One of such Premier League moments occurred on November 28, 2009, at the Etihad Stadium, due to Hull City player Jimmy Bullard.
However, others argue that his celebration against Manchester City, which resembled Phil Brown’s half-time team talk on the pitch the previous season, obscures the disastrous nature of his move from Fulham to East Yorkshire in January 2009.
Jimmy Bullard’s record-breaking transfer to Hull City
Although City had risen rapidly from Division Three – now League Two – to the Premier League in just five years, it is fair to argue that for much of that time, the club’s transfer operations were done methodically and without breaking the bank.
Prior to Bullard’s arrival in January 2009, Hull had only previously paid £2.5 million on a player, when they signed Anthony Gardner from Tottenham Hotspur the previous summer.
However, that record value was quickly doubled when Bullard joined the club for a reputed £5 million sum and a £45,000 per week contract, which neither his previous club nor Bolton Wanderers could match.
At the time, it was yet another high-profile signing for the Tigers, with the centre midfielder an experienced Premier League player who had recently been called up to England by Fabio Capello, but had failed to play against Andorra, Croatia, and Germany.
Unfortunately for City fans, he would only survive 39 minutes on his debut against West Ham before sustaining a knee injury that would keep him out for the rest of the season.
Bullard would then make his Hull debut in October 2009, against his former club, before scoring his first goals for the club – a deflected free-kick and a penalty against West Ham in a 3-3 draw a month later, just a week before his comical celebration at the Etihad Stadium after slamming home from 12 yards.
We came up with the concept during supper yesterday. It was first proposed by Paul McShane, but it was rejected by a handful of players who lacked the necessary bottle. But in the end, we swore we’d do it, whether it meant winning or drawing,” Bullard told the Irish Independent.
Ultimately, that was as good as it went in East Yorkshire for the West Ham youth product, as he suffered another knee injury the following week against Aston Villa after colliding with James Milner.
However, upon his return from injury, it was reported that Bullard had gotten into a fight with Nick Barmby on the Humber Bridge following Everton’s 5-1 away defeat.
Anyway, on Monday, we’ll have a warm-up and I’ll drive them across the Humber Bridge. “What I told the backroom staff was that I needed to watch the video, so I stayed back at the training ground,” former manager Phil Brown stated on talkSPORT in 2019.
Next thing I know, the players and personnel had crossed the Humber Bridge, and I receive a phone call from the police. Jimmy and Nicky are going toe to toe on the Humber Bridge, and the Women’s Institute is holding a march that day.
The rest of Jimmy Bullard’s Hull City career
Bullard’s remaining time in Hull was largely forgettable, though he did score from the penalty spot in a 2-0 win over his former employers in March 2010 under Iain Dowie’s management, before missing a crucial spot kick in a 1-0 home defeat by Sunderland, which ended the club’s first season in the Premier League.
Despite a major exodus due to financial troubles, Bullard was unable to leave for SPFL heavyweights Celtic in July 2010, and he appeared eight more times in the Championship for the club, scoring two goals, one of which was a last-gasp winner in a 3-2 victory over Sheffield United.
He would later join Ipswich Town on loan, reputedly saving the Tigers £320,000 in salary, before making the transfer permanent once his contract was terminated in August 2011.
Overall, Bullard will be remembered for his iconic celebration, but in retrospect, this was a huge mistake from Hull’s perspective.
