Midfielder Jimmy Bullard has been on the phone to Portman Road trying to find out what’s going on since being suspended for his night out in Newcastle and subsequent late arrival at training last week. Assistant boss Chris Hutchings says Bullard and Michael Chopra showed disrespect to their team-mates and everyone at the club.

Hutchings said: “I know that he’s was phoning people at the club when we were playing last week, wanting to know the score and wanting to know how everything is going.

“Jimmy loves football and the hardest thing for Jimmy is to be away from football. We’ve had to make a stand and that’s the stand we took. He has to abide by that and he hasn’t got long before he’s back. He’ll be chomping at the bit.”

Bullard will be back at Playford Road after completing his suspension next Friday with Hutchings feeling that the 33-year-old and Chopra, who was fined, owe everyone else at Portman Road after their indiscretion: “It’s disrespect, not only to his team-mates but to himself and the staff, everybody at the football club.

“Michael Chopra’s the same, they know they’ve let people down and they’ve got to repay us now.”

Meanwhile, the former full-back says the Blues management team will be out searching for prospective signings next week: “We’re always looking. At this moment in time it’s OK.

“We’re constantly out at games, we’ve all been at games through the weeks. We’ll be going next week because it’s a bit of a free week for us, so we’ll be monitoring players and going to games.”

Elsewhere, Lee Martin missed out on the Championship Player of the Month award for February, the gong going to Reading keeper Adam Federici. Martin was nominated alongside the Australian glovesman and Southampton striker Rickie Lambert. Ex-Blue Dean Bowditch won the League One award.

Photo: Action Images

parkinshair added 11:04 - Mar 9 "Phoning people at the club while we were playing wanting to know the score" Can't he just look on the red button or buy a radio?
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BlueBailey24 added 11:31 - Mar 9 I was thinking that. surely he wouldn't be calling the club to find the score when he can literally check anywhere for it. Unless he was hoping it would make the news and make him look like he is dedicated and committed? Either way I love the guy, great character!
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yorksblue added 11:38 - Mar 9 Great character, but he's done absolutely nothing on the pitch this season. Shame!
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Thetruth added 11:40 - Mar 9 Bullard calling in..........what a joke Saw his mug on Twitter last night living it up in Vegas.!!!! He must really be hurting about being away from football in Vegas Really and truly why did we sign Jimmy Bullard and pay him £18 grand a week, I would rather see 4 hungry young players here than him!! Luke Hyam and Andy Drury are more deserving....!! HULL & ITFC - Mugged

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Mick_Mills_Tache added 11:46 - Mar 9 As much as Jimmy is a legend and a great character to have in the dressing room, he is far too expensive for him to be that! He's not shown any of that hunger to be playing football and he's not shown his class since he signed a permanent deal. Yes we were all raging about signing him up, but on what is likely to be £20,000+ a week and for him to not perform at all and show no real commitment to trying to repay us on the gamble we took with him is wrong, he needs to go. Especially with this FFP rule coming in. I expect Hull would love it if we cancelled his contract too because it'd only help their defense in their court case with Jimmy. I want to see what this Stevenson can do....might prove to be another great bit of business by PJ!

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thechangingman added 11:51 - Mar 9 TheTruth: In my opinion you absolutely live up to your name on this one... Sad to say that we have been well and truly turned over by this bloke... (I hold up my hands and say that I was conned too...) Let's just hope that we live and learn... Yes to 'young and hungry' rather than 'old and lazy and wanting one-last-dinner-ticket...' Sigh...
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PSGBlue added 12:05 - Mar 9 Don't want Bullard back - he has done nothing for us this season except take home £18k a week. The current midfield works much better as a team than Bullard ever did as an individual. Its always said in his defence that he is the life and soul of the dressing room. Wrong he is a bad distraction to those who want to take football seriously at this club. Keep him away from the likes of Cresswell, Carson and Hyam he won't do them any good with his party antics. We want players who want to better themselves as athletes and proffesionals, the last thing you need in our squad is an idiot like Bullard.

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Surco72 added 12:09 - Mar 9 I am a big Bullard fan but he now needs to get his head down and put in some big training sessions and games to prove his worth ,or disappear into a bottle of bubbly and leave the club .As stated above on a lot of money just to lift team morale as a joker
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Rob_ITFC added 12:37 - Mar 9 Would some of you listen to yourselves - Jimmy has the most quality out of anyone in our squad, he was our best player last season despite playing only 16 games. He had a few bad games, got dropped and hasn't been able to get back in the team...Who knows we may have even played just as well with him in the team over the last few weeks. Some fans are so fickle it's ridiculous. As as for him ringing to find out the 'score' this is clearly just a figure of speech from Hutchings and not actually Jimmy ringing up to see what a result was. IDIOTS!

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Somersetractor added 12:38 - Mar 9 The thong is, is he's probably got two years left him in. He can go on the lash for the rest of his life. You're a long time,stopped. Pull your finger out jimmy ffs.
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Thetruth added 12:43 - Mar 9 Rob ITFC Did I doubt Bullards Ability?? My point is this, Bullard took the mick out of the club, went on a night out disrespected everyone and is the highest earner at this club. They keep banging on in these stories about him missing football, checking in for results, its utter rubbish. Bullard is in Vegas, and was stupid enough to have someone take a picture of him last night. He must be really concerned about ITFC in Vegas Nothing fickle about it - This man on the wages he earns should live and breathe this club and at the absolute minimum be on time for training. 33 years old - Robbed Hull City and is now robbing us blind - Great guy So in response to your Idiot comment maybe you should think about it rather than talking about how great he was when he came here last season!!! For 18 grand a week I expect more and so should you

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Rob_ITFC added 12:51 - Mar 9 How do you know he was actually in Vegas this week?
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Big_Foot_Blue added 12:59 - Mar 9 He can't be in Vegas, he has to give an address to the football league everyday for drugs testing... Paul Jewell confirmed this shortly after his suspension
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WillTheBlue added 13:04 - Mar 9 All you people slaging jimmy of are the mugs! Don't get me wrong, he has been sh*t all season and it is wrong that he went out on the piss in mid week. But whay you all have to rember is if it wasn't for him last season there is a good chance we could be watching league 1 footy. And how come Chopra is sudenly a hero again? Cose he scored against Bristol City? Can you not think for one minute he might be ringing is cose he wants to get back in the game and make it up to all the town fans?? And the only reason people think he was in vegas is cose of that c**k at the top saying he saw it on twitter which is probaly aload of lies! Im backing Rob ITFC, looks like me and him are the only 2 who back there team and aint slaggin them off all the time. FOOLS!!!

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northdevonblue added 13:09 - Mar 9 i love you jimmy
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WillTheBlue added 13:09 - Mar 9 Top Man^
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jas0999 added 13:18 - Mar 9 Jimmy Bullard is not good for this club - nor is he the future. However, although I can understand why PJ didn't want to suspend Chopra - for a number of reasons - just ask yourselves how you would feel if you and a colleague were in trouble at work and you were suspended but your colleague wasn't. If everyone is honest, they would be really hacked off. IMO this is shambolic management by Paul Jewell. Then again, Bullard is clearly a disruptive influence. His behaviour at Hull should have had alarm bells ringing. Hull fans warned us all. Now we will have the pay the consequences of signing him on a full time basis for two years. Jimmy did well for us on loan last year, but sadly he was just trying to win himself a contract somewhere ... now he's done that he simply doesn't care!

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WickedBlue added 13:22 - Mar 9 Gotta love the town fans....Have absolutely no facts but still set out to slate the guy. You don't even know how much he is getting paid it is all speculation. Hopefully this incident will kick start Bullards season. Onwards and upwards..........
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Warkys_Tash added 13:48 - Mar 9 Hutchings are you constantly looking for players? Prove it and get up to Ibrox and grab a couple of bargains then!!! Is Neil Alexander (do-do-do!) still sitting on the bench? Give him a trial and see if he still has it.. I see former Town youth player Ryan Bennett - a centre back- has signed for Narrrwich from Posh..
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Surco72 added 13:56 - Mar 9 Jas 0999 he is still better than Leadbitter
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buryblue77 added 14:01 - Mar 9 Bullard "what was the score boss?" Hutchings "1-1, but then you'd have known that had you not had your indescretion up in Newcastle" Bullard "ok boss, I'll see you next Friday when I get back from Vegas, p.s. tell Chops he'd love it out here" Is this what people think happened when he phoned in to find out 'the score'? He phoned in to find out what was going on, muppets!!! By all accounts, JB was the behind the night out, he was the leader so deserves the suspension and has to take it. Fining someone who earned £45k a week at Hull and is still on £18k a week here is not going to hurt him, it's like me being fined a tenner! Equally as Chops has had his gambling issues and is in the team and scoring, the last thing you'd want to do is to take away that momemtum and potentially allow him to go back to gambling as he would have a lot more time on his hands. Some people need to think about the bigger picture before they slate Jewell for his poor handling of the situation, if PJ wasn't a good man manager we wouldn't have had this turn around and Chops wouldn't have played so well in the Bristol game so soon after his punishment had been handed out by the manager!

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Thetruth added 14:13 - Mar 9 Will the blue For the benefit of you Take a look on twitter - @Baz19times Manchester City fan currently on holiday in Vegas - Nice little picture of him with his arm round hero Bullard with the title Me and Jimmy Bullard in Vegas Was posted last night Take a look and then re post The club are never going to admit he is in Vegas are they. Lets be honest he hasnt moved here from London so not the most commited of fellas considering the wage he is on. I will take your Fool comment with a pinch of salt

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Thetruth added 14:23 - Mar 9 Also the team put together now is playing with a bit of heart and spirit because the midfield is filled with people who want to play for the club, these lads have turned our fortunes round. Drury and Hyam changed things because they have youth, pace and tenacity on their side and want to play, they kick started our run of fortune and the defence got their act together. We started the season with Bullard and Bowyer and had the run we had. I am disgusted only because we signed names and paid big money for them, at the end of their careers. Keep the lower league players with something to prove coming in, thats what this club needs, not players chasing the dollar

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alfromcol added 14:23 - Mar 9 Thetruth Where's the proof he was in Vegas, put up or shut up! Rob_ITFC Spot on, you have given the reasons why JB hasn't performed like last season. He is being kept out of the team by others who are playing well. He is still a class act and will continue to be so for another couple of seasons at least.
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arc added 14:38 - Mar 9 And when he comes back, he won't be match fit. He should have been coming in to Playford Road every day and running laps. My wish for Jimmy is that an MLS team will come in for him over the summer. He'd be great in the US. Best for all involved.
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