It's great to see Dean Marney playing so well for Hull City. This was a lad who, for a good spell of his early months with the club, looked like being a rather expensive flop. And we've had a few of those down the years...
Marney was a Phil Parkinson signing, at a cost of half a million pounds (though the official line was that the fee was tiresomely 'undisclosed') when finally Tottenham Hotspur agreed to stop mucking him about with loan deals here, there and everywhere and admit that he wasn't going to get many games for them. Marney had been a star pupil of the Academy and one single game (of just 11 in total) is etched on the memory of Tottenham fans when, against Everton, he curled in a marvellous shot from outside the box during a counter attack which had commentators and supporters everywhere purring.
Sadly for Marney, that was immediately dug out on YouTube by Hull City fans when news of his arrival at the KC two summers ago was announced. I was one of those supporters who wondered if this memorable goal had been given to the Internet for all eternity, and I too was purring at the prospect of a clearly exciting footballer leaving the headiness of White Hart Lane to venture north to a club with little history of achieving, in a city with a bad reputation and for a manager unproven at the club.
Parkinson's reign was a disaster and Marney epitomised the lack of belief which the whole team had in its manager. He had fleeting moments - one mazy run past the whole of the Southampton defence was cracking, although he couldn't get a shot in at the end of it - but clearly there were issues with the boy. Homesickness was a worry, certainly - he was a London lad who had left home for the first time and, apparently, had not been able to persuade his girlfriend to move up to East Yorkshire with him.
Marney's rotten demeanour was most obvious when he took a set-piece. Free kicks of shooting range were generally left to Andy Dawson, but he took the wider free kicks and the corners and invariably, overhit them so much that there was as much laughter from the City fans as there were howls of frustration. As we reached December and City languished, hopeless and helpless, Marney seemed to have become one of those dud signings for megabucks that leave us all very disappointed.
Then Adam Pearson lost patience with Parkinson, gave him the boot and asked Phil Brown, who had been coaching under Parkinson for just a few weeks, to try to save the club from the drop. As Brown settled into the role, there were signs of Marney's initial recovery, slow as it sometimes was. He scored his first goal for the club in a splendid home win over Cardiff City courtesy of a well-struck left-foot shot which was slightly deflected. That deflection was the spot of luck he required.
Over Christmas, Marney struck again, sidefooting home the opening goal in another win at the KC, this time against Burnley. As we worked our way into the New Year. the signs were that Brown's faith in Marney was beginning to bring the best out of a clearly gifted footballer. He'd stopped taking the corners, but had started shooting from distance, testing goalkeepers and finding his range. More crucially, he was finding his range as a passer of the ball too. And, thanks to hindsight, we then discovered this was the point he'd found somewhere to make a home and his girlfriend was ready to join him.
Marney remained an in-and-out figure as City fought to the end, often making way for Ray Parlour's experience as Brown used quick fixes to solve a problem which was short on time. Marney's appearance as a second half substitute in the final away game of the season, at Cardiff City, proved crucial as he took control of a directionless match and began the move which led to Dean Windass scoring the goal that maintained the Tigers' status in the Championship and, with a twist even Jeffrey Archer wouldn't dare steal for one of his books, sent Leeds United down in the process.
With Brown's mandate now in place, Marney became a vital and settled figure in the midfield for the season ahead. He scored in the opening day defeat to Plymouth Argyle - albeit a game City lost, and the goal was a mere rebound from Windass's grim penalty - and began to assert himself. Until Christmas, we saw the best of Dean Marney for the division he was playing in, and somehow knew that he could perform better if given the better standard of footballers to play with, and against. He had nerves of steel too - putting away a 93rd minute penalty at Crystal Palace to earn a late, late 1-1 draw and end Peter Taylor's reign at Selhurst Park.
No more vital was Marney than when, oddly, he was being isolated in the side. The arrival of Jay Jay Okocha automatically brought with it an urge from all Hull City players to give the iconic Nigerian the ball. Marney, a player who thrived on being the fulcrum, the centre of creativity, had his nose pushed out of joint. As Okocha shimmied and sashayed in possession, Marney cut a lonesome, peripheral figure - but his worth was clear for all to see as Okocha could never last more than 70 minutes. At QPR, with Okocha playing, City were shocking and the hosts were 2-0 up. Okocha's withdrawal brought Marney back into the game, and although City couldn't score, it was their only dominant spell of the game, and it came when Okocha was off and Marney stayed on.
In December, prior to a game at Charlton, the now undroppable Marney got the gutsache. He was too ill to play and was driven home while City ground out a 1-1 draw, joyously coming with the bonus of Danny Mills being sent off. His ailment kept him out for three more games over Christmas - none of which City lost - and so his place had gone and, tragically, his confidence went with it. The returning Marney, a necessity once David Livermore's contract situation prevented him from playing, wasn't the Marney who'd been so dynamic and positive prior to his attack of the runs. This made the evidence clear that Marney was an extreme type of confidence player and the last thing he needed was City fans on his back when he didn't instantly return as the Marney we saw prior to Christmas.
As City maintained their form, Marney's began to creep back into his game. He ran the show against Southampton, scoring one terrific long range goal having already delivered a sublime long pass out of nowhere on to Fraizer Campbell's toe for the opener. City won 5-0. Working with Okocha - now injured and set to play negligible further part in the season - had clearly sharpened Marney's range with a dead ball and he was arrowing in corners and free kicks with precision.
He scored a scruffy but important opener at Leicester as City won 2-0. His penalty miss in the same game, when the Tigers led only by his goal, could have been crucial but Leicester's incompetence saved Marney's nerves. At Barnsley less than a month later, and with City now on course for promotion, he took another and made no mistake. A confidence player maintaining his confidence! The Leicester penalty had provided Marney with another watershed moment as he allowed himself, for the first time, not to be affected by adversity.
For the rest of the season, Marney was tidy and efficient and sometimes exceptional as the Tigers, thanks to a stutter in the last three games, missed out on the automatic spots but secured third place and a bash at the play-offs. Marney then hurt his knee in training and, with an element of injustice hard to describe, saw nothing of the 6-1 aggregate win over Watford which sent the Tigers to Wembley. Unwilling to change a winning side, Brown kept Bryan Hughes - who'd ended the season poorly - in the team for the final, with Marney only coming on deep into injury time, albeit to win one tackled and play one calm ball out of defence towards Caleb Folan as the seconds counted down towards immortality.
With the numerous squad changes inevitable for a crack at the Premier League, one wondered where Marney's future lay. We needn't have bothered. Although he was on the bench for the opener against Fulham, injury to George Boateng offered him a way back in at Blackburn and he has maintained his place since. He was excellent at Ewood Park, stunning at Newcastle, doggedly brilliant at Arsenal (and as Brown changed to a 4-3-3, the bravest decision was making sure Marney still had a place in the side) and influential at Spurs, his boyhood club, where he would have scored one of City's great team goals but for the width of a post. It came full circle for Marney at this point, as he played and defeated the side that raised him but messed him about, and looked more comfortable a Premier League player than any of the players on view in white.
The previews of the game concentrated on the returns of Nick Barmby and Anthony Gardner to White Hart Lane, but a spot of research and industry from such boneidle hacks would have noted that neither of these two bigger names would be playing because of injury and lack of favour. Marney, however, was and is one of the first names on the teamsheet as City embark on a glorious early start to the Premier League adventure. City fans who saw him frequently put free kicks into the upper tier at Birmingham must acknowledge that Marney has, in all ways, proved how damned good he is.
Marney is out of contract this summer. It really is about time Hull City did something about that.
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