When I think about football nostalgia, I primarily think of the 80's and 90's so when I visited a local junk antiques shop which sells old memorabilia, I picked up Shoot's Annual from 2004 (published in 2003 after the 2002/03 season (which is rather confusing)).
Whilst browsing through, there was a feature, looking at every Premier League club and listing a couple of past heroes (Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush in Liverpool's case), present heroes (Michael Owen and Sami Hyypia) and future heroes. It was when I noticed that all of these future heroes had retired long ago, that I once again realised how old I am and that 2004 could be considered nostalgic.
So back in the olden days, who were Liverpool's future heroes, destined to light up Anfield?
Source - Shoot Annual 2004
You would certainly be forgiven for not recognising them just yet so I'll share with you the content that accompanied these photos -
THE arrival of a whole host of foreign players hasn't dampened the chances of youngsters coming through the ranks at Anfield. Striker PLAYER ONE, whose dad Ian played for Manchester City, is a tall, strong, typical old fashioned centre-forward who made his first-team debut late in 2002.
PLAYER TWO is a midfielder who has been likened to Steve Gerrard and as a Liverpool-born teenager he could be destined for superstardom with his local club. He's been with the club since he was just ten-years-old and it won't be long before he is representing his country at junior levels.
Have you got them?
Player One is Neil Mellor (on the right).
Player Two is John Welsh (on the left).
Neil Mellor
| Season | League Appearances | League Goals | Cup Appearances | Cup Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002/03 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| 2003/04 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2004/05 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| 2005/06 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 12 | 2 | 10 | 4 |
Neil Mellor's time at Liverpool (Source)
It's clear that Mellor didn't light up Anfield in the way that Shoot had predicted. He spent the 2003/04 season on loan at West Ham (Played 16, Scored 2 (Source)), went on Loan to Wigan in 2006 (Played 3, Scored 1) and subsequently left Anfield to join Preston North End in the summer of 2006.
He had an ok time of it at Preston and I'll almost certainly have seen him play at some point (but I can't remember him).
Despite this, he won Champions League (2004/05) and League Cup (2003) medals whilst at Liverpool and many fans will remember him for one moment back in 2004:
Is that David Pleat saying it went in the top corner? 🤔
John Welsh
| Season | League Appearances | League Goals | Cup Appearances | Cup Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002/03 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2003/04 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2004/05 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 4 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
John Welsh's time at Liverpool (Source)
If Neil Mellor had a disappointing time at Liverpool, I'm not sure how to describe John Welsh's time there. As Shoot predicted, he did go on to represent England at Under-16 to Under-21 levels but never graced the Premier League again after leaving Liverpool in 2005 (source. although like Mellor, he has Champions League and League Cup winners medals to his name.
When I wrote...
all of these future heroes had retired long ago
...at the beginning of my article, this wasn't quite true as John Welsh is still plying his trade for Stafford Rangers in the Northern Premier League (source).
After leaving Liverpool for Hull City, Welsh has played for Chester City (loan), Carlisle (loan), Bury (loan), Tranmere, Preston, Grimsby, Atherton Collieries and current club, Stafford Rangers (source). His best stints were at Tranmere and Preston in League One, playing predominantly as a defensive midfielder and since he's still playing his FM2020 profile reflects this. Transfermarkt has him valued at £225k but I can't see him getting transferred any time soon.
This is the point at which I search YouTube for the player's best moments - seeing as his Wikipedia page needed "(footballer)" after his name, it wasn't a great surprise that I couldn't find much. I was a little surprised that "James Welsh - former stylist and Skincare ENTHUSIAST from London, England" was more prominent (given the different first name) but after a little scrolling, I found this...
And it seems that he also won Fantasy Football Club's Two-Footed Corner Challenge.
Only a few of Shoot's 2004 Future Heroes went on to achieve the heights expected but I won't ruin it, I could get another 19 articles out of that feature 🤣
Previous Football Nostalgia
- Bryan Robson's Testimonial (November 17, 1990)
- Euro '96 Round-Up (July 13, 1996)
Closing SOON (22nd July) - The Hundred Fantasy Cricket
▶ https://steemit.com/hive-100604/@the-gorilla/50-steem-prize-fund-the-hundred-fantasy-cricket
Closing 31st July - Fantasy Football Scotland
▶ https://steemit.com/hive-100604/@the-gorilla/50-steem-prize-fund-2021-22-fantasy-football-scotland
To be honest, I hadn't even heard about these two. It's surprising to me how they both seem to have champions league and other league medals to their name despite their poor performances.
That was a beautiful screamer goal by Neil Mellor against Arsenal, great shot.
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I can remember Neil Mellor from old football manager games (which predicted that he would be good too) so I was surprised they were tipped to be future stars. Of the 40 names in the annual, only a handful went on to great things.
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