Chris Baird, Jimmy Bullard and a nut!

The Soccer AM co-host, who played for Wigan Athletic, Fulham, Hull City and Ipswich Town, always seemed to have a smile on his face when he took to the pitch.

The 41-year-old loved winding up his team-mates and the opposition.

Bullard's managers weren’t even safe, who can remember him taking the mickey out of Phil Brown after scoring for Hull at Manchester City.

His reputation definitely precedes him. But it also nearly cost him too following a prank on a former Northern Ireland international.

Chris Baird was the victim this time, but Bullard was innocent this time round as his former Fulham team-mate Danny Murphy revealed on TalkSport.

“He’s a wind-up merchant, you would spend a lot of your time on the pitch protecting him from other players who wanted to kick him up in the air,” Murphy said of Bullard when discussing Fulham’s escape from relegation in 2008 with Natalie Sawyer.

“He is one of those cheeky cockney guys who doesn’t shut up and is constantly in your ear.

“It could be about the way you look or something you had been up to in the press during the week.

“He would be at people all the time and wind people up non-stop.

“If I played against Jimmy, because I knew him, it was easier just to ignore him. I used to giggle to myself listening to him.

“He was always lively in the dressing room.

“I got him in trouble one time. A few years ago we were playing with Chris Baird, he was a good player, but a tough lad from Northern Ireland.

“They had had a few little to-dos in training.

“We were on the coach for a long journey, I think it was Bristol Rovers away in a cup game.

“Jimmy was always the joker and always the one messing around.

“So everyone is nodding off (on the bus). We used to get these nuts for snacks and one of them was a bit big and I kind of threw it around the corner from where Jimmy was sitting.

“It hit ‘Bairdy’ right on the nose, you could hear it the bone of the nose.

“He woke up and he was like ‘Jimmy I’m going to smash you’.

“Jimmy was protesting his innocence while I was pretending to be asleep.

“A week or so later they had a kick off in training and ‘Bairdy’ ended up giving him a dig, but I think it was the knock on of that coach trip.

“I actually had to say to ‘Bairdy’ about three months later that it was me who did it.

“He was like “don’t worry about it, it’s no big deal’!”

Fulham performed the ‘Great Escape’ in 2008 as they somehow rescued themselves despite sitting 19th at the beginning of April, six points from safety with five games to play.

But escape they did as Bullard set up Murphy for a crucial win at Portsmouth on the final day of the season!

“I wasn’t supposed to be in there but I had a feeling and Jimmy put one right on the money,” explained Murphy.

“He’s a talented man, and was probably the biggest reason why we stayed up that year.

“He got us going and nothing got him down.

“Jimmy is a very unique, wonderful character. He was very energetic and uplifting for everybody.

“He was a 100-break snooker player, a scratch golfer, he was good at everything. He was one of those real Sports Billys,” added Murphy.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.ukand enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Irish and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Thank you,

Alistair Bushe

Editor