'You'll regret it!' - Paul Mullin reveals the man who shattered his Liverpool dream is now managing in the Premier League as Wrexham star's mum confronted him about decision

Merseyside native Mullin, who is an avid Reds supporter, spent time in the youth ranks at Everton and Liverpool in his younger years. He had hoped to make the grade at Anfield, but was released at the age of 16. Cooper, who has overseen an U17 World Cup triumph with England and guided Forest back to the Premier League since then, was the man to let Mullin go and was informed when making that decision that he would live to “regret it”.

Mullin has written in his new autobiography ‘My Wrexham Story’, with the now prolific frontman being used in an unfamiliar defensive role by the Reds: “As time went on at the academy [at Liverpool] it was as if they couldn’t see what was under their noses. One report said I needed to practise more with my right foot. I was right-footed, it’s just that I was so comfortable with my left they hadn’t realised. Stuck at left-back, I’d had little chance to show myself as a creative footballer who could deliver so much on the attacking front. The coach who told me Liverpool were letting me go was Steve Cooper, who would later go on to take Nottingham Forest into the Premier League. He’d played me at left-back again and again. Mum wasn’t impressed with his news. On the way out she turned to Cooper. ‘You’ll regret it,’ she told him. ‘You’ll end up buying him back.’ ‘I hope I do,’ he said. ‘You will,’ she replied. Then she looked at me. ‘Come on, mate.’ And off we went.”

Mullin went on to join the academy ranks at Huddersfield Town, following a stint in Spain, but it was while at Morecambe between 2014 and 2017 that he really burst into life. He would go on to claim the League Two Golden Boot at Cambridge United in 2020-21, before being lured to Wrexham by the Red Dragons’ Hollywood co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

Mullin has been a revelation at STok Racecourse, with 85 goals recorded through 110 appearances. He helped the Welsh outfit to promotion back into the Football League last season, and is now taking aim at League One. Liverpool have fared admirably without him, while Cooper’s reputation as a coach has been enhanced, but the odd question may have been asked by all concerned of what could have been.

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