Interview

Interview with Lee Bullen | March 2005

AnzOwls was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to fire some questions at Owls captain Lee Bullen in March 2005. Bullen joined the Owls in July 2004 and in his first season at the club helped Wednesday gain promotion back to the Championship.

The interview was conducted by a representative of SWFC on behalf of AnzOwls.com, we thank Lee for his time.

Lee, who did you support as a kid, and who were your idols?
I was a Hearts fan, born in Edinburgh and my Dad was a Hearts fan so I was brought up supporting the Maroon half of Edinburgh. At that time we had a striker called John Robertson who'd have been my idol of that team, but over all time it'd be Kenny Dalglish...so that leads me to be a Liverpool fan too so I hope they beat Chelsea in the second leg.

You spent the majority of your days as a footballer at Dunfermline Athletic, but also spent time in Australia, Hong Kong and Greece. Can you give us a quick insight into your career before you came to Hillsborough.
Basically I played semi-professional football up in Scotland as an 18/19 year old with a team called Meadowbank and fell out with the manager there, got a wee bit disgruntled with football in general and decided to go and do a bit of travelling. I had family in Australia and knew a guy who was coaching over there so I went over there for a year. I did really well and was approached by an agent and asked if I fancied Hong Kong. Went to Hong Kong, that was the first in full-time football and things went well and stayed there for about five years.

I played against England just before Euro '96 and after the game I was approached by a Greek man who owned a club in Greece and his head office for his business was in Hong Kong due to cheaper tax laws etc. So he offered me the opportunity to go to Greece, which I accepted. I played two years there and then decided to head back to the UK where I was looking to play in England but Dunfermline offered me the first opportunity and everything worked out well and I had a good four and a half years at Dunfermline.

When did you first hear that Wednesday were interested in you, and were there any other offers on the table at that stage?
Just at the end of 2003/04 season. The manager's future at Dunfermline was up in the air and I didn't really know what was happening, and I felt a little in and out of the team so I decided to look elsewhere. At one stage I felt my future lay with another club in Scotland but then Wednesday showed an interest. I spoke to Peter Eustace and was excited about the opportunity of playing in England for the first time and at a club the size of Wednesday.

How did you find settling into things at Hillsborough?
It's been very easy settling in at Hillsborough. Obviously from a football side of things there's a lot of pressure at the club but that's something I looked forward to when I came down, I knew there was going to be big crowds and it's not something I've played in front of, well, I've played in front of Rangers and Celtic but it's different having a big fan base behind you instead of against you! The players have been fantastic in helping me settle in. I came down by myself so it was good that there were a few young boys around who were also single so I could spent a bit of time with them. So, to be honest with you, it's been very easy.

What was your view on Sheffield Wednesday before making the move south? Has that altered since then?
I knew they were a big club that had fallen down the leagues a little bit, but I didn't realise quite how big until I came down and ran out on the first game of the season and heard the crowd. It's a magnificent place to be and no disrespect to the other teams in this league but we're big fish in a small pond.

You penned a one year deal with Wednesday last summer - are there desires to extend that contract at this stage?
I think anyone would be keen to stay at a club that have been relatively successful. Ok, we've only taken the first step on the ladder but we've got an opportunity of maybe going further this season and if not then, I feel, definately major contenders next year. But at the moment I've come down with a contract with the aim of promotion and that's the only thing I'm looking at at the moment. As soon as that's taken care of one way or another then I can speak to the manager further about what the future holds.

You must be thrilled with the way the season has gone since Paul Sturrock took over as manager. Can you give us an insight into his initial influence and the changes he implemented around the club upon his arrival?
I'd agree with that - everybody's been thrilled after Paul Sturrock came in. I felt Chris (Turner) had a difficult job right from the start having a massive turnaround of players so it was always going to be a bit up and down performance wise. But since Paul's come in he's used his experience at this level of football to point the team and the players in the right direction of how to get results at this level and that's been proven with the results so far, and it's given us the opportunity now to hopefully make it into the play-offs. Before the season if you'd have offered any Wednesday fan fifth place with two games to go they'd snap your hands off, it's an exciting time to be around the club and we're hoping we can go those two steps further and get through the Semi's and into the Final.

If Wednesday were to miss out on the play-offs now, it would be seen as a slight disaster (touch wood). The thought of making it to the play-off final and playing infront of a massive crowd must be mouth-watering as a player. How are the players coping with the expectations at this stage?
We've got a very very young squad and I think we've been outstanding, there's been a lot of growing up had to be done by the younger players around the place. When you take away two or three of the first team squad the majority of the players are 24 and under. For the majority of them it's their first season of regular first team football and league football and I think they've adapted tremendously well. It's easy to say we're not thinking about the play-offs at the moment and that we're taking it one game at a time, but I think it's only natural for people to dream of getting to that final and that's why everybody's getting so excited.
But we've got to try and keep our feet on the ground but at the back of everybody's mind they can picture themselves at that final. I'd be lying if I said the players weren't thinking about it.

Most pleasing moment in the season so far?
Being given the captaincy by Paul Sturrock. I'd hand the armband back to Chris (Marsden) now if he was able to play especially with his experience and influence around the place. It was disappointing when he had to make the difficult decision that he did but when the manager offered me the armband...it's something I'll always be proud of.

Most disappointing moment in the season so far?
The mistake in the last minute at Bradford (Match Report here). Everybody makes mistakes but it was just so unfortunate at that stage of the game that I never even had time to make amends, it was the last minute. It was a sore one and obviously when you've got 23,000 fans boo'ing you it's not a nice feeling but I think we've reacted well and personally I think I've reacted ok and just got on with it.

Give us an insight into the lads. Who are the real characters, the jokers? Who are the quiet ones?
As I said, there's a lot of young lads there. There's a few nervous ones there when they come into the changing room but there are a few who like a joke. The boys who get up to no good are the injured ones - Graeme Lee, Adam Proudlock, Lee Peacock. They're the type of guys who when you come in there's vaseline over the door handle, your car's been moved out of the carpark and you think it's been stolen...that kind of thing. The quiet ones I'd say are Chrissy Brunt, Adamson the Reserve keeper - they sort of keep themselves to themselves but they're not averse to having a bit of fun as well.

Any secrets or embarrassing behind-the-scenes moments we should know about?
No comment on that. (Laughs) I don't have anything to say about that!

Who do you pair up with on away days?
Normally Graeme Lee but he's been injured recently so it's been Craig Rocastle since he's come into the team. I think we've only had five or six away games that we've stayed overnight anyway so I don't have to put up with the two of them for too long.

Have you got a nickname in the squad? (that can be published!)
Bully - that's it. Short and sweet.

It's a well known fact that this current Wednesday team is a young one. Are there any of those youngsters in the squad that you think have made particularly good progress this season?
For me I really like Chris Brunt as a player. I feel the manager is quite hard on him but I think it's only because he can see the real talent that the kid has. Jon Paul McGovern's been an ever present this season and if we could get a tongue strap for him to stop him moaning and shouting it'd be even better, but you can see he's got real talent and he's got something not many people have these days and that's the ability to take on a man and beat him. I'd hate to play against him personally. I think Drew Talbot deserves a bit of a mention. He came into the team under a bit of pressure and nicked a couple of goals.

But I think overall Glenn Whelan has come from Reserve or Youth team football at Man.City and he wouldn't be far off my Player of the Season so far

You've marked many a player in your time, but was there someone who made your life miserable for 90 minutes?
Henrik Larsson at Celtic. I actually felt I played pretty well that day but he scored two. He was very quiet during the game but just popped up in the six yard box a couple of times and scored two, and I think they went on to beat us 4-0. I think that's the sign of a top, top player when you think you've got them in your pocket and they just get away from you.

Best player in the world today?
Zinedine Zidane.

Best player of all time?
As I mentioned before, Kenny Dalglish.

Your Dream Team?
GK - Schmeichel RB - Cafu LB - Maldini CB - Ferdinand CB - Thuram RM - Beckham CM - Zidane CM - Maradona LM - Giggs / Robben / Duff ST - van Basten ST - Shevchenko / Dalglish