He wasn't very good at first. Then he was really good. Then he got even better. Then he was brilliant. Suddenly he wasn't as good any more. Then he was quite good again... and now... He's gone.
It feels like something has gone a bit wrong somewhere. The model was to buy an unpolished diamond, get it gleaming and place it in the shop window and repeat.
In Marv's case, it's hard to imagine there wasn't a hoard of window shoppers outside, gazing upon his talents with covetous looks at one point. I always imagined he'd go to Southampton or West Brom or some such side. The kind of team you could imagine in either the Premier League or the championship. We'd get about 5 million for him and, painful as it would be, we'd wish him well. No more sensational last ditch blocks, no more popping up in a blur of limbs to bundle it home. No more fantastic moments where, after a corner, he has the task of playing like a winger for 10 seconds till someone takes pity on him and gives him an easy pass out of incongruity.
Perhaps the problem is - it's a different world now. Marvin's a good player. At times he's a really great defender but good as he is, the market for 'mid career, come up the hard way, comes with a few flaws but play them in the right way and they'll do a good job' players isn't what it once was. It's all full internationals from all around the world and snaffling all the youth talents making running an academy kind of academic for anyone not at the top table these days.
Maybe he'll rock up at Stoke or somewhere like that - perhaps he'll slot right into one of the promoted teams. I hope he goes up, not sideways because, when you take away the moments of brain fade where his body looks too awkward for the job he's got to do and you give him a run to find his form, he's some player. He might have looked ungainly playing conservative defensive triangles but my god, he was beautiful in full defensive flight.
I've waxed lyrical about yer Bowlers, yer Povedas and yer Dembeles but show me a more graceful sight than when Marvin spotted danger and. like a thoroughbred racehorse, set off at a gallop before, leaping, stretching, extending his telescopic limbs and taking the ball cleanly. His rushes out of defence to tidy up a loose ball were at one point, an art form. Nothing was as reassuring when up against it in the Championship as him putting his foot through it and launching a long raking ball, turning the play around with a punt and then looking side to side, holding his arms out to invite others to get in line.
Popular imagination would have it, he needed nursing through by Keogh (and he did play his best football next to Uncle Richard) but he was a key part in our promotion defensive unit up until his injury and I think, after rocky starts to both this season (and the last) played himself into form and certainly this year, was more good than bad in my opinion. There were mistakes but without him, we were bullied more than once. He may not ever have been vocal enough to completely convince as captain - but at his zenith, he led our back line with real distinction.
For all that it's time to turn a page, I am sad that I will not get to read the book of Marv anymore. I felt Virtue, Lavery and Connolly, for various reasons were ready to go. All 3 of them had given a decent account of themselves at one time or another - but Marv maybe still had something to give. It's not to be though and perhaps we need a player who is more comfortable with the ball at their feet and if we're going to aim to morph into the total football side we rarely look like but the rhetoric suggests we want to be then I guess Marvin would be best suited somewhere where his job is to defend first and foremost.
He'll be remembered fondly.
Cheers Marv!
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