As a former EFL striker himself, Lee Trundle is well positioned to comment on Wrexham forward Paul Mullin and he believes he could easily play at Championship level.
Once Wrexham convinced Paul Mullin to drop down to the National League three years ago after he fired Cambridge United into League One, people started taking Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds seriously.
The 29-year-old was their first real statement signing that left many in a state of shock, backing up that praise by scoring a staggering 90 goals in 122 appearances for the Reds, 38 of which came last term as he fired Wrexham into the football league.
Mullin has simply become a goal machine since arriving at the STōK Cae Ras, who is adored by McElhenney and Reynolds having continued his rich vein of scoring form into League Two.
Despite recently ending an eight-game goal drought – his longest in a Wrexham shirt – the Liverpool-born forward has still scored 14 goals and supplied six assists in 27 games, including a hat-trick against Accrington Stanley last time out.
As a result of his tremendous scoring exploits, many pundits believe that Mullin could play at a much higher level than the fourth tier and that is a statement echoed by Lee Trundle.
Lee Trundle believes Paul Mullin could score goals in the Championship
Speaking on the Fearless In Devotion podcast, Trundle – who scored 16 goals in 53 appearances for Wrexham – believes that Mullin would still score goals in the Championship and would select him for Wales if he was manager.
“I love Mulls, I think he’s a great player,” Trundle said. “What gets me a little bit is when people try to question your ability of saying ‘well you’re only playing at that level’.
“For me, if Mulls went up and played in the Championship in the right team, I think he would still score goals. And I think the thing now with this Wales call up, and people are saying ‘people are ahead of him’.
“But for me, you’re scoring goals week in week out, even if you go into the National League to score that many goals and he has done consistently. For me, if I was the manager of Wales, I’d have him in the squad 100%.”
Mullin is undoubtedly talented and there is more to his game than scoring goals; he’s great at holding up the ball, his movement is first class and he presses ferociously for the team.
It is clear to see why Trundle could see him flourish at Championship level, but the step up from League Two is a huge jump and the last time he played at League One level, he only scored three in 20 matches for Tranmere Rovers.
Of course, given the Wrexham goal machine has improved a lot since then, it would be interesting to see whether he could score goals in the second tier and prove Trundle right.