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'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.

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