Premier League Betting: Could colourful cockney have Fulham laughing all the way to top six?

Premier League / Mike Norman / 16 November 2008 / Leave a Comment

Mike Norman discusses the influential midfielder who plays with undiminised enthusiasm, makes his team-mates happy and could put a big smile on the faces of punters brave enough to back Fulham at big prices.

It's approaching that time of year when football DVDs are being released almost daily. From Ade Akinbiyi's 'How Not To Miss From Six Yards' to Zinedine Zidane's 'Ten Greatest Football Head-butts', you can rest assured there is something out there for everyone.... well almost.

What isn't out there is a DVD showing Jimmy Bullard's greatest moments - many of which come when the colourful Cockney doesn't have a football at his feet.

Bullard is a very rare breed in the world of professional football, for he is a player who wears his heart on his sleeve, tries his hardest, plays with immense enthusiasm, a huge smile on his face and loves to entertain. Jimmy's on and off-field antics have had football fans all over the country in fits of laughter, but on a serious side he is a pivotal member of Fulham's midfield (as I will prove later) and almost singlehandedly kept the Craven Cottage club in the Premiership last season.

Since he spent two years in the wilderness at West Ham United (the club he supported as a boy), Bullard has become one of football's most popular characters and is a big favourite of the cult Saturday morning football show Soccer AM - arguably for his personality more than his ability as a player.

Perhaps that's unfair however, because as many Peterborough United, Wigan Athletic, and now Fulham fans will testify, Jimmy Bullard is a footballer who adds considerable worth to a team, so much so that England boss Fabio Capello was suitably impressed enough to call him into the national squad recently. But with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Owen Hargreaves and Michael Carrick unavailable for selection, Bullard failed to make even the subs bench for the games against Andorra and Croatia. Unfortunately for Bullard, England have many quality midfielders who came to prominence at a much earlier age than he did.

But as I alluded to earlier, at Premiershp level, Bullard is a key member of Fulham's midfield. He spent the most part of last season out with cruciate knee ligament damage, and because of this I can do a quick comparison as to how Fulham faired with Bullard starting a game against how they faired when he didn't start.

The last 20 games in which Fulham didn't have Bullard starting a game resulted in just one win for the Cottagers, eight draws and 11 defeats (19 goals scored, 37 conceded). That's just a total of 11 Premiership points collected from 20 games - not just relegation form, but almost certainly rock bottom of the table form.

Fulham are currently priced at [5.5] in the Relegation 2008/09 market, whilst they can be backed at [19.5] in the Rock Bottom market.

More pleasant reading for Fulham fans is that in the last 20 games that Jimmy Bullard has been in the starting line-up, Roy Hodgson's men have recorded nine victories, three draws and eight defeats, whilst also having a positive goal difference (22 for, 21 against). Remarkably, that return of 30 points from 20 games would average out at 57 points over a full 38 game season. At the end of the last five seasons, a team which has accumulated 57 points has never finished below 8th in the Premiership, and once would have been good enough for a 5th place finish.

The above stats don't include yesterday's game against Spurs, but yes Bullard started and Fulham beat one of the league's in-form teams. That result took Fulham to 17 points from 12 games and that's not far off being 57 points a season form, yet surprisingly, in a league that threatens to be one of the most close knit for years (barring the top four) Fulham can be backed at [25.0] for a Top 6 Finish.

Much will depend on whether or not Jimmy Bullard can stay fit, and perhaps whether or not he remains a Fulham player, as to where his club will finish this season - if he wants to break into the England squad regularly then he will most certainly need to move to a bigger club.

But I get the feeling that Jimmy is happy at Fulham. A happy Jimmy Bullard means a happy changing room - and we all know what that means; more classic moments like this for his DVD