JIMMY-MANIA: Curly wigs became a best seller at the Ipswich Town club shop following Jimmy Bullard's return to the club
JIMMY BULLARD EXIT: A look back on the dressing room joker’s rapid fall from grace
By STUART WATSON
Friday, August 10, 2012
10:30 AM
His permanent signing was heralded by Ipswich Town fans last August following a scintillating loan spell, but just 12 months later Jimmy Bullard is exiting the club following a rapid slide from hero to zero. STUART WATSON takes a look back on where it all went wrong for football’s loveable rogue.
WHAT a difference a year makes.
Just 12 months ago it was Jimmy-mania. Curly blond wigs quickly became the biggest seller in the club shop, while male fans even sung about happily lending Mr Bullard their wife.
This was the creative genius who had almost single-handedly dragged Ipswich Town away from the relegation zone during a scintillating end-of-season loan spell, the clown prince who had banished the dark clouds which had hung ominously over the club following Roy Keane’s ill-fated spell in charge. His short-term impact was so great that supporters had voted him their Player of the Year.
The joy was intensified by the fact that even the most optimistic hadn’t expected to ever see him in a Blues shirt again. With nearly £8m in transfer fees behind him and two years left to run on a lucrative Hull City contract, manager Paul Jewell had publicly conceded defeat over a return.
And yet, suddenly, the way was paved. The Tigers had terminated the 33-year-old’s lucrative contract following an alleged breach of club discipline on a pre-season trip to Slovenia.
In hindsight, the alarm bells should have been ringing, as should the warnings from Hull City supporters that it would all end in tears.
Instead social networking websites went into meltdown as excited supporters traded whispers of the midfielder’s medical and journalists – this one included – penned their welcome home editorials.
It all started so well too. In his first game back, Town showed guts to secure a comeback home win over Leeds just days after 12 goals had been leaked in back-to-back matches against newly-promoted duo Southampton and Peterborough.
Deployed at the base of an experienced diamond midfield system, Bullard pulled the strings in a role akin to the quarterback in American Football. As a result, the Blues soon went on a sparkling six-game unbeaten run, with victories over Coventry, West Ham, Brighton and Portsmouth achieved along the way.
There’s nothing like seven straight defeats to prick the bubble though. Why it happened is still a matter of debate.
Did teams suddenly wise up to the influence Bullard was having from a deeper role? He was certainly given more attention by the opposition.
Was fitness an issue? Bullard was in a midfield containing two other 30-somethings in Keith Andrews and Lee Bowyer, with the Blues suddenly developing an unwanted penchant for conceding late goals.
What is for sure is the beginning of Jimmy’s fall from grace came on a cold Tuesday night in Burnley last November, with Jewell labelling his side as ‘gutless’ and ‘spineless’ following a limp 4-0 defeat. Few came away from Turf Moor with any credit that evening, but Bullard was among the worst offenders.
Restricted to a bit-part role from the bench and starved of the football fuel that feeds his energy, the charismatic midfielder looked for other ways to satisfy his love of life.
Unfortunately, following two consecutive nights out in Newcastle, he and team-mate Michael Chopra turned up late for a training session on March 1. The latter, a reformed gambling addict, was fined two weeks’ wage. Bullard, controversially, was instead told to stay away from the club for a fortnight.
Publicly, Jewell always insisted that Bullard would have a fair shot at redemption. Just 14 minutes of first team action followed though.
And the writing was on the wall when the Blues boss announced he would be looking to bring in ‘young and hungry’ recruits over the summer.
No doubt there will be much hand-wringing about the part Bullard has played in his own downfall over the coming days, while there will be finger-pointing at the Ipswich Town management too for such a minimal return on sizeable wages.
The truth is, both parties will be bitterly disappointed with how things have turned out. So rather than search for a scapegoat, it might just be best on this occasion to simply accept that this simply wasn’t the match made in heaven everyone hoped it would be.
Good luck Jimmy, but it’s time for a new era at Ipswich Town.
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17 comments
Tom, if you care to read carefully my posts, you will see that I have never said that you don't have opinions only that you castigate any from posters that are at variance with your own. As for your assumption that I spend time to think through and respond to your 'utterances', you could not be more wrong. It takes no time at all to respond to your 'balanced & reasoned' posts since anything positive that you write is as leaky as a colander.
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Brian Betts
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Tom..this may help you..http:thetwounfortunates.comttu-season-preview-2012-13-financial-questions-at-ipswich-town?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ttu-season-preview-2012-13-financial-questions-at-ipswich-town
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Kevin Bailey
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Tom, you have had many answers, yet refuse to either understand or accept them. You seem to think that Evans only benefits when he is repaid, as you put it, oblivious to the millions he is saving in tax each and every year in the meantime, and also the benefits of using the club in the meantime, as a vehicle in his group, which is why ITFC is now known a s Marcus Evans Company. Disagree with me by al means, but stop peddling this line that I have never given you a straight answer, I have, on many occasions, you just seem unable or unwilling to understand it.
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Kevin Bailey
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Brian, sorry, I thought you said I don't have opinions? And if you don't care, why do you keep taking the time to think through and then post responses about things I have posted? All very odd, as per your high horse sitting on a fence image. As for the financial position, again, I thought you said I don't have opinions? Now you are suggesting I do, but that I don't understand the position. In fact, I have posted on numerous occasions asking Kevin Bailey and others to clarify why, as Evans only gets repaid if we are promoted, this is bad for the club vs. having no money at all. I have yet to be provided with a straight answer.
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Tom
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Tom, I really do not care about your opinions and certainly not offended by them. However, your complete inability to grasp the financial situation at PR as clearly and repeatedly laid out for you in earlier posts by Kevin Bailey, makes any other of your opinions suspect at least !!!!!!
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Brian Betts
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Brian, I think it's clear that you think I do have particular opinions otherwise you would not take offenceexception to them.
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Tom
Monday, August 13, 2012
Tom, perhaps you will allow me to clarify my earlier comments. You frequently, in your words, attempt to look at a situation in a balanced and reasoned way but rarely confirm your opinion either in a positive or negative conclusion. That in my opinion is 'sitting on the fence'!!!!!! You may not have said that supporters are not allowed their opinion but your last sentence in the original post implied that if theirs were different from yours then perhaps that was all you could expect from football supporters. I would interpret that as you consider yourself superior to them. That was what I meant when suggesting you get off your high horse !!!! Finally, if supporters, as you claim , have a polemic against PJ, it is not just an attempt to stir up controversy by having a negative opinion against the man but have genuinely concluded that he is not the right man to take this club forward. If you happen to disagree, that is your perogative, but do not condemn those who think differently.
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Brian Betts
Monday, August 13, 2012
Tom, I think Jewell was right to sign Bullard, as he probably kept us up with his form and influence that season. However, to play him in a completely different position at the start of last season is not, in my view a red herring as you put it, but the reason why Bullard's form suffered. Since then, Jewell has not played him, and now we have payed up Bullard's contract, probably meaning that we have wasted around £2M, considering Bullard was not picked by Jewell from last November onwards in any meaningful way. So, I credit Jewell for buying him, yet castigate him in as strong a way as possible for treating him the way he did, and also for wasting £2M (my estimate) When you consider that Jewell also paid up the contracts of Ingmarsson and Healy (after subbing him in a humiliating fashion) then this is the evidence as to why I think he is unfit to be our manager, and is also guilty of wasting huge amounts of money. I am not anti-Jewell either, I am anti-Jewell being our manager, there is a difference, and my view is based on his actions, decisions, comments, and nothing else.
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Kevin Bailey
Monday, August 13, 2012
Brian, either I sit on the fence and won't take a view either way, or am on my high horse with my opinions. I think you're getting your metaphors confused. Also, please refer to me to where I have ever said that supporters are not allowed an opinion? And I think you've totally misread my post, because I am not talking about those who are positive but those who moan and criticise Paul Jewell ALL the time, even when like with Bullard, at the time he made the decision to buy him, fans were clamouring for the same. Ha, am still amused at the thought of a high horse sitting on a fence.....sounds rather painful to me.....;-)
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Tom
Monday, August 13, 2012
Get off your 'high horse', Tom and whilst you're at it stop sitting on the fence with your balanced view mentality. Posters on here are entitled to their views the same as you but just because they are more positive in their views, that doesn't make them 'football morons' as you seem to imply. As good a footballer Bullard is or was, signing him on the basis of his performances on loan was a bit risky and we were told that in no uncertain terms by Hull City supporters. However, it was in retrospect a mistake and it is time to draw a line under this episode of Jewell's tenure here.
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Brian Betts
Monday, August 13, 2012
Woeful signings. Inept tactics. Money wasted. Good players binned. No sense of direction. Fans mostly appalled. Season ticket holders uninspired. New signings reluctant to come here. Am I missing something or is this not Jewells record thus far ?
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graham garrod
Friday, August 10, 2012
Good article by the EADT. It has what a lot of posters on here lack, namely a reasoned and balanced view. Too many people on here take a simplistic, all or nothing approach. In the case of Bullard, last summer fans were clamouring for the club to show some ambition and sign him up. Now the same fans are saying PJ should be sacked for the lack of judgment. What lack of judgment? He had played exceptionally well in a number of matches, scoring some important goals. I don't recall legions of Town fans predicting he would be a flop. So it's all too easy to be wise after the event. It might be helpful if people on here started to take a balanced view, which means giving credit where credit is due, and vice versa, rather than having a polemic against PJ, like a stuck record. But perhaps that's too much to ask from football fans.
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Tom
Friday, August 10, 2012
Agree fully with Jason. PJ has clearly proven himself as inept with his lacklustre 'signings'. I am a genuine ITFC fan and always will be, but unlike most of our fans I will happily hold my hands up if the team is becoming an embarrassment. Considering the quality we have had manage us in the past, this is clearly a bad time to be an ITFC fan. The manager we currently have can't buy the right players, if he does, he plays them in the wrong positions or doesn't give them time to settle, he has wasted no end of money which most managers would utilise to gain promotion, not a relegation battle. Yes, chambers looks a player and chops has improved, but we still have a distinctly average championship side at best, and this is purely to do with the man in charge. I personally do not want to be sitting here at christmas saying 'why did we not get rid of him and have a fresh start in pre-season'. I know you'll all say show support instead of moaning, but times are beyond that. He had his chance. All 10 million pounds of it. JEWELL OUT.
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Non plastic fan
Friday, August 10, 2012
Backing PJ till the day he leaves, which I hope isnt in the near future. COYB!
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MattyJ95
Friday, August 10, 2012
Wherever you go JB, good luck! Unfortunately you can't stop the birthdays coming round!
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JOHN BURLS
Friday, August 10, 2012
Sadly, when you appoint a manager as poor as PJ then you have to expect many massive mistakes. Bullard, Ellington, Ingimarrson and Bowyer are four good examples. There are far too many PJ errors to mention, with a lot of them being costly. Colin Healy was offered a two year deal by PJ - he played 24 minutes, was hauled off - then slagged off before being released (contract paid up) by this so called 'manager'. Ingimarrson was also paid off. It's interesting that the EADT keep going on about the signing of 'young and hungry' players - sadly our signings this pre-season have been a) too few and b) not great quality. It should also be noted re Bullard that a considerable number of fans - me included - raised concerns about his signing - based on feedback from the Hull supporters. Many actually said it would be a poor one. Many were sadly very correct. PJ should be sacked for yet another poor judgement call. PJ OUT!
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Jason
Friday, August 10, 2012
What a well written and sensible piece, much more incisive and balanced than the anti-Jewell invective that trolls the comments section here.
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Roy Startup
Friday, August 10, 2012