look at the players who've had a disappointing second spell with us. They tend to be goalscorers. Each of them went on to better things based on what they'd done for us, but having had a taste of life in the higher divisions, they came back down to us and failed to live up to expectations. And isn't that perfectly natural? Players don't drop back down the divisions unless they have to; strikers who can still score at their old rate wouldn't have to come back to us. Naturally, this means they fail to live up to fans' expectations, even if they didn't do that badly (look at Bennett's stats in his second spell, for example; while he didn't manage to hit his previous heights in a Wrexham shirt, a goal every three games was certainly not bad; it would have worked out at fifteen league goals if he'd been there for the whole season.)

And of course, that's what Morrell would have to watch out for if he returned. The beauty of Morrell was always his energy, and that down-to-earth willingness to put in a good shift will, one suspects, still be there. The encouraging fact that Bury offered him a new contract for this season supports that notion. However, fans will recall the remarkable tally of thirty-four goals he managed in his last season. and if they expect him to replicate that, their expectations would be unreasonable.

People forget that, until that phenomenal season, Morrell looked more like an eager foil for a goalscorer than a spearhead. He was the remarkable foil for Lee Jones when the latter hit five past Cambridge, and was expected to fulfil the same role for him and Lee Trundle the following year. That would be the logical role he would be cast in should he re-sign, doing the donkey work for Andy Mangan. If the deal is sealed, I hope everyone realises that from the off.

Alan Green and Russell Brand-Spot The Difference!

How come Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand are hung out to dry by a BBC concerned by perceived damage to their lofty reputation, when Alan Green is apparently their blue-eyed boy?




I'm not objecting to the grim work he does, or his rampant egomania (I love this reference to him as "Alan Green's Favourite Football Commemtator! EVERYTHING is about him in his broadcasts!) I'm objecting to the fact that, morally, he's worse than the afore-mentioned duo.



Proof? Well, consider this (oh, and don't worry, there will be a vague mention of Wrexham at the end of this, I swear!) What Ross and Brand did was undoubtedly ill-advised and disrespectful (and, come to mention it, skilfully exploited by Andrew Sachs, who who relaunched a moribund career off the carefully cultivated publicity and got a part in Coronation Street!) Surely advocating violence is a worse offence? Yet Green, always desperately looking to assert his machismo (that's his ego's default position), does so consistently.



Read the above link through and you'll see reference to how he has said that participants in a Mexican Wave "should be shot!" I'm sure he thinks that's funny. Sadly, on the way to Histon yesterday, I was struggling to see the funny side of his take on the Thierry Henry incident. He castigated Richard Dunne, saying he was disgusted with the centre back for speaking to Henry after the final whistle! Instead, he said he "should have punched him in the face. I would have."



Let's remember, this is the considered view of an experienced commentator, a full three days after the dust had settled. Just so you're clear what the BBC's official line is on the incident, by the way, Mike Ingham, their Chief Football Correspondant, then weighed in to say he totally endorsed "everything Alan said", and went on to hysterically demand that when the FIFA Fair Play flags come out with the French team in the World Cup, they should be burned on the pitch. Dear God!

So the official BBC line appears to be that handball is worse than violence. It puts the hysteria over Henry into context. It's a classic example of an issue being taken up and blown out of proportion by the wider media. I've found very few people who are knowledgable about football who think this reaction is warranted-everyone I asked in the pressbox at Histon, for example, thought the issue should be dropped as the notion of a replay over such an incident was a joke. It seems to be people with a passing interest in the game, and celebrity reporters who want to jump on a bandwagon.

I met Alan Green once. It was as I was waiting for my press pass before the 1997 F.A. Cup quarter final at Chesterfield, and he turned up in the queue behind me. Disturbed that no-one turned round to acknowedge his arrival, he started talking ostentatiously loudly to get everone's attention. Then the girl who was sorting us out asked him for his name and went off to get his pass. Once she'd gone he started laughing incredulously at the fact that she didn't know who he was, before relating an equally hilarious tale of the other time in his glorious career that one of the little people had made the same faux pas! He's a lovely man, as you can see here.

Of course, his posturing was over by the time she came back in earshot. If she'd heard him mocking her, I like to think she'd have hit him. I would have.