he knows more than hes telling about probs at warr, bitter man

<Fx: Shakes head at this thread>

Great site, lads.

think it was "Warrington have had all the advice they'll ever need from me"

it did sound a bit of a sarky dig really

Why would we need advice of a coach who when he was here was basically a Failure

He does seem very bitter towards us and i don't know why. When he came here, he had the full backing of the fans, a brilliant and wealthy backer in Simon Moran and more time to achieve success than most oher coaches get. He failed, he knows it, and now he likes getting little digs at us as often as he can. I'm not anti-cullen, I gave him my full backing whilst he was in charge, but he wasn't up to the task of bringing success and finds himself back at a level where he will do a very good job.

I saw Boot's n All and i heard what Cullen said.....i took it as if he was saying he had told the club (board) what the issues within the club were...maybe which players are the bad apples etc (i assume at the time he was coaching)...he didn't come across as bitter at all.

His comments eluded to bigger issues at the club other than out of form players!

I don't think he came across as bitter at all, although I thought it was an extraordinary way to put it.

The reality is that Hemmings keeps asking him no win questions. If he backs off, as he did last night, he is accused of being bitter and making sly digs. If he offers his view, as he did on our defensive problems recently, he can (reasonably) be asked, if it's clear to him what the issues are, why didn't he sort them out when he was in charge.

In my view, he should have given a politician's answer: [i'Well, they've got Tony Smith on board now and I'm sure that along with Jimmy Lowes and the rest of the coaching staff, they'll be working hard to rectify the problems and I'm sure they will'. [/iNot great TV, and I'm sure he'll get lambasted for that too, but it's a sensible way forward until the distance between Cull and the current team is sufficiently large so he can say what he liked.

I took it the other way, I thought it was the measure of the man to keep his opinions to himself.

If he had given his opinion on what was going wrong (or some opinions as it is only an hour show) then I'm sure a similar thread would have started saying that as a Widnes coach it has nothing to do with him and he should keep his opinions to himself.

Looking on as a viewer I can't believe that he hasn't told Eddie off the air not to ask him questions such as that.

To me he is a man who is Wire through and through. He takes no pleasure in watching what is happening at your club. He is clearly aware of the problems off the field and I would imagine he informed your board of the problems.

Whatever they are they cost him his dream job ( which he might not have been upto ) and he is bound to be a bit bitter. Its not for him to offer advice now, as he did all that he could up until 12 months ago.

as the demics coach, he aint gonna confess his passion for warrington in public anymore (even though everyone knows it)
imo, eddies reaction made the comment sound more sinister than it was.

The players that are the so-calles bad apples are the ones that HE let get away with it for the five years he was in charge. Tony Smith will sort it out, Cullen wasn't strong enough to.

I'm not defending Cullen but it's easy to assume what has happened or not happened at your club...you assume Cullen let them get away with it when maybe he didn't have the backing of the club at the time? Who knows?

Cullen walked on water as far as most fans were concerned. He had the full backing of Moran and could basically have done as he pleased. He is bitter about losing his dream job when he simply wasn't up to it. He should have walked after the HKR defeat in the cup. I cannot believe some people want to exclude him from blame when it comes to talking about the so called 'culture' at the club.

I think it was more that Cullen was strong enough but the board wouldn't allow Paul to remove the bad apples for fear of bad press.

yep the news of the world incident springs to mind.

Why would it create bad press? If you sacked a player and told everyone the reasons why, it would show you to be a strong leader who was not to be messed with. The fact is, he wasn't.

Paul Cullen wanted to sack a player, the board wouldn't let him.

Can I say it any other way that you will understand, Paul Cullen had his hands tied by those higher up.

Ok, so why didn't he just drop the alleged player? He was still in charge of team selection, wasn't he? Or did the board pick the team too?

contracts and politics

i think you'd be surprised about the way he feels about warrington i bumped into him and asked him about coaching and that and he didn't launch into some anti warrington tirade but from what i heard he seemed to have a pretty bad taste in his mouth when it came to warrington

obviously he won't have forgotten they were his boyhood club etc etc but i don't think he has much passion for wire anymore

and i don't blame him i have no idea what went on behind the scenes but the way the "fans" bayed for his blood it upset me (after idolising cullen as a young lad) so i can't imagine how he felt

So he was forced to put a player's name on the team sheet? I'm not having that.

Moe. I am pretty sure that coaches before Cullen have been forced to play players.

Maybe in the past other players have done things they shouldn't and the club might have covered them up. when you try to get rid of other players they threaten to blow the house of cards down on everything that has gone on.

I didnt expect that reply from PC and had to do a double take. I dont think he sounds bitter just trying to enhance his reputation and putting the blame for our failings firmly on the toes of others.

Somebody brought up the Logan Swan thing again the other day and the way he retracted what he said makes me think that we have a very efficient public relations department.

Good post - I didn't see Boots, but you're spot on regarding 'we'll make a story out of this if you answer and if you don't'

As an outsider looking in, I took Cullens reply to be that his advice and recomendations were not put in place, maybe someone higher up wouldn't allow him to do what he wanted. What I would say to this tho in defence of the club, if this was the case Cullen should have set an ultimatum and walked not wait til the tide had turned against him and he was seen as the cause.

On the note that he should have walked after the HKR cup defeat, If I remember correctly he dropped Briers on the day of the game (if rumours are to be believed due to the night before) then this was cited as the reason for the loss, suppose a coach can't win...