Wigan Athletic swoop for Wrexham icon Paul Mullin may not fix glaring and continuous Latics issue
With Wrexham having gained three automatic promotions in four seasons to go from the National League to the Championship, one of the legendary figures, Paul Mullin, appears set to be deemed surplus to requirements by the Red Dragons.
It has been widely reported that the former Cambridge United striker is set to stay in League One, with a loan move to Wigan Athletic set to be completed.
Mullin finished as the League Two top scorer as he helped Cambridge gain promotion from the fourth-tier in the 2020/21 campaign before dropping down to non-league to sign for Wrexham that summer.
Whilst in Wales, the 30-year-old has scored an extremely impressive 110 goals in 172 matches across all competitions, marking himself out as an icon for the club.
However, as they make the step-up, he is set to be loaned out and Wigan now appears set to be his destination. On the face of it, it may well seem like a coup for the Latics, but it isn’t necessarily a deal that will fix their goal scoring issues.
Wigan Athletic’s struggle for goals in League One last season was evident
Wigan finished firmly in the middle-of-the-table last season, but under the management of both Shaun Maloney and then Ryan Lowe, their troubles in front of goal were a major concern.
Easy on the eye and perhaps fairly strong between both boxes, Wigan managed to score just 40 goals in their 46 games last season, the lowest in the division, and taking out Dale Taylor and Thelo Aasgaard’s 19 goals combined, no-one else in the squad scored more than three league goals.
For a club that have scored freely over the years at different levels, it was turgid stuff for the most part for Wigan, who need some more inspiration and creativity at the top end of the pitch.
The sale of Aasgaard to Luton Town in the winter transfer window didn’t help their cause, and it is a glaring issue that they have already sought to rectify in this window with the arrival of Christian Saydee from Portsmouth, albeit the former AFC Bournemouth man himself has only notched 14 professional goals in his career.
Mullin dwarfs Saydee’s numbers, and he is certainly an upgrade on what they already have at the club, but despite his heroics at Wrexham, his overall career would suggest he may not be the man to propel them forward.
Paul Mullin’s struggles above League Two level will also be of concern to Wigan Athletic fans
Mullin began his career with Huddersfield Town but didn’t make a senior appearance for the Terriers before his move to Morecambe in 2014, where he proved to be a reasonable threat in the fourth-tier, reaching eight, nine and then eight again in the league in his three seasons on the Lancastrian coast.
Underwhelming stints at Swindon Town and Tranmere Rovers followed, including just three goals in 20 League One appearances for the latter, before his move to Cambridge.
At the age of 26, Mullin came to life with the U’s, scoring 32 goals in 46 games during the 2020/21 campaign before his departure for Wrexham, where he once again consistently hit good numbers.
However, with Wrexham, he was a key man in both the National League and League Two before, once again, struggling for minutes and goals in the third-tier.
