Discussion "Mickey Mols" what could have been

[KingKirk 25,695]

2 hours ago, Wullies_bowly_legs said:

Agreed he was very good turning a defender but what about Cruyff and Del Piero ( poor Alec  ).

 

2 hours ago, Wullies_bowly_legs said:

Agreed he was very good turning a defender but what about Cruyff and Del Piero ( poor Alec  ).

They didn't play for the biggest club in world football so mols wins.

[Jack The Flipper 5,936]

16 hours ago, roboscot said:

 

The goal where he turns 180 and instantly shoots and when he cushions a long ball perfectly and scores instantly - showed that to my mate at work. All he said is I've seen Messi do that type of thing.

I know it's a bit crass, but maybe some folk aren't realising the great player we had at Rangers.My book he was a genius.

[baltic_blue 108]

If I remember correctly he was on the verge of being called up to the Dutch squad because he was outstanding for us. He had a handful of caps before then but it would have been a cert that he would have got called up again if not for the injury and if it happened I genuinely believe he would have thrived and became as well known world wide as the big horse faced striker that played for psv an man u. His confidence seemed to grow with every game and would have had another 4 years at the top with his style of play but wasn't half the player he was after the injury even though he was still good.

[The Godfather 72,060]

5 minutes ago, baltic_blue said:

If I remember correctly he was on the verge of being called up to the Dutch squad because he was outstanding for us. He had a handful of caps before then but it would have been a cert that he would have got called up again if not for the injury and if it happened I genuinely believe he would have thrived and became as well known world wide as the big horse faced striker that played for psv an man u. His confidence seemed to grow with every game and would have had another 4 years at the top with his style of play but wasn't half the player he was after the injury even though he was still good.

While I agree he was a great player he was 29 when he came here and Ruud was in his early to mid 20's at PSV before moving to United and becoming a better player.

Mols was at his peak when he arrived here, I don't think he would have been a mainstay in the dutch team at 29.

[gersandy 594]

I was lucky enough to see the likes of Laudrup and Gascoigne in the flesh, but i must say, Mols (when he just signed) was right up there. I remember turning to the guy i used to sit beside and the 2 of us were just gobsmacked at how easy he was skipping past players. The Mols turn was superb aswell.

[AyrshireBlue 449]

His 2 goals in his competitive debut against Fc Haka were probably my favourite.

[siddiqi_drinker 14,635]

21 hours ago, TheLoudenTavernier said:

Never realised statistics were an opinion. Cheers for highlighting that.

You formed your opinion based on your interpretation of the statistics.   Bit like saying Negri was our greatest ever striker based on his goals per game ratio.

Mols was great for us but like Ferguson he was surrounded by quality players who may have made them look better than they really were AND they were playing in Scotland, hardly the top tier.

[gersandy 594]

21 minutes ago, AyrshireBlue said:

His 2 goals in his competitive debut against Fc Haka were probably my favourite.

If memory serves me right, he also scored a cracker against Motherwell at ibrox.

[BertContraband 282]

That Motherwell game in 99. Im sure jig scored that day for well.

He could have been one of the greatest ever. He was here for 5 years but only 4 months at his best.

Still came back and won trophies and had a decent run.

Always a smile also

 

[LaudrupsPatrickBoots 13,510]

9 minutes ago, siddiqi_drinker said:

You formed your opinion based on your interpretation of the statistics.   Bit like saying Negri was our greatest ever striker based on his goals per game ratio.

Mols was great for us but like Ferguson he was surrounded by quality players who may have made them look better than they really were AND they were playing in Scotland, hardly the top tier.

If Negri sustained that goal ratio over a longer period of time then I'm sure some would probably make that argument.

I could have named other strikers but I purposely picked Rod Wallace because he played a similar amount of games (slightly less) as Mols around about the same era and scored more goals than he did. Does that make him a better player than Mols? Of course not. But it does make him a better striker and that's what I was asked to name.

Mols was a fantastic player, I've not disputed that at all. I just don't buy into the argument that we were robbed of this world class prolific striker through injury. For all his talents, he was never a 25-30 goal a season player.

[baltic_blue 108]

35 minutes ago, The Godfather said:

While I agree he was a great player he was 29 when he came here and Ruud was in his early to mid 20's at PSV before moving to United and becoming a better player.

Mols was at his peak when he arrived here, I don't think he would have been a mainstay in the dutch team at 29.

I agree he hit his peak when he came to us. I honestly think though if he was in the Dutch side in that form he would have been a star for them. How I would have loved it if we managed to get the horse faced one (who's name I am not even going to attempt to spell) him and mols in the same team would have been lethal and possibly the best partnership we would have seen. I think people genuinely forget how good mols was for us in those first few months. When he came back he was never the same and I think people remember that more because of the huge disappointment. He was good with the occasional flash of what he once was. It's the same with Durrant. Its hard to remember just how good he was. You would see flashes now and then but he's mostly remembered for his time after the assault on him and the what ifs. One thing is certain we have had a hell of a lot of shit luck with players getting career changing injuries over the years 

[AyrshireBlue 449]

5 hours ago, gersandy said:

If memory serves me right, he also scored a cracker against Motherwell at ibrox.

Scored a couole of crackers v them. A volley springs to mind, a right netbuster 

[BlueSuedeSambas 53,923]

6 hours ago, The Godfather said:

While I agree he was a great player he was 29 when he came here and Ruud was in his early to mid 20's at PSV before moving to United and becoming a better player.

Mols was at his peak when he arrived here, I don't think he would have been a mainstay in the dutch team at 29.

Mols at 29 wasn't going to jump ahead of Kluivert, Makaay & Van Nistelrooy, who were all still in their early to mid twenties at the time and were already playing at a higher level and that's before you even consider that they had Bergkamp & Jimmy Flloyd Hasselbaink too.

I think Mols would have been an exceptional player for us but I think the fact we were denied the best of his talents for so long makes our fans over rate what he was a little bit. 

[BLUEDIGNITY 33,660]

Was at the game that night. If "Mickey" Mols as he appears to be known as now hadn't of jumped over Kahn instead to of going through him he wouldn't have got injured!

 

[Big_dado 25]

To be fair to Khan it wasn't a dangerous tackle, Mols staggered awkwardly and done his knee. People forget he was 29/30 years old and players didn't seem to last long past 30 at that point. Saying that though he was in excellent form and gave us a real edge and more than a chance against the likes of Bayern. I remember the buzz around this game and it was that Mols could deliver for us in the big matches, and he very nearly did.

[ranter 136]

On Tuesday, October 04, 2016 at 11:33 AM, Bobby Hume said:

He was over here recently and did a wee interview for Rangers TV, and still gets a strong buzz about us.

Great player and never happier than when he was ripping a defence apart and scoring.

Looking back now, the Khan incident was one of those that looked more like a freak accident than a deliberate attempt to cause injury, although I never thought that at the time, and had MM not landed so awkwardly (as he tried desperately to avoid contact so as not to injure Khan) he would not have sustained the horrendous career changing damage from his subsequent injury, even MM admitted that was what happened.

Nevertheless barring all that, had he not got injured, he would have went from strength to strength as he wasn't quite the same after that.

Similar to asking what would have been the heights that Durrant could have achieved had he not been deliberately crunched by Simpson?

 

 

 

That's what I always thought, Mols tried to avoid injuring Khan but he didn't try to avoid injuring Mols.Dirty German bastard. Mols was a tremendous player who I think might have been happy to stay at Rangers, as he would have added to what was a great team.

[baltic_blue 108]

2 hours ago, DBBTB said:

Mols at 29 wasn't going to jump ahead of Kluivert, Makaay & Van Nistelrooy, who were all still in their early to mid twenties at the time and were already playing at a higher level and that's before you even consider that they had Bergkamp & Jimmy Flloyd Hasselbaink too.

I think Mols would have been an exceptional player for us but I think the fact we were denied the best of his talents for so long makes our fans over rate what he was a little bit. 

At the time Mols was with us and playing the way he was im sure that van hoydonk that played for them was a regular in the Dutch squad. There is no way he was a better player than Mols and lived off his free kicks. It was only a matter of time before Mols was picked for them. I genuinely believe if Mols didn't get injured that night we would have beat Munich and with the squad we had and the way we were playing I think we had a chance of doing something very special that year. If I remember right we had terrible luck against that mob over the 2 games and they scored an equaliser by a deflected free kick in last minute at Ibrox which fucked us.

[Helicopter Sundae 6,062]

I was so fucking enraged after that match I had to go out for about a 2 hour walk.

My other half thought I had dumped her.

I still remember feeling utterly gutted. We fucking battered them over there, yet still came back empty handed, and  Mols' injury was absolutely a sickener... a brilliant, superb player.

[roboscot 1,176]

8 hours ago, ranter said:

That's what I always thought, Mols tried to avoid injuring Khan but he didn't try to avoid injuring Mols.Dirty German bastard. Mols was a tremendous player who I think might have been happy to stay at Rangers, as he would have added to what was a great team.

Have a word with yourself and then watch the tackle again. 

It was clean, fair and perfectly timed.  

[BlueSuedeSambas 53,923]

6 hours ago, baltic_blue said:

At the time Mols was with us and playing the way he was im sure that van hoydonk that played for them was a regular in the Dutch squad. There is no way he was a better player than Mols and lived off his free kicks. It was only a matter of time before Mols was picked for them. I genuinely believe if Mols didn't get injured that night we would have beat Munich and with the squad we had and the way we were playing I think we had a chance of doing something very special that year. If I remember right we had terrible luck against that mob over the 2 games and they scored an equaliser by a deflected free kick in last minute at Ibrox which fucked us.

Van Hooijdonk was one of the best free kick takers in Europe at the time and he was about 6'5 too. That makes him pretty much the ideal fourth choice 'off the bench' to 'mix it up' type player that you can ask for. That along with Van Nistelrooy's injury is why I would imagine that he was in the squad.

As I said before Mols was well down the pecking order internationally and I doubt that would have changed at 29 years old and maybe it's just because I was a bit too young to truly appreciate him but I just don't see how a near 30 year old was this future Premier League striker who was going to become a key international striker and lead us to the Champions League.

If he was going to be any of those things it would have already happened before he moved to us. 

[ranter 136]

8 hours ago, roboscot said:

Have a word with yourself and then watch the tackle again. 

It was clean, fair and perfectly timed.  

Just shows football's about opinions. I'm sticking with mine.

[loyalfollower 1,543]

Indeed mols was 29 and people talk about him being here longer than Wallace. But wallace was never out for 9 months add to that his first season for us aswell. I think he had 12 league goals when he got injured and the last group game was early November so he would've been on course to smash over 40 goals had he continued in his form.  Goals of all variety. I'm pretty sure viduka (who's wife's a hooker) finished top scorer then got a move to Leeds. 

Mols was never the same again after the unfortunate accident with Khan. And before anyone starts Khan never even touched him the injury was caused by the way mols landed!!  

[AlCapone 7,678]

Would love a ride at his wife

[Jack The Flipper 5,936]

3 hours ago, loyalfollower said:

Indeed mols was 29 and people talk about him being here longer than Wallace. But wallace was never out for 9 months add to that his first season for us aswell. I think he had 12 league goals when he got injured and the last group game was early November so he would've been on course to smash over 40 goals had he continued in his form.  Goals of all variety. I'm pretty sure viduka (who's wife's a hooker) finished top scorer then got a move to Leeds. 

Mols was never the same again after the unfortunate accident with Khan. And before anyone starts Khan never even touched him the injury was caused by the way mols landed!!  

In an interview Mols himself said he tried to step over the goalkeeper to prevent hurting him, he stepped out, wasn't him just landing in a strange position.

Just show's you the class of Mols.

Then at the other end of the spectrum we have Barton, hide the cigars

[LaudrupsPatrickBoots 13,510]

4 hours ago, loyalfollower said:

Indeed mols was 29 and people talk about him being here longer than Wallace. But wallace was never out for 9 months add to that his first season for us aswell. I think he had 12 league goals when he got injured and the last group game was early November so he would've been on course to smash over 40 goals had he continued in his form.  Goals of all variety. I'm pretty sure viduka (who's wife's a hooker) finished top scorer then got a move to Leeds. 

Mols was never the same again after the unfortunate accident with Khan. And before anyone starts Khan never even touched him the injury was caused by the way mols landed!!  

He had 13 goals between the end of July and beginning of November.

I think it's a bit of a reach to say he would have scored another 27 between then and May.