About Mike Grella, Carl Shutt, and the Cult of Soccer Dog
Hollywood has produced so many underdog sports movies that the template is familiar worldwide, and we all knew the script Mike Grella was supposed to follow.
“Remember, we’re looking for the closest thing we can find to John Wayne”
— Gil Scott-Heron – B-Movie
Even when Beckford and Becchio were scoring fifty goals between them in League One; even when Becchio stepped up to the grunt work in The Championship while Somma added the gloss; even now, when his departure from the club is “99% certain“, there are Leeds fans who will tell you that Mike Grella is the best player at Leeds United Football Club, and that one of the game’s great talents has been wasted during his time in Yorkshire.
It’s hard to find the basis that justifies such faith in Grella. He arrived from the college system in the United States with only incomprehensible scouting reports and rumours of youthful indiscretions as his pedigree, and while there have been some eye-catching headlines for Mikey at Leeds – a debut-hat-trick, a game-changing brace in the FA Cup – those moments came in the reserves against Barnsley in the case of the hat-trick, and against a tiring Kettering side in the FA Cup. Part of his status can be attributed to a Soccer AM interview with Beckford and Kilkenny, who didn’t hesitate to name Grella as the most skilful player at the club, and that soon translated to wistful dream teams that turned Grella into either a wily Roberto Baggio type in the hole behind the strikers, or a pacey striker-cum-winger, a Yank Arjen Robben. Mike Grella, it seemed, just needed one shot at first team football to reveal himself as a superstar.
Personally, I was never too keen. I dismissed his Kettering performanceas the logical result of putting fresh legs up against amateur players and a thirty-eight-year old goalkeeper in extra time, and I shuddered at the way Grella took three touches to score into an open-goal against Oldham – it hardly displayed a predator’s touch. Reports since of his loan spells at Carlisle and Swindon have backed this up: Decent, but League One is his level. But I could understand where the will for Grella to win came from. No matter how good the guys in the first team shirts might be – and the Beckford/Becchio partnership in League One was unbreakable – fans will always root for the underdog, look for the little guy to come through at the last minute and be a hero. It’s no fun if it’s too easy; as any Hollywood scriptwriter will tell you, it just ain’t a movie.
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