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It's Mullen!

Reaction to the biggest events in Walsall FC's recent history. This section also houses the tributes paid to Jolysaddler.
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Exile
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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 4:15 am

I'm very disappointed, but wish him all the best.

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Whitti Steve
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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 5:29 am

I have this image in my head..

Scene: Walsall Board room

Present: Jeff Bonser, Roy Whally, Nigel Bond, other faceless directors, Dan Mole and Andy Poole (online/press etc.)

JB: "Morning everyone, as you know, we have had several candidate for the post of WFC Manager, today I will be announcing my decision as to who will be taking the helm to guide us to the next level.

<Bond, Mole and Pool all shuffle in their seats, the eager anticipation is getting to them, Whalley knows better and sits contemplating the backlash>

JB: "We have had to go for the best man, and I'm sure you will agree that the 5 week wait has been worth it"

<Mole and Poole are really excited about the press conference with the new man>

JB: "Our new manager is.... Jimmy Mullen"

Image

Picture the rest of the room....

Image

RW: "Jeff, well done on taking your time to make sure we got the right man, can he do a sportsman's evening in July?"

Surley, surely, everyone in that room must have known what the fans reaction would have been? They must be mad!

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King Crimson
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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 5:42 am

Whitti Steve wrote:Surley, surely, everyone in that room must have known what the fans reaction would have been? They must be mad!


Yep. They must know. So, they either

a) are mad - as you suggest

b) don't care


You decide.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 7:11 am

Sorry, or:

c) There's an 'ace up the sleeve' or a 'rabbit in the hat' that we still are waiting for. A massive player signing (player/coach perhaps) that will make us all go "Aha! THAT'S what its all been about! Cor wait for Championship footie next season! Guaranteed."





My money's on (b). :evil:

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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 8:12 am

King Crimson wrote:
Whitti Steve wrote:Surley, surely, everyone in that room must have known what the fans reaction would have been? They must be mad!


Yep. They must know. So, they either

a) are mad - as you suggest

b) don't care


You decide.


It's b) Dont care.

Thats why we all have to protest and make known our feelings.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 8:16 am

King Crimson wrote:Sorry, or:

c) There's an 'ace up the sleeve' or a 'rabbit in the hat' that we still are waiting for. A massive player signing (player/coach perhaps) that will make us all go "Aha! THAT'S what its all been about! Cor wait for Championship footie next season! Guaranteed."



d) He was actually the bloke who most closely fitted the job description.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 8:23 am

The message board fell over yesterday, which is probably just as well, as I've had chance to reflect on the appointment now.

I'm aware that Jimmy Mullen did a good job for a time as No.2 last season. He is also well regarded by some Burnley fans (apart from the ones that kidnapped his wife and threatened to kill her). Bonser has a good record for appointing managers (apart from the shambling alcoholic, lank-haired Dingle transient and the Danish slob). Any reaction has to be measured otherwise it's just being hysterical. Personally, I thought that Graydon was a reasonable but slightly worrying appointment, Money was a good appointment and Nicholl likewise.

Given that opening paragraph, I'm about ready to write down a toned down version of what I was going to put yesterday:

Well done Jeff! After five weeks careful deliberation, going through the motions and saving on wages, you've appointed a 55yo part-time car salesman, who looks like Father Ted as first-team manager (I'd thought of it immediately, apologies to YGA Saddler). One can only imagine who the other four candidates were, perhaps they wanted to get started blowing the budget whilst the widest choice of players was available, who knows.

I must say Jeff, you've got exactly what you wanted and I'm sure that Father Dead will enjoy working with the four (?) remaining contracted senior professionals, assorted boys and nobodies STM will sign for you. Not only have you saved on an assistant's wages, you've also got a snivelling yes-man with an appalling managerial record right where you want - on last season's salary, no doubt. I'm sure you'll point to the fact that he won the fourth division twenty years ago and his vast experience, eventhough it's been flailing around at the likes of Colwyn Bay and Hednesford. You say that everyone's been impressed with his professionalism, I don't doubt that for a second. I'm very supportive of Jimmy Mullen and the players, who are honest, decent men doing their best.

However, my utter contempt is reserved in its entirity for you, Jeff. I'm sure you're hiding away in your undersea lair in the Eastern Med like a very poor James Bond villain, with your henchman STM in attendance. I bet you're both celebrating this appointment now with a glass or two, only pausing to rub oil in each other's naked blubber and stroke each other's mullets, in complete ignorance that football and hair have moved on since 1977. At regular intervals, you phone up the Excuse & Dingle hotline, as though it's the source of all media authority, to explain yourself and the ego that has overtaken you to anyone who's prepared to print what is said unmolested. You still have the bare-faced cheek to regurgitate ITV Digital, a term that is a mystery to most concessions nowadays. It would be like Gordon Brown trying to blame the Hundred Years War for our current economy. You are a parasitic larva, Jeff, literally feasting on the turf under our players' feet and undermining your successive yes-man appointments at every turn until they escape from the string you have them hanging from or you spit them out and move on to your next carcass.

Last season, we were a proud club. We had the most exciting line-up of young local talent since 1983. They refused to be bowed by their supposed superiors such as Leeds and Nottingham Forest. I was even ready to coerce other people to go the Banks's and see the brilliance that was dawning. How we've gone from that position to this state in five months is almost beyond belief. It's as though we've just accelerated straight through to 1989 and we've appointed the Dingle transient again.

I for one will never offer you another penny. Like many others have said, I'll support this manager and team but it will be at away grounds from now on. You have reduced Walsall FC to the laughing stock of the division before the last season has even finished. It's a title that should have been carried off at a canter by the hapless Leicester City, but they'll be looking for a different trophy now. Meanwhile, we are left with a line-up that wouldn't even scare Cheltenham during an injury crisis. You are now a chairman of a joke club in a joke town who's just appointed a joke manager. I am no longer laughing.

From a position where you saved the club and could indeed have been offered the freedom of the town for doing so, you have carried on during the last 20 years as a greater characature of your previous successive incarnations before. Now I wouldn't even offer you the freedom of my coal bunker incase you tried to steal some of my coal. Bonser, I will curse you every day for the rest of your life for what you have done to this club and the reputation of this town. Load up the rest of your 'loan' in the amphibious Lotus Eclat and go now - don't even look round at your handiwork.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 8:25 am

WarsawPact wrote:
King Crimson wrote:Sorry, or:

c) There's an 'ace up the sleeve' or a 'rabbit in the hat' that we still are waiting for. A massive player signing (player/coach perhaps) that will make us all go "Aha! THAT'S what its all been about! Cor wait for Championship footie next season! Guaranteed."



d) He was actually the bloke who most closely fitted the job description.


So, the club's stated objective of securing our future as a Championship side manifests itself in the appointment of an internal candidate who has not managed a league side in over a decade? I will support Mullen. As others have stated, all power to him for going for the job and getting it. He has coaching badges and knows the club set up very well. I'm sure these would form part of a person specification for the job. But, of all the applications (those we know of and those we don't), I struggle with the notion that there was no one younger, better, with more contacts in the game and more recent experience who would have been a better candidate to move us to the next level.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 8:30 am

Been away and haven't got round to reading much of the last day's threads yet (do I sound like someone else? :wink: ), but this appointment is an absolute joke. With the calibre of out of work candidates we could have done so much better than this. And what's happened to the "late entrant" who JB was desperate to speak to?

It's not like appointing a Graydon or a Money. Mullen's not an unheard of guy with excellent credentials, he's been at the club for a while now and we all saw his style at the end of last season - and it certainly wasn't inspiring. What does this say to the likes of Gerrard? With the rumours of discontent and low morale in the dressing room we needed a clean break and an outsider to come in and freshen things up. This is just more of the same - and I can't generate any optimism for next season this morning.

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 8:44 am

I haven't read the rest of this thread, as I can guess most of it. I've resisted the urge to "do an MMF" and start my own special thread, so I've decided to post here with the rest of you :wink:

To be honest I wasn't too disappointed when I heard about it, but the more I think about it the more annoyed I get about it. The fact Jeef has spent the last 5 weeks looking for somebody better speaks volumes IMHO. I can't believe he has looked at the list of candidates and thought "Yep, Jimmy is the best qualified of the lot". Not if, as I'm lead to believe, the likes of Peter Taylor were on the list. If Mullen was really Bonsers first choice then he would have been appointed weeks ago. It smacks of the McClaren/England saga when Big Phil rejected it before they gave it McClaren and claimed he was the best man for the job. I don't believe for one second that JM was the best man for the job, the fact that he might have been the only man left for the job under the conditions imposed is very worrying. The last sentence is an opinion, but I can't see any other way that Jimmy would have been seen as the best candidate. This however isn't Mullens fault.

I had the fortune this morning of having a chat with our Jimmys former players, who described his training as spot on, his style of play as direct, having a bit of an ego and is capable of being irrational and throwing a bit of a strop when he doesn't get his own way (sound familiar??). Apparently if you can tolerate this then he's a good manager.

Unfortunately the former player in question is my boss, an IT consultant who played under Jimmy at Market Drayton. Tells you a lot about the level he managed at, but he did guide them to 3rd in what my boss described as "a tough league". Lets hope he can achieve something similar with us.

I'll support him as he's the manager and I'll judge him on his results.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 8:45 am

leics_saddler wrote:The message board fell over yesterday, which is probably just as well, as I've had chance to reflect on the appointment now.

I'm aware that Jimmy Mullen did a good job for a time as No.2 last season. He is also well regarded by some Burnley fans (apart from the ones that kidnapped his wife and threatened to kill her). Bonser has a good record for appointing managers (apart from the shambling alcoholic, lank-haired Dingle transient and the Danish slob). Any reaction has to be measured otherwise it's just being hysterical. Personally, I thought that Graydon was a reasonable but slightly worrying appointment, Money was a good appointment and Nicholl likewise.

Given that opening paragraph, I'm about ready to write down a toned down version of what I was going to put yesterday:

Well done Jeff! After five weeks careful deliberation, going through the motions and saving on wages, you've appointed a 55yo part-time car salesman, who looks like Father Ted as first-team manager (I'd thought of it immediately, apologies to YGA Saddler). One can only imagine who the other four candidates were, perhaps they wanted to get started blowing the budget whilst the widest choice of players was available, who knows.

I must say Jeff, you've got exactly what you wanted and I'm sure that Father Dead will enjoy working with the four (?) remaining contracted senior professionals, assorted boys and nobodies STM will sign for you. Not only have you saved on an assistant's wages, you've also got a snivelling yes-man with an appalling managerial record right where you want - on last season's salary, no doubt. I'm sure you'll point to the fact that he won the fourth division twenty years ago and his vast experience, eventhough it's been flailing around at the likes of Colwyn Bay and Hednesford. You say that everyone's been impressed with his professionalism, I don't doubt that for a second. I'm very supportive of Jimmy Mullen and the players, who are honest, decent men doing their best.

However, my utter contempt is reserved in its entirity for you, Jeff. I'm sure you're hiding away in your undersea lair in the Eastern Med like a very poor James Bond villain, with your henchman STM in attendance. I bet you're both celebrating this appointment now with a glass or two, only pausing to rub oil in each other's naked blubber and stroke each other's mullets, in complete ignorance that football and hair have moved on since 1977. At regular intervals, you phone up the Excuse & Dingle hotline, as though it's the source of all media authority, to explain yourself and the ego that has overtaken you to anyone who's prepared to print what is said unmolested. You still have the bare-faced cheek to regurgitate ITV Digital, a term that is a mystery to most concessions nowadays. It would be like Gordon Brown trying to blame the Hundred Years War for our current economy. You are a parasitic larva, Jeff, literally feasting on the turf under our players' feet and undermining your successive yes-man appointments at every turn until they escape from the string you have them hanging from or you spit them out and move on to your next carcass.

Last season, we were a proud club. We had the most exciting line-up of young local talent since 1983. They refused to be bowed by their supposed superiors such as Leeds and Nottingham Forest. I was even ready to coerce other people to go the Banks's and see the brilliance that was dawning. How we've gone from that position to this state in five months is almost beyond belief. It's as though we've just accelerated straight through to 1989 and we've appointed the Dingle transient again.

I for one will never offer you another penny. Like many others have said, I'll support this manager and team but it will be at away grounds from now on. You have reduced Walsall FC to the laughing stock of the division before the last season has even finished. It's a title that should have been carried off at a canter by the hapless Leicester City, but they'll be looking for a different trophy now. Meanwhile, we are left with a line-up that wouldn't even scare Cheltenham during an injury crisis. You are now a chairman of a joke club in a joke town who's just appointed a joke manager. I am no longer laughing.

From a position where you saved the club and could indeed have been offered the freedom of the town for doing so, you have carried on during the last 20 years as a greater characature of your previous successive incarnations before. Now I wouldn't even offer you the freedom of my coal bunker incase you tried to steal some of my coal. Bonser, I will curse you every day for the rest of your life for what you have done to this club and the reputation of this town. Load up the rest of your 'loan' in the amphibious Lotus Eclat and go now - don't even look round at your handiwork.



Terrific post, Leics.... Pretty much sums up my feelings too.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 9:15 am

leics_saddler wrote:The message board fell over yesterday, which is probably just as well, as I've had chance to reflect on the appointment now.

I'm aware that Jimmy Mullen did a good job for a time as No.2 last season. He is also well regarded by some Burnley fans (apart from the ones that kidnapped his wife and threatened to kill her). Bonser has a good record for appointing managers (apart from the shambling alcoholic, lank-haired Dingle transient and the Danish slob). Any reaction has to be measured otherwise it's just being hysterical. Personally, I thought that Graydon was a reasonable but slightly worrying appointment, Money was a good appointment and Nicholl likewise.

Given that opening paragraph, I'm about ready to write down a toned down version of what I was going to put yesterday:

Well done Jeff! After five weeks careful deliberation, going through the motions and saving on wages, you've appointed a 55yo part-time car salesman, who looks like Father Ted as first-team manager (I'd thought of it immediately, apologies to YGA Saddler). One can only imagine who the other four candidates were, perhaps they wanted to get started blowing the budget whilst the widest choice of players was available, who knows.

I must say Jeff, you've got exactly what you wanted and I'm sure that Father Dead will enjoy working with the four (?) remaining contracted senior professionals, assorted boys and nobodies STM will sign for you. Not only have you saved on an assistant's wages, you've also got a snivelling yes-man with an appalling managerial record right where you want - on last season's salary, no doubt. I'm sure you'll point to the fact that he won the fourth division twenty years ago and his vast experience, eventhough it's been flailing around at the likes of Colwyn Bay and Hednesford. You say that everyone's been impressed with his professionalism, I don't doubt that for a second. I'm very supportive of Jimmy Mullen and the players, who are honest, decent men doing their best.

However, my utter contempt is reserved in its entirity for you, Jeff. I'm sure you're hiding away in your undersea lair in the Eastern Med like a very poor James Bond villain, with your henchman STM in attendance. I bet you're both celebrating this appointment now with a glass or two, only pausing to rub oil in each other's naked blubber and stroke each other's mullets, in complete ignorance that football and hair have moved on since 1977. At regular intervals, you phone up the Excuse & Dingle hotline, as though it's the source of all media authority, to explain yourself and the ego that has overtaken you to anyone who's prepared to print what is said unmolested. You still have the bare-faced cheek to regurgitate ITV Digital, a term that is a mystery to most concessions nowadays. It would be like Gordon Brown trying to blame the Hundred Years War for our current economy. You are a parasitic larva, Jeff, literally feasting on the turf under our players' feet and undermining your successive yes-man appointments at every turn until they escape from the string you have them hanging from or you spit them out and move on to your next carcass.

Last season, we were a proud club. We had the most exciting line-up of young local talent since 1983. They refused to be bowed by their supposed superiors such as Leeds and Nottingham Forest. I was even ready to coerce other people to go the Banks's and see the brilliance that was dawning. How we've gone from that position to this state in five months is almost beyond belief. It's as though we've just accelerated straight through to 1989 and we've appointed the Dingle transient again.

I for one will never offer you another penny. Like many others have said, I'll support this manager and team but it will be at away grounds from now on. You have reduced Walsall FC to the laughing stock of the division before the last season has even finished. It's a title that should have been carried off at a canter by the hapless Leicester City, but they'll be looking for a different trophy now. Meanwhile, we are left with a line-up that wouldn't even scare Cheltenham during an injury crisis. You are now a chairman of a joke club in a joke town who's just appointed a joke manager. I am no longer laughing.

From a position where you saved the club and could indeed have been offered the freedom of the town for doing so, you have carried on during the last 20 years as a greater characature of your previous successive incarnations before. Now I wouldn't even offer you the freedom of my coal bunker incase you tried to steal some of my coal. Bonser, I will curse you every day for the rest of your life for what you have done to this club and the reputation of this town. Load up the rest of your 'loan' in the amphibious Lotus Eclat and go now - don't even look round at your handiwork.


Great post and very funny!!!

This club will always be the same. The only way to describe it in a sentence, is " one step forward, and fifteen steps back"

Bonser, i HATE you :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 9:27 am

Plastic Hawk wrote:What does this say to the likes of Gerrard?


Given their public hostility, I imagine Gerrard will be handing in a transfer request about now.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 9:46 am

Exile wrote:
Plastic Hawk wrote:What does this say to the likes of Gerrard?


Given their public hostility, I imagine Gerrard will be handing in a transfer request about now.


Is that something I've missed in the last week or so, or just going back to the Awards Night stuff?

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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 10:05 am

I presume that the people who had the txt of me yeterday morning were hoping i was joking. Unlucky :(

So many "absolutely first class" candidates for the job had but doubt in my mind that what i was 1st told weeks ago, that Mullen was almost a cert for the job. But good old Jeef didn't let me down. Amazing quality of aplicants ? (insert jim royal catchphrase here) :evil:
Last edited by Ned_Kelly on Fri May 23, 2008 11:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Fri May 23, 2008 11:24 am

Most people on here are assuming that just because someone has applied for the job that must mean he wants it.

five were interveiwed , listened to jeef, realised he is an blubbering egomaniac and STM is a modern day spiv who has too much say and decided to get the flock out of there. jimmy was released from his box and told that he was the best for the job!!

Tip: when jeff says "best" in your head add the word "financially" to it. :D

Cheap, letc.....!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

BOSOC!!!!!

[post moderated - gratuitous abuse]

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Re: It's Mullen!

Sat May 24, 2008 2:56 pm

I'm feeling exactly the same as when they appointed Ray Graydon and Richard Money.

'Who the flippin' 'eck are they?' I thought - or words to that effect (although I remember Sir Ray at the Villa as a player). And ' Oh dear, here we go again' kind of thing.

I'm hoping a praying and I've got every jointed part of my anaotmy crossed in the hopes that this appointment turns out to be the total balls up that Sir Ray and Dicky turned out to be.

That was a stab at irony there by the way................or is it sarcasm.................hmmmmm.........the line is always very indistinct for me.

I dont know if anyone else felt like this - i just couldnt be asked to trawl though all the responses on here.

I live my life always in hope. Hope for myself, for my nearest and dearest and that includes the current shambles that lives up Bescot Cresent.

My mom used to baby sit Bonser when he was a nipper you know. Maybe she should have made more effort to drop him on his head in the coal bucket..........................and she told him so too in the club shop once,............priceless!

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Re: It's Mullen!

Sat May 24, 2008 6:43 pm

Although I'm not over the moon with this appointment, I think Mullen should be given every chance. Lets hope his baggage is behind him and he can re-create the glory days of Burnley for us. My gripe has always been with JB, not the managers he appoints. Many see Mullen as the cheap option, but lets give him a fair crack of the whip and see what he can do. If it all goes tits up blame JB not Mullen. If it's a success and we get into the Championship, credit must go to both.
One positive to be said, our unbeaten run this season coincided with Mullens arrival.
I am now waiting for the 8 or so quality players to come in that we need to make a challange for promotion.
Question for JB and co,
ARE YOU GOING TO BACK THE NEW MANAGER????

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Re: It's Mullen!

Sat May 24, 2008 7:01 pm

I presume Frank Sibley was on holiday when we called his number.

Shame.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Sun May 25, 2008 12:03 pm

Sunday Mercury reckon that Mullen is on a two-year deal believed to be £80,000 per year.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Sun May 25, 2008 4:47 pm

1933 wrote:Sunday Mercury reckon that Mullen is on a two-year deal believed to be £80,000 per year.


Times that by 4.25 and you get the rent per year! :D

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Re: It's Mullen!

Tue May 27, 2008 10:39 am

Not posted before now simply because I'm completely disillusioned with Pension Fund FC and what Bonser has done - I'll not be going down again until Bonser leaves. Probably go to Rushall Olympic, Hednesford or Willenhall Town if I fancy watching football, or possibly go to the speedway in Wolves or Brum. Don't want to give that parasite any more of my money to be slapped in the face. He's appointed a non league level part time manager and has the gall to say he was the best applicant - how stupid do you think we actually are?
If I want to watch a team run like a non league side, with no ambition or hope then I'll go to one and won't pay £20 plus per game. You'll not see me again for a while at the Bescot - I've had enough.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Tue May 27, 2008 10:59 am

1933 wrote:Sunday Mercury reckon that Mullen is on a two-year deal believed to be £80,000 per year.


I'd be surprised if that was the case.

I was astonished when I found out how little DD was on when he arrived. I know it was a lower division but Mullen was hardly in a position to drive a hard bargain was he?

£80,000 over two seasons sounds more like it.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Tue May 27, 2008 11:34 am

bangsection wrote:
1933 wrote:Sunday Mercury reckon that Mullen is on a two-year deal believed to be £80,000 per year.


I'd be surprised if that was the case.

I was astonished when I found out how little DD was on when he arrived. I know it was a lower division but Mullen was hardly in a position to drive a hard bargain was he?

£80,000 over two seasons sounds more like it.


I'd also be surprised if Mullen is on £80k a year - in fact, I'm surprised he's on £40k a year. That must be pushing twice what he'd have been on as an assistant.

This sums up for me what was wrong with all the "cheap option" talk prior to the appointment. Managers - outside of the top four Premiership clubs - tend to earn less than most of their players. So, any manager would have been a cheap option for the amount of difference that he can make to the side compared to a typical player. I'd be amazed if we couldn't have brought in Cotterill or Taylor (or Holloway or anyone else with a half-decent track record) for somewhere around the £80k a year range. Suppose that Mullen is on £40k/year, then the difference between him and a competent manager is about £800/week - or a fringe player. Surely a sacrifice worth making?

It just doesn't make sense to try to economize on a manager - far better just to do without a squad player. That's why I can't understand this appointment from any angle.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Tue May 27, 2008 12:02 pm

Plastic Hawk wrote:
It just doesn't make sense to try to economize on a manager - far better just to do without a squad player. That's why I can't understand this appointment from any angle.


Presumably most of the managers were informed that recruitment of players is organised/overseen by Paul Taylor. Any 'name' worth their salt would have had a problem with this. I'm guessing Jeff was turned down by every one of Allen, Cotteril et al plus the infamous 'late entrant' whoever that was - I still think Holloway was a complete non-starter due to his history with STM. Hence young Jimmy's appointment - not only the cheap option but more than likely the only option with the clock ticking.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Tue May 27, 2008 12:17 pm

The most plausible explanation as to why it took so long to appoint Mullen is that other people were offered the job but didn't want it. I doubt it was anything to do with money, far more likely to be bangsection's point that they didn't want to work under the STM conditions (Graydon and Money both seemed to love it but I don't suppose many managers would).

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Re: It's Mullen!

Tue May 27, 2008 12:27 pm

bangsection wrote:
Plastic Hawk wrote:
It just doesn't make sense to try to economize on a manager - far better just to do without a squad player. That's why I can't understand this appointment from any angle.


Presumably most of the managers were informed that recruitment of players is organised/overseen by Paul Taylor. Any 'name' worth their salt would have had a problem with this. I'm guessing Jeff was turned down by every one of Allen, Cotteril et al plus the infamous 'late entrant' whoever that was - I still think Holloway was a complete non-starter due to his history with STM. Hence young Jimmy's appointment - not only the cheap option but more than likely the only option with the clock ticking.


You're probably right - but that's been overcome in the past (by getting rid of STM when Lee took over). I agree that Holloway wasn't a realistic candidate, but Cotterill and Taylor certainly ought to have been. Surely if people kept turning JB down then he ought to have altered his stance on STM before it got down to Mullen?

To be honest, this whole thing has left me totally gutted. I can't understand how we've got ourselves into this situation from where we were even two weeks ago.

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Re: It's Mullen!

Tue May 27, 2008 12:28 pm

Plastic Hawk wrote:
bangsection wrote:
Plastic Hawk wrote:
It just doesn't make sense to try to economize on a manager - far better just to do without a squad player. That's why I can't understand this appointment from any angle.


Presumably most of the managers were informed that recruitment of players is organised/overseen by Paul Taylor. Any 'name' worth their salt would have had a problem with this. I'm guessing Jeff was turned down by every one of Allen, Cotteril et al plus the infamous 'late entrant' whoever that was - I still think Holloway was a complete non-starter due to his history with STM. Hence young Jimmy's appointment - not only the cheap option but more than likely the only option with the clock ticking.


You're probably right - but that's been overcome in the past (by getting rid of STM when Lee took over). I agree that Holloway wasn't a realistic candidate, but Cotterill and Taylor certainly ought to have been. Surely if people kept turning JB down then he ought to have altered his stance on STM before it got down to Mullen?

To be honest, this whole thing has left me totally gutted. I can't understand how we've got ourselves into this situation from where we were even two weeks ago.


:wink:

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Re: It's Mullen!

Tue May 27, 2008 1:31 pm

Plastic Hawk wrote:
Surely if people kept turning JB down then he ought to have altered his stance on STM before it got down to Mullen?

To be honest, this whole thing has left me totally gutted. I can't understand how we've got ourselves into this situation from where we were even two weeks ago.


STM clearly puts off serious candidates - hell, maybe that's why Kelly apparently chose not to even apply for what should surely have been the perfect entry into management for him.

Question is, why does JB persist with the continued employment of STM to the apparent detriment of the range of candidates available to manage the actual team? Because this appears to suggest that the position of 'football consultant' is more important than team manager/coach. Does JB simply value having his own man influencing the team/picking transfer targets or is there perhaps another reason for employing a permanent agent within the club who, it has been alleged, likes to grease the wheels of deals with a few quid here and there. Of course, I have no idea what this reason might be and I am certainly not suggesting that there is any impropriety afoot!

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Re: It's Mullen!

Tue May 27, 2008 1:41 pm

leics_saddler wrote:The message board fell over yesterday, which is probably just as well, as I've had chance to reflect on the appointment now.

I'm aware that Jimmy Mullen did a good job for a time as No.2 last season. He is also well regarded by some Burnley fans (apart from the ones that kidnapped his wife and threatened to kill her). Bonser has a good record for appointing managers (apart from the shambling alcoholic, lank-haired Dingle transient and the Danish slob). Any reaction has to be measured otherwise it's just being hysterical. Personally, I thought that Graydon was a reasonable but slightly worrying appointment, Money was a good appointment and Nicholl likewise.

Given that opening paragraph, I'm about ready to write down a toned down version of what I was going to put yesterday:

Well done Jeff! After five weeks careful deliberation, going through the motions and saving on wages, you've appointed a 55yo part-time car salesman, who looks like Father Ted as first-team manager (I'd thought of it immediately, apologies to YGA Saddler). One can only imagine who the other four candidates were, perhaps they wanted to get started blowing the budget whilst the widest choice of players was available, who knows.

I must say Jeff, you've got exactly what you wanted and I'm sure that Father Dead will enjoy working with the four (?) remaining contracted senior professionals, assorted boys and nobodies STM will sign for you. Not only have you saved on an assistant's wages, you've also got a snivelling yes-man with an appalling managerial record right where you want - on last season's salary, no doubt. I'm sure you'll point to the fact that he won the fourth division twenty years ago and his vast experience, eventhough it's been flailing around at the likes of Colwyn Bay and Hednesford. You say that everyone's been impressed with his professionalism, I don't doubt that for a second. I'm very supportive of Jimmy Mullen and the players, who are honest, decent men doing their best.

However, my utter contempt is reserved in its entirity for you, Jeff. I'm sure you're hiding away in your undersea lair in the Eastern Med like a very poor James Bond villain, with your henchman STM in attendance. I bet you're both celebrating this appointment now with a glass or two, only pausing to rub oil in each other's naked blubber and stroke each other's mullets, in complete ignorance that football and hair have moved on since 1977. At regular intervals, you phone up the Excuse & Dingle hotline, as though it's the source of all media authority, to explain yourself and the ego that has overtaken you to anyone who's prepared to print what is said unmolested. You still have the bare-faced cheek to regurgitate ITV Digital, a term that is a mystery to most concessions nowadays. It would be like Gordon Brown trying to blame the Hundred Years War for our current economy. You are a parasitic larva, Jeff, literally feasting on the turf under our players' feet and undermining your successive yes-man appointments at every turn until they escape from the string you have them hanging from or you spit them out and move on to your next carcass.

Last season, we were a proud club. We had the most exciting line-up of young local talent since 1983. They refused to be bowed by their supposed superiors such as Leeds and Nottingham Forest. I was even ready to coerce other people to go the Banks's and see the brilliance that was dawning. How we've gone from that position to this state in five months is almost beyond belief. It's as though we've just accelerated straight through to 1989 and we've appointed the Dingle transient again.

I for one will never offer you another penny. Like many others have said, I'll support this manager and team but it will be at away grounds from now on. You have reduced Walsall FC to the laughing stock of the division before the last season has even finished. It's a title that should have been carried off at a canter by the hapless Leicester City, but they'll be looking for a different trophy now. Meanwhile, we are left with a line-up that wouldn't even scare Cheltenham during an injury crisis. You are now a chairman of a joke club in a joke town who's just appointed a joke manager. I am no longer laughing.

From a position where you saved the club and could indeed have been offered the freedom of the town for doing so, you have carried on during the last 20 years as a greater characature of your previous successive incarnations before. Now I wouldn't even offer you the freedom of my coal bunker incase you tried to steal some of my coal. Bonser, I will curse you every day for the rest of your life for what you have done to this club and the reputation of this town. Load up the rest of your 'loan' in the amphibious Lotus Eclat and go now - don't even look round at your handiwork.



Absolutely superb post, covers this club of ours to a tea!

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