When an exciting player is emerging from the youth ranks in Scottish football, it is common practice for the media to look for similarities to the superstars of the day and attach a sobriquet (which often becomes an albatross around their neck), hailing them as ‘the next Lionel Messi’, for example, or ‘the Scottish Wayne Rooney’.
For Josh Mulligan, though, it was his teammate at Peterhead, Simon Ferry, who made an extremely lofty comparison.
“Aye, Gareth Bale!” Mulligan laughed.
“That was really nice of him to say that, but you don't think about it too much, because if you start thinking, ‘oh, I'm like Gareth Bale’, then you just get carried away.”
The reference wasn’t baseless, all the same, but was inspired by the powerful running both on and off the ball that has become a trademark of his game in the years since.
Thankfully, as Mulligan says, though, he didn’t allow that early parallel to go to his head, and instead, focused his efforts on simply being a better player today than he was yesterday.
It is a philosophy that has taken him from those early days on loan at Balmoor from his boyhood club Dundee to Hibernian, and to becoming one of the most talked-about talents in the country.
All of this is an even further cry from when he made his first fledgling steps in the game in the City of Discovery, and as he explained, he will experience something of a full-circle moment when he travels to Ibrox today and meets up with Rangers midfielder Lyall Cameron, a constant in the 22-year-old’s footballing life for over a decade.
“I started out playing for a team called Douglas Lads,” he said.
“I remember playing against Logie Harp and they beat us about 11 or 12 nil. I thought, 'I want to play for the best team', so I managed to get myself a transfer.
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“Lyall was in the team and a few other good players that still play, and some of them at a decent level.
“It was a really good team, and instead of being on the receiving end, I was getting to be on the side dishing out those beatings. So, that was enjoyable, you just showed up and had fun, but we had a right good side too.”
Even by then, Mulligan had caught the eye of the Dundee scouts and had been invited to train with the club.
“I actually got scouted in one of the games for Douglas Lads,” he said.
“Luckily, it was a more even game than the 12 nil! I must have impressed, and I remember just getting pulled to the side and being asked to just go in for a session.
“That must have been when I was like seven years old, very young, that was my first sort of memory of it.
“I still remember going there for my first session. The other lads all thought I was Polish, because I was quite shy, I had long hair, and I didn't talk!
“Eventually there is a cut-off age where you can't play for your Sunday team anymore, and I remember Lyall went to United, I went to Dundee, and there were other boys playing in my team like Chris Mochrie. I actually thought Chris was the best out of everyone at that age, he was really good. He went to United and he’s now at Airdrie.
“Then when we were 14 or 15, I don't know the ins and outs, but I think Lyall wasn't enjoying it at United, and then he joined Dundee, and we had a very good side at that age, didn't lose many games. I think it was when I got to the 18s where I really started to show promising things.”
A common thread that will weave through the conversation with Mulligan is his gratitude for those who played a part in his journey, no matter how early that was.
“The coaches at Dundee were brilliant, and I think they are so key in developing a player,” he said.
“Tony Murray, Steve Murray, Jamie McBrearty, Sandy Buchan. Sandy was really good. That was sort of the younger stage, and then when we got to 18, we had James McPake, who was a great coach, I really enjoyed working with him at that level.
“I'll be forever grateful to Jaz because he eventually gave me my debut, and he's done a lot for me growing up.
“I don't think at that sort of time I was ready to go straight into first team football, obviously you need to go on loan and learn the game, but he put me right in.”
As Mulligan acknowledges, even though McPake had handed him a debut in the dark blue in the final game of a disappointing season when the club were relegated, he was still a bit raw to be a Dundee regular, even with the drop down into The Championship.
A loan move to Cove Rangers under Paul Hartley was the next stop, where a lack of game-time nevertheless equipped him with valuable tools that have served him well since, particularly mental fortitude.
“I was very young, and I didn't really play so much, but I think that was just as important, not playing, because it tells you a lot about yourself,” he said.
“Being very young, playing against big grown men, I don't think I was probably ready for it, and you either take it well, or you don't. I took that well and just kept going from there.
“Obviously, at the time you think, ‘I can't get a game in League Two, it's not happening here’, but I think it just all goes back to that willingness to want to succeed and wanting to be the best. You just need to take every day as it comes, and you just keep going.
“It was a good team, Paul Hartley was a good coach, and even though I didn't play a lot, I still enjoyed it. I still think it was a good learning experience.
“It wasn't until I was at Peterhead where I really kicked on.”
Not that his arrival in the Northeast the following season was particularly plain sailing at first either, suffering a serious ankle injury on his debut – against Dundee United, of all teams – that would eventually require surgery and keep him sidelined for the entire campaign.
“That was a daft setback,” he said.
“I was thinking I was the big man trying to play through that injury. I was up against Paul McMullan in my first game against United, and I genuinely could not kick the ball or turn. I couldn’t turn at all, and I was up against Paul McMullan. That was tough!
“I eventually got the operation, and I have to say a big thank you to the physio Gerry Docherty, who was at Dundee then and is at St Mirren now, because he was brilliant. Gerry got me back very quickly, and I've not had any problems since, so it just shows the type of rehab that was, a really good level. He's a great physio, so I have to give a lot of thanks to him for that and getting me back.
“Having an injury like that obviously wasn't great, but people like Gerry made it a lot easier for me. But it can be difficult.
“And the gym you use when you’re injured at Dundee, it makes it so much worse as well, because it's like a dungeon, honestly! And you're just in there every day.
“But it tells you a lot about yourself. If you can get through that, I think can get through anything.”
Mulligan did get through it, and would go on to enjoy a successful six-month stint at Peterhead the following season, where as well as catching the eye of Ferry, he added a string to his bow that is still coming in handy for Hibs today.
“I was a striker when I was younger and then I had always sort of been in centre mid,” he said.
“It was Jim McInally at Peterhead who spotted that I've got some qualities to go to right wing back. He probably thought that was more suited for me, I think.
“At the time, I probably would agree. In centre mid, you have to be switched on at all times, and it is probably a harder position to play, so he thought at the time with my qualities that wing back would be better suited.
“Obviously I've improved, I'm more aware of how the game's played, and I think I can play in the middle quite comfortably as well, but it's good to be able to play in both positions.”
By this time, Dundee were back in the Premiership under McPake, but with the team toiling, Mulligan was recalled in the January to help bolster the (ultimately doomed) push for survival.
Not long after he arrived back at Dens, his old mentor would be sacked.
“We had a belief that he could keep us up,” he said.
“But then he lost his job in the February, and it was Mark McGhee that came in.
“To be fair, he obviously gets a lot of stick online and whatever, but he played me every game, so I've got nothing but thanks to him for that, because at the time, that's my first run of games for Dundee. Obviously, I must have done alright, and that set me up for the season after with Gary Bowyer.
“I've got to thank every manager I’ve played with, because every manager is different, and even if I don't play or if I play, you still learn a lot.
“Obviously, we got relegated, and to be fair, we weren't good enough in terms of the way we were playing or just even having that willingness to not lose games. I don't think we had that either, and in some ways, I think we needed to go down.
“Gary Bowyer came in and he instilled that winning mentality in us, and even a draw was like a defeat that season in The Championship. In the end, it went down the wire to get back up, but we got over the line.
“Relegation wasn't great at the time, but I think we needed it to bounce back. It’s a little bit similar to what’s happening at St Johnstone at the moment.”
Of course, there is rarely a dull moment at Dens Park, and even winning the Championship title wasn’t enough for Bowyer to retain his job. The players were as nonplussed as anyone.
“We had a bit of a laugh in fairness, saying ‘it’s just Dundee, isn’t it?’” he said.
“What else can you do? I'd had it for a few years, so I was used to it.
“I was still young, so I didn't know much about what was going on, but Gary Bowyer did himself proud. He got the team promoted and I loved him, I loved everything about him. He had that proper winning mentality, and I think that's what I take from working under him.
“It’s good to see he's doing well now at Burton. It's just football, isn't it?”
As much as Dundee as a club can inspire such exasperation, even from those who love the institution dearly, there is no doubting just how much it meant to Mulligan to pull on the jersey. Even if he has now moved on, much to the annoyance of at least one member of his family, after helping re-establish the Dee in the top-flight,
“It was my team growing up,” he said.
“Obviously, most of my family supported them, and my grandad in particular is a big Dundee fan. He comes to all the Hibs games now, it's not like he's stopped coming because I’ve moved on, but he loved coming to the Dundee games and seeing me playing. And getting in for free as well!”
It was no secret that Mulligan would be moving on in the summer, with speculation surrounding both he and long-time friend and teammate Cameron.
Indeed, the pair may well have had a chance of lining up together once more at Ibrox this afternoon rather than as opponents had Barry Ferguson been retained in the Rangers dugout, with the light blues legend saying just this week that Mulligan would have been one of three players from the Premiership he would have looked to have signed along with Vaclav Cerny.
“To be fair, there was a lot of talk throughout last season, but you need to kind of put that to one side,” he said.
“Obviously it's nice to hear that from him, he's one of the best players to have played for Rangers. But like I said with the Si Ferry stuff, it goes in one ear and out the other, and you focus again on what you're actually doing.
“I think that's probably my biggest strength, not listening to the outside noise and just focusing on what the gaffer wants and what's needed of me. I think that's very important because some people do let it get to them and start changing or whatever, so I think it's very important.
“It was good last season because it wasn't just me, there was a lot of talk about Lyall as well, and there was more focus on him probably because he already signed for Rangers in January, and he was getting it tight! Obviously, I was happy for him to take the brunt of that!
“But no, I was linked with a few teams and probably getting it a wee bit as well, but both of us did everything we could that season, I think we both had good seasons, and I think that's all that matters. As long as you're giving 100 percent, and that's definitely what both of us done, if you're a fan that's all you can ask for.
“We were in a fight last season, and thankfully we survived just at the end. You have to be mentally strong. You know that stuff will be coming your way, and you just need to forget about it and just play your football.
“It's another learning experience, which is that even if it's a bad situation, or a good situation, you're always learning.
“Moving on to Hibs, I think it was the right decision for my career. I'll always be thankful for my time at Dundee and everything that the club did for me, but I definitely think it was time to move on.”
Since he arrived at Easter Road, Mulligan has never doubted that conviction for a second, or that Hibs was the right place to take the next step on his footballing journey.
“They actually were the first team to offer me a contract, they offered me a deal way back in January, so the same time as when Lyall signed for Rangers,” he said.
“Obviously I was just waiting to see what my options were, and then I thought, ‘maybe if I don't sign straight away, the interest might go away’.
“But Hibs were on to my agent the whole time, so I think that just tells you how desperate they were for me to come, and as soon as I signed, the welcome I got was brilliant.
“I've said it a few times now, but as soon as I walked in, I knew it was the right decision, and I'm just happy to be at Hibs, such a big club in Scottish football.
“There are a few things that go into your thinking, but you just get a feeling, you know? It's like buying a house, you walk into the house, and you get that feeling, ‘yeah, this could be the one’. I got that feeling that it was really what I wanted.
“I spoke to Malky Mackay, firstly, and then I got in to meet the gaffer and stuff, but it was Malky first and he was unbelievably supportive of me and talking me up. So, as soon as I heard him talk, I wanted to be involved.”
The European matches early on this summer, where he got a goal in the home leg of the tie in which Hibs came within seconds of pulling off an almighty shock against Legia Warsaw, were an eye-opener for Mulligan in terms of both the size of the club he had signed for, and the potential of the team he was now playing in.
“It was probably the best experience I've had in the game,” he said.
“Winning the league with Dundee is up there, but just to be on that European stage, that's the next level and that's the level you want to be playing at.
“We were so close at the end to making the group stage, but just to be involved in those games, playing in all the games, it was some experience.
“And again, you just learn more about yourself again, seeing if you can handle that level. Not just me, but the whole team, we showed that we're capable of playing at that level.
“When we scored the third goal in Warsaw, I remember turning around to the Hibs fans and even right now it gives you a wee buzz. I remember seeing them and I thought, ‘wow, we're going to do it here’. It didn’t work out in the end, unfortunately, but we were so close.
“The Partizan game, that was probably the most hostile environment I’ve played in. I remember when Boyley scored and ran over to their fans, and I was thinking it was the worst thing he could ever do! There were bottles being thrown at us, and I just was like, ‘nah, you can have this one, Boyley.’ I wasn’t going over there.
“But we showed that we've got great players, and more importantly, we've got players that know the league, so I think we need to really kick on from here.
“We've started well, but we really want to pick it up and see how far we can go.”
The league is on the back burner for this week, though, with the Premier Sports Cup quarter final tie against Rangers this evening presenting Mulligan with a scenario he hasn’t yet encountered – going to Ibrox with a fair degree of expectation on his back.
The atmosphere will likely be one he hasn’t felt at Ibrox either, with swathes of empty seats expected as some Rangers fans show their displeasure with Russell Martin’s short reign to date by staying away, while there are protests planned by those who do attend.
Against such a backdrop, Hibs are well fancied to progress to the national stadium, but David Gray has been pressing home to Mulligan and his teammates that complacency could be their undoing.
“I think that's just something we have to remember,” he said.
“It's still Rangers, it's still a massive club and they deserve respect. But obviously we're going there to try and win and we're going to give everything to try and get to that next stage in the cup.
“Playing at Hampden, I've never done that, so it's something I'm looking forward to and hopefully we can get a good result on Saturday.”
Has he allowed himself to indulge in a bit of pre-match banter with his old friend and temporary foe, Cameron, ahead of the tie, though?
“No, I'll save that for afterwards!” he said.
“I should see him, I think, and I'll be looking forward to seeing him again.”
Whether Rangers will be looking forward to seeing this Hibs side, is another matter altogether.
