243: Hayden Mullins, Portsmouth, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, 2009/10

In October 2021 England men’s team manager Gareth Southgate was back where his footballing career started to open the refurbished Crystal Palace Academy. Southgate stated “Crystal Palace have always had a philosophy of producing home-grown players and have a hotbed of talent to choose from in south London. As a young player, they instilled in me a toughness, adaptability and resilience that was important throughout my career.” He wasn’t quite so effusive about the Eagles’ role in developing his penalty technique but no doubt that toughness and resilience proved useful when he was forced to eat multiple slices of smoky Pizza Hut produce.

Palace being “the training ground for the stars” to quote my Gran is hardly news and the club has prided itself on the high number of impressive Academy graduates who have forged careers both at Selhurst Park and beyond. The Eagles’ side that went down 2-1 to Tottenham Hotspur recently featured Tyrick Mitchell, Nathaniel Clyne and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi while Wilfried Zaha, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Jonny Williams have played key roles in the club’s rise to and establishment in the Premier League. As well as Southgate the club can claim to have provided the springboard for future England regular Kenny Sansom, Premier League, Europa League and African Cup of Nations winner Victor Moses and Wigan Athletic’s FA Cup hero Ben Watson. Back in 1998 another youngster made his first team debut in Palace’s one and only foray into Europe and almost instantly looked set for great things.

Despite a genuinely miserable 1997/98 Premier League campaign Crystal Palace qualified for the UEFA Intertoto Cup by virtue of being the only English club to apply. As they say; don’t ask, don’t get. At the heart of the Eagles’ midfield was 19-year-old Hayden Mullins for the visit of Turkish side Samsunspor and, despite being on the receiving end of a 2-0 defeat, he kept his place in the side for the away leg where Palace once again lost 2-0. Mullins had clearly impressed manager Terry Venables in the literal and metaphorical heat of Turkey in July and, as Palace struggled through a First Division campaign which saw the likes of Attilio Lombardo and Matt Jansen depart and the club descend into administration, Mullins was one of the few highlights making nearly a half century of appearances in all competitions and was deservedly named Player of the Year.

Over the course of the next four seasons Mullins was an integral part of a Palace team which packed in the drama with successful relegation battles, administration and thrilling cup runs. Managers Steve Coppell, Alan Smith and Trevor Francis relied on his versatility and impressive work ethic with the latter making him club captain for the 2002/03 season. After another Player of the Year award Mullins was offered a contract extension but, with over 250 appearances under his belt, his agent stated “Hayden believes he will not be able to fulfil his true potential at Palace. If the club wishes to get some financial reward for their role in his up bringing, then they need to sell him this summer." This being Palace the transfer didn’t go through until October 2003 with recently relegated West Ham United looking to Mullins to boost their promotion hopes. At the time of the transfer Palace looked more likely to be heading to Division Two than the Premier League but Mullins was to be reunited with his former employers at the Millennium Stadium in May where Neil Shipperley’s tap in for the ages sent the Eagles up at the Hammers’ expense.

West Ham made no mistake with their second bite of the cherry and went up via they play-offs in 2005 with Mullins making 45 appearances. The Hammers made an impressive return to the Premier League with a top half finish and a run to the FA Cup final. Hayden Mullins made 42 appearances across the campaign but missed out on another trip to Cardiff due to suspension. Despite being only 27 a lack of significant threats to Mullins’ first team place had allowed him to rack up 378 professional appearances. The controversial arrival of Argentine international Javier Mascherano in 2006, however, saw him briefly warming the bench. The Hammers struggled and found themselves on a run of eight games without a win before Mullins returned to the first team and scored the winner against Blackburn Rovers. Mascherano left for Liverpool after only seven games while the goals of his compatriot Carlos Tevez were vital in securing West Ham’s Premier League survival. Despite regaining his first team place Mullins was gracious enough to admit that Mascherano was a quality footballer and “as soon as he went to Liverpool and had a manager who spoke Spanish you could see he was flourishing. When he ended up at Barcelona it was no surprise to me at all.”

Hayden Mullins’ next move was not quite as glamorous as his former teammate’s as he headed to Portsmouth in January 2009 and slotted into a midfield including Papa Bouba Diop and Niko Kranjcar. Pompey finished fourteenth in the Premier League but were already well on their way to financial oblivion which landed them in administration during the 2009/10 campaign. The nine-point deduction, alongside the departure of Glen Johnson, Sol Campbell and Peter Crouch amongst others, doomed Portsmouth to relegation but they found solace in the FA Cup competition they had won just two seasons earlier. Mullins featured in every game of the club’s run to the Wembley final, which he started at left back ahead of the more familiar Nadir Belhadj, where Pompey lost out to Chelsea courtesy of a solitary Didier Drogba goal. Despite the unpaid wages and fall from the top tier Mullins stayed at Fratton Park the following season and was named Player of the Season. After a short spell on loan with Reading, helping them gain promotion to the Premier League, he joined Birmingham City.

After Mullins’ first season at St Andrew’s he was loaned out to Notts County only to be recalled as the Blues fought for Championship survival. Again his versatility came to the fore as he filled in at centre half and made vital contributions for which he was rewarded with a permanent move back to Meadow Lane. The 2014/15 campaign proved to be his last as a player and he quickly turned his hand to coaching with Reading before joining the backroom staff at Watford. The infamous managerial merry-go-round at Vicarage Road meant that he had two brief stints as the Hornets’ caretaker manager before leaving the club in 2020 for Colchester United. The club’s struggles saw Mullins’ elevated to the main job in 2021 but he was dismissed within a year and most recently managed the Turks and Caicos Islands who are currently placed 201st in the FIFA rankings.

Considering his passage through Crystal Palace’s esteemed academy, European tournament debut and early England under-21 caps it’s perhaps a surprise that Hayden Mullins’ career didn’t quite reach the stratospheric heights it was once expected to. Although he may not have made the big move he was earmarked for or racked up Champions League winner’s medals his understated class was appreciated and celebrated at the clubs he represented. After all there weren’t many other midfielders in the recent past keeping Javier Mascherano away from first team action. There may well be more coming off the South London production line in the near future.