ARTICLE: Jimmy Mullen – October 1991 to February 1996

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 11:47 am

The latest in the managers feature - taking a look at Jimmy Mullen

See link
https://www.uptheclarets.com/jimmy-mull ... ruary-1996

Bordeauxclaret · Post by **Bordeauxclaret** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:04 pm

Good read. Really was a shame it ended the way it did after everything he’d done.

He’d get a fantastic reception if he could ever be convinced to return.

mdd2 · Post by **mdd2** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:10 pm

If ever a Burnley manager has been undervalued by a Club and supporters it is JM.
He has as far as I can recall never been back although I think he has been asked back.
Personally he should be dragged back (health permitting) and do a lap of honour as
I am pretty sure the ground would erupt.
In terms of ££ available his performances must rate above Stan.
I think we know the reasons why it all went wrong and if it is true then
if he still has problems, his absence from the Turf is understandable
Great time to be a claret under Jimmy

Quickenthetempo · Post by **Quickenthetempo** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:15 pm

Absolute hero of mine.

He just took us too far, getting to the championship when the club was nowhere near ready for it.

If he had Kilby or the present board backing him, who knows where he could of got us.

Shipclaret · Post by **Shipclaret** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:20 pm

My hair is starting to look like his though....

ElectroClaret · Post by **ElectroClaret** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:47 pm

Easily my favourite period of supporting the Clarets, piling into the back of a Ford Transit with a 2 litre cider bottle for a loo.

traipsing all over the country.
Culminating in that fabulous night at York.

Great times, even if the footy wasn't the best.

Herts Clarets · Post by **Herts Clarets** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:52 pm

Deleted

martin_p · Post by **martin_p** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 1:02 pm

Great years under Mullen, a time to start enjoy being a claret again. He’ll always be one of my favourite Burnley managers.

Papabendi · Post by **Papabendi** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 1:06 pm

I think it is well known Jimmy liked a drink. If it was a drinking problem or not I couldn't comment, but I certainly heard towards the end people at the club were using it in various ways to show him in a very bad light.

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 1:12 pm

Herts says we played some decent football but what Mullen did was play long ball stuff using two quick wingers in Francis & Harper whose job was to get down the flanks and cross the ball for Conroy. It was basic football but it worked really well.

Papabendi · Post by **Papabendi** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 1:20 pm

I thought there was a bit more to us than that. For a start we had Davis at the back who could play a bit and Deary in midfield who would often make those surging runs through the middle. Think we scored some very good goals that season and Eli was another who could play a bit. Don't disagree - direct balls were the template- but we scored goals different ways through the season and tended to play most of our football in the opposition's half.

Steve1956 · Post by **Steve1956** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 1:21 pm

Thanks for everything Jimmy,a lot of what we have today couldn't have been achieved without you putting us back on track to were I genuinely believe we belong..once again Jimmy thanks I will never forget Derby and that brilliant night in York. X

Herts Clarets · Post by **Herts Clarets** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 2:04 pm

Watch the goal we score at home to Rotherham. Classic flowing full length of the pitch counter attacking football. Or the Eli header at home to Scarborough from a Conroy cross. Or a selection of the ones we scored v Northampton Town, Trevor Quow and all. They certainly weren't basic football and they certainly weren't long balls.

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 2:10 pm

Herts Clarets wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 2:04 pm
Watch the goal we score at home to Rotherham. Classic flowing full length of the pitch counter attacking football. Or the Eli header at home to Scarborough from a Conroy cross. Or a selection of the ones we scored v Northampton Town, Trevor Quow and all. They certainly weren't basic football and they certainly weren't long balls.

you can always pick out individual moments or goals, but overall we played the most basic of football, get it down the flanks quickly and get crosses in.

Steve1956 · Post by **Steve1956** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:06 pm

ClaretTony wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 2:10 pm
you can always pick out individual moments or goals, but overall we played the most basic of football, get it down the flanks quickly and get crosses in.

.......and it worked.

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:08 pm

Steve1956 wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:06 pm
.......and it worked.

I don't think anyone would suggest it didn't work

Steve1956 · Post by **Steve1956** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:11 pm

ClaretTony wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:08 pm
I don't think anyone would suggest it didn't work

Well it made me happy anyway..

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:12 pm

Steve1956 wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:11 pm
Well it made me happy anyway..

It's what was needed at the time

Steve1956 · Post by **Steve1956** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:15 pm

ClaretTony wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:12 pm
It's what was needed at the time

I honestly dont believe Mullen gets enough credit from some of our support...they were darks days and the way it all ended for him was a disgrace.....has he never been back?

ElectroClaret · Post by **ElectroClaret** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:16 pm

Actually, thinking back to the York game, the winning goal probably summed up the football then.
Long ball out of defence to the left wing, Conroy sped to the byline, and a smart cross for SJF to finish.

Certainly effective.

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:22 pm

Steve1956 wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:15 pm
I honestly dont believe Mullen gets enough credit from some of our support...they were darks days and the way it all ended for him was a disgrace.....has he never been back?

Yes he's been back, been to a couple of dinners as I know of. I think the biggest problem he ultimately had was with the players.

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:23 pm

ElectroClaret wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:16 pm
Actually, thinking back to the York game, the winning goal probably summed up the football then.
Long ball out of defence to the left wing, Conroy sped to the byline, and a smart cross for SJF to finish.

Certainly effective.

And memorable - what a night that was.

claretspice · Post by **claretspice** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:33 pm

There are two thoughts that I have about Mullen - who remains the first Burnley manager I can really remember (I saw the back end of the Casper years, but only just) -

- I don't think any manager that I've seen since has genuinely appeared to be so honoured to be Burnley manager. He appears at times on the old clips I see to be a bit in awe of the club, the support it had in the lower divisions, and its stature. Even Stan, whose affection for Burnley was longer rooted, never quite seemed to be quite so in thrall to the club, its history and its traditions. Given he played 200+ games for arguably a bigger club in Sheffield Wednesday, that's always surprised me. But it probably also explains why he felt so reluctant to come back after he was sacked (a touch of the Adamsons in that sense).

- on the playing side, looking back now i'm sure the team that got out of Division 4 was pretty direct. However, the team that got out of Division 2 two years later was a bit different - in fact the set up, with Heath in a sort of "number 10" role, and Eyres as a roving, goalscoring left winger, was almost more akin to the sort of 4-2-3-1 set up that only really became fashionable years later. Had he signed a better left back than Vinnicombe, and a better striker than Liam Robinson, in the summer of 1994 (our attack never really seemed to have a focal point that season in Division 1), he might have kept the momentum rolling.

SalisburyClaret · Post by **SalisburyClaret** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:51 pm

Did a superb job of energising the club and the fans.
Shame it ended how it did but he seemed to lose the support of the players - especially Heath

TVC15 · Post by **TVC15** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 4:14 pm

It was an enjoyable time supporting Burnley for sure - we had been starved of any success and Mullen did a good job putting together a team that could challenge again. It was good to have a goal scorer like Mike Conroy who we got on the cheap and turns out to be an unexpected success.
That team was very direct but we later had skilful players like Sir David Eyres and Inchy was still a very clever and skilful player at that level too.

Tactics wise he wasn’t the best of managers and that’s why he often got found out. He also made a number of mistakes in the transfer market.
The signing of Liam Robinson was the worst one of the lot for me....signed from Bristol city for around £250k which was a lot of money for us back then. His scoring record at Bristol City was very poor but guess he has seen him do better at Bury before that. He played with zero confidence for us and offered us very little in terms of his overall play - couldn’t hold up the ball, little pace and he was small too so didn’t even win headers !

Sounds like Mullen had his own personal problems and wasn’t that well liked or respected by players or by people close to the club. As a fan I knew nothing of these issues at the time and I remember it as for the large part as an enjoyable time following us under Mullen.

Quickenthetempo · Post by **Quickenthetempo** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 5:28 pm

ClaretTony wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 2:10 pm
you can always pick out individual moments or goals, but overall we played the most basic of football, get it down the flanks quickly and get crosses in.

Blackburn won the premier league playing exactly the same way, as most teams played in that era.

Liverpool play a lot like it now as well.

Quickenthetempo · Post by **Quickenthetempo** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 5:32 pm

Edited

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 6:43 pm

Quickenthetempo wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 5:28 pm
Blackburn won the premier league playing exactly the same way, as most teams played in that era.

Liverpool play a lot like it now as well.

No team has ever won the Premier League playing that way and I can't believe you think Liverpool play anything like Mullen's team did. It worked to get us out of the fourth division.

MrTopTier · Post by **MrTopTier** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 7:13 pm

Loved the Jimmy Mullen era, some great days out.
As an aside not long after that Derby game I had a job interview in London and one of the tasks given was to read a favourite passage of literature or recite a poem for two minutes. Don’t think they were quite expecting me to read almost verbatim the piece by John Sadler.

bfcjg · Post by **bfcjg** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:26 pm

He got us out of the fourth and gave us such great moments for that he will always because legend to me.

Billyblah · Post by **Billyblah** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:52 pm

"Jimmy Mullens Claret and Blue Army "
Having watched the Clarets since the mid 70's and the downward spiral, Jimmy Mullen was, for me, the first manager since the old First Div able to instil a positive culture in the club and excitement on the pitch.
Well done Jimmy.

djemba-djemba · Post by **djemba-djemba** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:57 pm

MrTopTier wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 7:13 pm
Loved the Jimmy Mullen era, some great days out.
As an aside not long after that Derby game I had a job interview in London and one of the tasks given was to read a favourite passage of literature or recite a poem for two minutes. Don’t think they were quite expecting me to read almost verbatim the piece by John Sadler.

Did you get the job?

djemba-djemba · Post by **djemba-djemba** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:59 pm

ClaretTony wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 6:43 pm
No team has ever won the Premier League playing that way and I can't believe you think Liverpool play anything like Mullen's team did. It worked to get us out of the fourth division.

This is a genuine question, I'm not a wind-up merchant like some on the site, but why does it aggravate you so much when others disagree about the quality of the football played under Jimmy Mullen?

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 9:37 pm

djemba-djemba wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:59 pm
This is a genuine question, I'm not a wind-up merchant like some on the site, but why does it aggravate you so much when others disagree about the quality of the football played under Jimmy Mullen?

It doesn't aggravate me - but it has to be challenged when someone likens our 4th division football to what Liverpool are playing now. It was fantastic at the time because it started moving the club forward but let's not kid ourselves about the style of football we played to get out of that division.

MrTopTier · Post by **MrTopTier** » Mon Jun 15, 2020 10:26 pm

djemba-djemba wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:57 pm
[quote=MrTopTier post_id=<a href="tel:1295387">1295387</a> time=<a href="tel:1592244833">1592244833</a> user_id=263]
Loved the Jimmy Mullen era, some great days out.
As an aside not long after that Derby game I had a job interview in London and one of the tasks given was to read a favourite passage of literature or recite a poem for two minutes. Don’t think they were quite expecting me to read almost verbatim the piece by John Sadler.

Did you get the job?

No

BurnleyPaul · Post by **BurnleyPaul** » Tue Jun 16, 2020 1:26 am

Herts Clarets wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:52 pm
Deleted

Probably a sensible move to delete the comment Herts. All I can say is that there were plenty of bar staff from the club at that time who could tell similar stories...I think we all had them in fact!

Ah- those were the days; working for ‘Top Chef’

. There were some serious party animals amongst the players during this time period...

superdimitri · Post by **superdimitri** » Tue Jun 16, 2020 9:08 am

Judging from the culture back then I'm not surprised he had problems with drink. It wouldn't exactly be a good job to have if you were trying to get your consumption under control.

I feel the need for a beer before watching games too ease the nerves. For a manager I bet the pressure is almost unbearable. Then you have all the post game stuff..

He may not have been liked by the players but you don't need to be liked to be a good manager. I doubt anyone really liked being managed off the pitch by the likes of Clough, Ferguson or Mourinho much. If the results come in so does the respect.

ElectroClaret · Post by **ElectroClaret** » Tue Jun 16, 2020 9:35 am

ClaretTony wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:22 pm
Yes he's been back, been to a couple of dinners as I know of. I think the biggest problem he ultimately had was with the players.

Wasn't there a plan some years back being floated for him to do the half time draw at a game, but it didn't come off,
for whatever reason? Seem to remember that.

Would have been a great reception from the crowd for him, I'm sure.

claretabroad · Post by **claretabroad** » Tue Jun 16, 2020 9:42 am

He returned hope to us after such a long time and for that we should be forever thankful. That championship season was painful though.

BurnleyBob · Post by **BurnleyBob** » Tue Jun 16, 2020 10:31 am

The contribution of Jimmy Mullen, Stan Ternent, Steve Cotterill and Owen Coyle made to the club alongside that of Sean Dyche should be be formally
recognised by the club in some way. From the bottom of Division 4 to 10th in the Premier League has been achieved by the efforts of a lot people over the last 30 years. These past managers deserve recognition for their contribution to the club's standing today.

AfloatinClaret · Post by **AfloatinClaret** » Tue Jun 16, 2020 2:29 pm

Quickenthetempo wrote: ↑
Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:15 pm
...He just took us too far, getting to the championship when the club was nowhere near ready for it...

I couldn't agree more, I recall driving away from Wembley after the Stockport game and saying: "Fantastic day out but we're going to get hammered next season."
I read comments questioning the quality of JM's signings and feel that these fail to make fair allowance for the situation: We were unexpectedly promoted to Div. 1 - let's be honest, we were far and away the weakest of the four play-off sides that year - with a side that wasn't even close to being good enough to compete at that level, but didn't have the budget available to buy our way to that level, the board did the best they could, but we were deservedly, straight back down and having overspent the previous summer in a vain attempt to stay in D1, we then didn't even have the cash to fund a decent Div 2 side.
I have always believed that had Burnley lost to Stockport in 1994 we would have instead been promoted in 95 or at worst 96 (very probably with JM still managing us) and strong enough to stay there; beating Stockport actually delayed our establishment as a D1 club and therefore our subsequent return to the Championship/Premiership.

Silkyskills1 · Post by **Silkyskills1** » Tue Jun 16, 2020 3:03 pm

Just checked final league table for 94-95 and the bottom 4 were well adrift of the next side,Sunderland. We were 3rd bottom and 8 points behind Sunderland whilst the bottom club was 14 points adrift.

claretspice · Post by **claretspice** » Tue Jun 16, 2020 3:30 pm

We were a bit unlucky that season though in that 4 went down as part of the restructuring of the premier league to 20 teams.

Felt a bit as though we lost our way a bit - whether Liam Robinson was first choice to sign up front or not we'll never know, but with a better focal point to our attack (I'm fairly sure we were extensively linked with Wayne Allison, but ended up with Robinson and the pretty inadequate John Gayle as an Allison-lite type up front) and more quality at left back, I don't know if we'd have been so far away from being good enough to stay up, even if it was always going to be a struggle.

Quickenthetempo · Post by **Quickenthetempo** » Tue Jun 16, 2020 3:43 pm

AfloatinClaret wrote: ↑
Tue Jun 16, 2020 2:29 pm
I couldn't agree more, I recall driving away from Wembley after the Stockport game and saying: "Fantastic day out but we're going to get hammered next season."
I read comments questioning the quality of JM's signings and feel that these fail to make fair allowance for the situation: We were unexpectedly promoted to Div. 1 - let's be honest, we were far and away the weakest of the four play-off sides that year - with a side that wasn't even close to being good enough to compete at that level, but didn't have the budget available to buy our way to that level, the board did the best they could, but we were deservedly, straight back down and having overspent the previous summer in a vain attempt to stay in D1, we then didn't even have the cash to fund a decent Div 2 side.
I have always believed that had Burnley lost to Stockport in 1994 we would have instead been promoted in 95 or at worst 96 (very probably with JM still managing us) and strong enough to stay there; beating Stockport actually delayed our establishment as a D1 club and therefore our subsequent return to the Championship/Premiership.

Teasdale allegedly said at the final whistle of Wembley 'what have you gone and done? Promotion will bankrupt us.'