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Black History Month Players: Hayden Mullins

 As October is Black History Month in the UK, I will spend this month publishing threads on X (formerly Twitter) on certain players who have been part of a long and distinguished line of Black representation at West Ham United. With this being the second year I have undertaken this exercise, I thought it would be fair to publish a blog post for those who don't have X or find threads on the platform difficult to read, feel free to read last year's threads, via this link or the one at the bottom of the page,  but this post and today's thread on X is on Hayden Mullins. 


 

Born on the 27th of March 1979, Mullins grew up in a rather large family, one that consisted of 3 sisters, 3 stepsisters, a brother & a stepbrother, growing up in the Berkshire town of Reading. However, Mullins would not sign with his hometown club, but with Crystal Palace. 
Signing at 17 years old in 1996 with Crystal Palace as a trainee, Mullins evidently impressed the coaches enough to earn his first professional contract within 7 months at the club in February 1997, shortly before his 18th birthday, but would have to wait 18 months to make his debut in August 1998. Making his professional debut on the opening day on the 1998/99 season, Mullins would automatically become a key part of this palace side, scoring 5 goals in 40 games that season & winning the club’s player of the year award in his debut season, which is some achievement really.
In this same season, Mullins would start and finish his international career, making 3 caps for England’s under-21 team, with this being the closest he ever got to playing international football. 
In 5 years, Mullins would make 257 appearances scoring 20 goals for the eagles and at 23, he was made captain of the South London side, which took his game to another level again as he won his 2nd Player of the Year award in 2003, which obviously got the attention of other clubs. Despite interest from then-premier league club such as Birmingham City and Portsmouth, Mullins decided to stay in London and move from South to East London, signing initially on loan for West Ham as then-new manager Alan Pardew’s first signing for the club, soon becoming a permanent transfer.
Whilst some would say that Mullins made the wrong decision to move to West Ham as former club Crystal Palace were promoted that season, Mullins proved in time that he had made the right one as he would spend 6 years at Upton Park, making 213 appearances, scoring 7 goals. Mullin’s highlights during his time at the club including winning the 2005 playoff final & a runners-up medal in the 2006 FA Cup, although he missed the latter due to suspension after being sent off in a league game against Liverpool, who ironically West Ham played in the final. Additionally, Mullins could boast, albeit briefly, of being better than Javier Mascherano, when he kept the Argentine legend out of the West Ham side. Although it’s probably fair to say that Mascherano had the last laugh with his post-West Ham career.
But by 2009, with West Ham in a financial crisis, Mullins left the club and moved to Portsmouth, spending 3 years at the south coast club, where would make 129 appearances, scoring 3 goals as well as getting another runners up medal in the FA cup in 2010. During his spell with Portsmouth, Mullins would finally play for his hometown club of Reading, joining on loan at the end of the 2011/12 season & making 7 appearances to help them secure the championship title, seeing off former side West Ham to do so. Come on Hayden, not cool…
With his contract expiring with Portsmouth in 2012, Mullins would then join Birmingham city for 2 seasons before retiring in 2015 after a brief spell with Notts County.
After making just shy of 700 professional appearances, Mullins was not finished with football, moving into various roles in the coaching and development side of the game, which started with a role at Reading FC where he oversaw the development of players out on loan. This emphasis on development carried over into his next role as he would join the Watford youth system as assistant manager to the Under-21 side, then managed by Harry Kewell, before eventually taking over the role when Kewell left the club in 2017. Mullins would keep the role for 3 years, where his role would include being caretaker for the first team twice in the 2019/2020 season when Watford (as they inevitably do every few months) sacked their managers.
Mullins would eventually leave Watford in 2020, moving to Colchester United to become first-team assistant manager to then-manager Steve Ball. Mullins would then keep his job when Ball was replaced by Wayne Brown before ending up taking interim charge of the side in March 2021.
Mullins would eventually leave the club in 2020, moving to Colchester United to become first-team assistant manager to then-manager Steve Ball. Mullins would then keep his job when Ball was replaced by Wayne Brown before ending up taking interim charge of the side in March 2021.
When taking over at Colchester in 2021, Mullins was one of 8 black managers in English football & in one of the only black management teams, alongside Alex Dyer. That number today has been halved and they’re currently 4 managers of black descent in the top 4 divisions of football. Speaking to ITV Anglia news, Mullins spoke of this disparity, stating: “I think the ratio, it's not right. Whether there is a bias or not, I'm not too sure. I think there's a lot they're trying to do now. I think it's good, but as long as it doesn't undermine the coaches”. 
This was echoed by his assistant Alex Dyer, who added: “It's vital that jobs are awarded to black candidates on merit - not just to tick a box. I think you've got to earn the right, which means whether you're white, black, green or whatever - you've got to earn the right". 
Mullins & Dyer are both inadvertently referring to the “Rooney Rule”, an EFL policy added to ensure at least one BAME candidate is interviewed for a role. However, it has been criticised for not being enforced seriously to encourage BAME managers & coaches to apply for roles. It has also been accused of being a box-ticking exercise to ensure clubs pass EDI (Equality, diversity and inclusion) guidelines, where BAME candidates may be interviewed, but not seriously considered for roles either. In our multicultural society, this raises questions about whether football wants to ensure equality throughout the game by enacting real systematic changes or whether it just wants to make grand gestures without serious action if such policies are being undermined. But away from the English game, Mullins is trying to develop football in the Caribbean, stating: “I’ve been doing some work with the Turks and Caicos Islands, trying to help grow football in the region out there, taking charge of their national team for 2 games in March 2023.
At only 44, Mullins has already had a rich career in football, both on & off the pitch and is looking to continue his career within the game. So if you’re looking to hire a coach with 700 professional games and a stellar coaching CV, hire Hayden Mullins! He won’t let you down!
Thank you for reading todays thread. 
As always, my sources today were: 
And Brian Belton’s 'The Black Hammers' 



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