Nobody else wanted to sign for us Theo so i would say it was a desperation purchase because of that, everything else you say is bang on though!
I was thinking when that window opened that we needed a player just like Bullard, and was amazed when we got him. Obviously it went downhill from there, but I think we did need a player like him at that time. The Boateng/Marney/Ash partnership was losing its effectivity.
I completely agree. I said so in my City Online report at the time, if it still exists. We were crying out for someone like him. Hence the euphoria when we signed him. However, we are fans. We judge players on what they do on the pitch. We are looking back with hindsight but those in charge were in possession of the facts at the time and should have made the decision to walk away. Edit: Found my exact quote from January 2009, after the Arsenal home game: "The key thing is that we get in a central midfielder. We desperately need someone in there who can pass the ball. The problem is that they don't grow on trees and good ones cost a fortune. An average player like Jimmy Bullard would cost nearly seven million pounds, that's madness. I'd personally look at Scotland, perhaps Scott Brown or Pedro Mendes. Dean Whitehead was mentioned, he'd do a god job. Unfortunately at the moment, the Man City money and Spurs desperation has inflated the market. If we're serious about competing then we've got to find the resource from somewhere" And this was from December 26th 2008, me banging on about midfield again: "Longer term, the transfer window is open at the end of this week. The players have picked a fine time to put in a couple of rubbish performances because it will make Phil Brown look harder in January. The centre of midfield has to be a priority. Boateng isn't up to it consistently. We are lacking some pace and energy that other teams have in abundance. It's hard to find it in the middle of the pitch, but we must find it from somewhere. It was always going to be tough to last the entire season. The players have played well above themselves so far and that cannot continue consistently. Now, we've got to be clever in team selection, prudent in the transfer window and we've got to find the desire to make up for a lack of ability with sheer bloody-mindedness." I'm not sure that's true. We didn't explore any other possibilities in that window. The only other player we were seriously linked with was James Beattie and Duffen said he wasn't worth the money. Again, with hindsight, laughable.
Hopefully this is a sign of the end of the saga, its become so tedious now it's best for everyone that he goes, for his own benefit as much as ours.
I'll deny it (again) because that's rubbish. This whole mess is down to the length and size of contract given to a player who couldn't pass a medical, wasn't insured and wasn't willing to take a pay cut in the event of relegation. That was all lunacy. Additionally, it was the fault of the people who assembled a squad that wasn't good enough to stay in the Premier League. They are the same people.
okay you have made a statement, now please explain why it is Adam Pearson's fault. Surely the fault and blame lies with Duffen who was in charge at the time of his signing
Percy seems to live under an illusion that everything that Bullard does is OK and the Pearsons should just let him do whatever he wants, doesn't work like that in the real world mate, not that you'd know anything about that.
The contract Bullard was given is ridiculous, there's no doubt about it, your not going to get me defending it. This wasn't Jimmy's fault, nobody's going to say "£45k a week? No thanks I'll take £10k", and we saw what sort of a player could have been for the Tigers on a regular basis when he won the Player of the Month award. Then our Our Dear Leader came back, gave everyone a cup of Kool-Aid, and made it his personal business to get rid of Bullard, I have no problem with that. After Our Dear Leader got us relegated, he had to make savings to make it look like it was worth keeping him here, the problem is the way he went about it, and now we've got a pissed off player on £45k a week who we're going to have to pay-off. A waste.
Radio Blunderside said that QPR won't confirm or deny reports but have found this:- http://www.setanta.com/ie/Articles/2011/06/22/Rangers-close-on-loan-star/gnid-97987/? Fingers crossed.
Think was the point. From now on I'm going to structure my posts as such: It's irrelevant because *insert half-truth here*.
If that were the case it would cost us about £9M (assuming we put all of the savings on Bullard's wages into the new players). It would be preferable to just use this £4-5M you're planning to use for the payoff to sign the other players and sit Bullard in the reserves for the next 2 years. It would cost us the same £9M, but we'd have a chance of someone coming in for him to save us money because it might make Bullard think again about not taking a pay cut if he sees we're prepared to follow through on not subsidising him playing for anyone else.
