I was reading an old FourFourTwo and in the interview with Sir Bobby Robson, he talks about Paul Mariner from his Ipswich Town days being better than Ronaldo. Prior to this, I had never heard of Paul Mariner. Was he really that great?
I remember having shit loads of swaps of his sticker in my Panini sticker book circa 1986. Ergo, he wasn't all that. The rule tended to be, the more desirable the player, the more desirable the sticker, so helpfully, the fewer they made of them. Guess that's a general rule whether it's football stickers or baseball cards though. So, to cut it short, I don't remember him being anything other than ok - not earth shattering, but ok.
No. He was not even the best English striker of his time. He was more liked Robbie Fowler. After he retired from English football, he moved to the US and played somewhere in Cape Cap. I remembered hearing his name in MA.
Perhaps.... Sir Bobby Robson was the Ipswich coach when Mariner was their star player. I think he was from their youth system. So he was one of his guys. That was a very good Ipswich team.... Mills, Brazil, Muhren, etc.
Found a dazzling image of him. You don't get hair like that anymore - well not often anyway. In fact check out the rest of the page, it's got all the stars of the 1978 England WC campaign. One of the ones we didn't get to. Hmmm. http://books.littleoak.com.au/football_cards/toptrumps_worldcup78/
I think Ronaldo had the luck of playing with big soccer plaer that helped him achieved what he has done, but I saw Paul Mariner play and I must agrre with Sir Bobby Robson. Mariner played for Ipswich in the timne that the club was making history and Paul had a lot to do with it. Why isn´t he known largely? Back in 1981 to think of something like the internet or live television around the world was like a dream to become true, but not inmediately and, unfortunetly, The UEFA final of that season was not televised to all the world. Little did the media to help Mariner and Company to be world heroes and, England in Spain 1982, deserved to finish better. Mariner was better than Ronaldo? can´t assure he was, But I KNOW in my heart it is True!
Paul was a wonderful player - the old fashioned type of cntre forward. He was exceptionally quick, had two very good feet and was more than half decent in the air. He began his career with Chorley, his home town club which are non-league. it wasn't too long before scouts from the league clubs started to have a look at him. He signed for Plymouth Argyle and came through their reserve team into League football. At Argyle he started to hit the goals in very regulalry and Ipswich Town, then managed by Bobby Robson, signed him. That Ipswich team played some tremendous football and had a great squad of players, which included; Paul Cooper, George Burley, Mick Mills, Frans Thiisjen, Arnold Muhren, Alan Hunter, Kevin Beattie, John Wark to name just a few. They came very close to winning the First Division Championship, but did beat Arsenal ion an FA Cup Final, and then won the UEFA Cup. Mariner was a prolific scorer in his time with Ipswich, but then in the early eighties, he left and joined Arsenal where again, he found the back of the net regularly. When his career in UK finished, he came over here to the States, and for a while had a coaching school in Scotsdale, Az. Saw him a couple of weeks ago when he was down here in Houston with the Revolution, and spent 15 minutes chatting to him. Great lad with a terrific sense of humour and has never lost his broad Lancashire accent!
mmm... He was a quality striker along side with quantity strikers like Kevin Keegan and Malcolm MacDonald. He had very silky skills almost as good as Glen Hoodle that sometimes because of their height, size and hair that I sometimes got confused between the two on the field. I would have say that he would have been more effective than Ronaldo in the Brazil team today. Like what the other posters have said. If he had a midfield as good as Brazils then he would have more options to him. He had good service from Glenn Hoodle and Trevor Francis and a good foil with the Kelvin Keegan as well. However I think only He and Glenn Hoodle would be serious contenders for the 82' Brazilian team with Kelvin Keegan and Trevor Francis not off the mark either. Hang loose guys
I think Sir Bobby meant that Mariner was better than CRISTIANO Ronaldo because Mariner would stay on his feet when a fan in Row Z sneezed.
I love reading stories about older players from people who actually saw them play in their day, not necesarily live, but obviously they give you a much better feel of how the player was regarded back then, better than things like from wiki or some newer publication. After Mariner can we get some words about other British players of the 70s and 80s from people who were there to see it.
Well I guess that be too easy to agree if it was to compared againest Cristiano Ronaldo. However againest the Brazilian Rolando, I would think that Mariner would be able to set up in assists if he had more service but it is a close, tough call on the one-on-one individual play between the two. They both could do the same things. Mariner had less chance but I only said that he is more effective because he would tend to make more assist with the same amount of service. Mariner defintely better than C.Rolando, he's got more skill range and is an very accurate crosser of the ball when he likes. Old Bobby comment about him being on his feet is very funny since Mariner on occasions seems like he was hacked but was still on his feet scoring a goal and didn't resort to driving. Yeah that makes sense. Hang loose guys
I still thought Paul Mariner was nowhere near Ronaldo. I was an Ipswich fan back in his days.... to be exact, I was an "Alan Brazil" fan. He was with the Cape Cod league when I was in Boston and told my friend that I grew up watching this guy. Frankly, I did not think much of him. Hateley, Dalgish, Archibald, Keegan, Rush, Lineker and Withe were better than Mariner. I did not bother go into the non-English or non-England based players such as Six, Rummengge, etc. I might be biased. I do believe he missed PK that would have given Ipswich the league title.
Escapegoat, Good points you have there. It's a bit hard comparing players that you mention because they all play different to different systems and team so even if we go by records in league and international can still be guessing. Never the less, I guess I haven't really thought it through, now that you mention the other British forwards of the same era. It's a long time ago and where I live on the other side of the world, we only had a highlight package in a form of "Big League Soccer" TV show one hour a week and that is all during the 80s and my memory would not as good hsving not been to an top flight English Soccer Game. Brazilian Ronaldo is very effective and it would be interesting how well any of the players do under really good service in Brazil team. However it looks consistent for him across club and international and even in Brazil, he is highly considered to be one of their all-time greats. So yeah Brazilan's Ronaldo is only really comparable with Lineker and hardy anyone are within reach of them. However C.Ronaldo is nowhere the goal abilities of some of the players you mentain at club level, but at international level he would be near Keegan and Dalgish abilities. However again such a different player cause he is a winger rather than centre forward and hence would even be consider better than Keegan and Dalgish in goal grabbing abitilites from a harder position. But it is harder to consider if he would surpass Rush and Mariner and Lineker. I had another think about Mariner and he was very effective at international level for England. At international stage I would have the british strikers that you mention of that in this order for goal scoring abilities. 1. Lineker 2. Mariner 3. Rush 4.=Keegan, Dalgish (C.Ronaldo) the others are not successful enough in internationals...sorry. But at the club league, it is a different picture for goal scoring abilities. 1. Lineker 2. Rush 3. Archibald 4. Keegan 5=Mariner, Hateley 6. Dalgish 7. Withe (C.Ronaldo) Well thats how I really think it should be during that era. So I hope that sort of paint a picture on how good Mariner is compare to the others at the same era and league. Perform better at internationals level than club level relatively speaking. Hang loose guys