Jimmy Bullards comeback

“why can’t these injuries happen to the mercenaries that have infected our game”

Whilst I wouldn’t have wished his injuries on anyone I’d class Bullard as a mercenary
Sure he plays with a smile on his face & is a team joker but lets not forget that this is the fella who wanted to re-negotiate his deal with Latics less than a year after signing a new & improved deal. The same fella who (allegedely if you believe some stories) gave his agent permission to tout his “sell on clause” to every club in the top flight when he didn’t get the new deal he wanted. And the same fella who having spent donkey’s out with a career threatening injury & who had by no means proved his long term fitness started to come out in the press & state he wanted Fulham to offer him a new long term deal (even though he had 18 months to run on his existing deal) & if they didn’t he would look to move on
Not to mention his alleged £50k a week wage at Hull (not that I or anyone else would turn down them wages like!!)

Yep he puts more effort into 1 game than Kapo does in a whole season but IMO some of his actions off the pitch mark him out as just as mercenary as most of the other players about these days

but IMO some of his actions off the pitch mark him out as just as mercenary as most of the other players about these days

I have to agree with that one. Bob on. 8-)

I said “allegedly” allowed his agent to tout his sell on clause to other clubs as Bullard tells one story & the club tells another. Personally I feel that the truth probably lies somewhere in between but (as with Ellington & WBA) I find it coincidental that Fulham knew exactly how much they needed to bid in order to be allowed to speak to him

As for his actions at Fulham – IMO it shows nothing of the sort about committing long-term to Fulham. They’d spent alot of money signing him & spent more still during hsi long rehabilitation. Almost immediately he came back he started talking about wanting a new deal. Again just my opinion but that is mercenary. If he wasn’t he’d have thanked Fulham for all their effort in getting him fit & talked about rewarding that. Instead he started to publicly come out & state he wanted a new deal. If he didn’t think his deal (which he was less than half way through) was good enough then he shouldn’t have signed it in the first place

I liked him at Latics & you can see that after dropping down to non-league he appreciates how lucky he is to have made his way back but he’s as mercenary as the rest of modern day footballers. His actions in wanting new deals when the ink is barely dry on his old ones are to me shining examples of that

My view is that there is not one pro footballer out there who is not in it for the money. And why not, it’s only a job to them after all? Can’t be doing with all this badge kissing either, totally false and meaningless. I’d like to see the reaction at work if I walked up and kissed the company logo on the front desk after obtaining the sign off for a proposal from a particularly difficult board member.

There are probably degrees of ‘mercenary’ though. Ryan Giggs, for example, might be seen as the perfect pro, though I guess it’s easy to look that way when someone is prepared to give you £100k per week without even asking for it. Then you have someone like Winston Bogarde who happily took £40k per week for 5 years from Chelsea without even looking like playing a game.

I guess Jimmy, and 99% of footballers, fall somewhere in between the two.