Neil Mellor

There is an excellent feature article on Neil Mellor up on the BBC today, and it’s worth reading solely for the memories. But, it’s also nice to see Mellor get the attention. He was a crucial piece of Liverpool’s Champions League puzzle in 2004-05, and had he not suffered knee injury after knee injury, I firmly believe Rafa would have kept him on as the 4th striker. Which, of course, would have prevented Robbie Fowler from coming home last January.

Mellor had, and probably still has (when finally fit), a knack for being in the right place at the right time. While he’ll never be a world-class striker, injuries or not, he was very useful off of the subs bench, and scored goals that Liverpool fans will never forget. Arsenal and Olympiakos were easily the highlights of his Liverpool career, but he was also influential in the Carling Cup run to the final in the same season with the rest of the youngsters, and scored a couple of goals in other Premier League games when the squad was hit hard with injuries.

Long story short, there’s a reason Neil Mellor made the 100 Players who shook the Kop list, and I can’t wait to see him starting banging them in for Preston North End in the Championship. All the best, Neil, no Liverpool fan should wish you anything but.