Bernard Mendy is arguably the most endearing player Hull City has had in a generation. His cameo turn at Old Trafford, during which he single-handedly turned the most illustrious team in the world into gibbering incompetents, has added an extra dollop of fuel to a fast-growing bit of legend.
Phil Brown signed Mendy as a consequence of his good relationship with the Frenchman when he spent a year on loan at Bolton Wanderers a few years back. Mendy spurned offers from clubs like Werder Bremen in order to team up with Brown again, and although starting places have been rare (in fact, he has only begun one Premier League game for the Tigers) he has become something of a darling, a cult hero, a figure of jollity, within a Hull City squad brimming with heroes.
Mendy will frustrate everyone, manager included, because it's in his nature, it would appear. In pre-season he missed penalties and scored an own goal at Crewe Alexandra, a feat rarely achieved by any professional player, even allowing for the entirely groundless meaning of the game. Into the season proper, and in our second game of the campaign at Blackburn, Mendy is introduced as a second half sub and spends half an hour losing the ball, diving with such lack of disguise that everybody laughed, and then going on a faintly ridiculous mazy dribble which almost presents a shooting chance which could have won the game.
At Arsenal, Mendy was again brought on as a second half sub and immediately stood statuesque as William Gallas got ahead of him to head a corner on to the crossbar. The stick Mendy took from a raging Ian Ashbee and Michael Turner was comical to see afterwards on television, if only because ultimately - by dint of immensely good fortune - this failure of concentration did not lead to an Arsenal goal. It was on the final whistle that Mendy's entrance deep into Tiger Nation hearts was confirmed, when he proceeded to do a jig of triumph for a good few seconds before the thrilled visiting masses. Each victory since has seen a repeat from Mendy.
Finally, we get to Manchester United and Mendy's introduction for the woeful Bryan Hughes. Supplying width, he scored one goal from a difficult position and then outmuscled the world's most expensive defender to earn a penalty. That Hull City still lost the game isn't quite the point here; Mendy's half-hour contribution will immediately match some of the great impacts by substitutes down the years, as until he came on City were staring at a possible scoreline of 5-1, 6-1 or shudderingly, more than that. As if to prove he enjoyed restoring Tiger Nation's hopes of another astonishing scalp, Mendy was the last to leave the pitch, applauding the travelling supporters for longer. A dance was inappropriate in defeat, and indeed he chose not to perform it, but thanks to Mendy, this defeat felt like a victory in almost every conceivable way.
Dare he be trusted with a starting position? Brown used Mendy, a natural wide midfielder, because the width required of the full backs in a narrow 4-3-3 simply wasn't there. Against (coincidentally) Bolton Wanderers this weekend, Mendy's time might just have come, eccentricities and all.
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