Boss Paul Jewell has dismissed Hull City's head of football operations Adam Pearson’s claim that Town are paying £20,000 towards loan signing Jimmy Bullard’s £45,000 weekly wage. Writing in Hull’s programme for their 2-2 draw with Leeds on Tuesday, Pearson said that the Blues were paying £321,480 towards Bullard’s salary during his time at Portman Road.
Jewell said: "Everyone talks about his money and I have to say Adam Pearson’s figures have never been that good, but the figures that he’s quoted saying that we’re paying Jimmy are certainly way off.
"I’m a big fan of Adam Pearson’s, I worked with him [at Derby], he’s terrific, but he’s got his figures wrong there.”
Jewell says the Blues are not paying a loan fee for the 32-year-old, who remains contracted to Hull until the summer of 2013 as part of a £5 million move from Fulham during the Tigers’ time in the Premier League, prior to Pearson’s involvement with the East Yorkshiremen.
Town have not officially commented on their share of Bullard’s earnings but sources within the club have hinted at a figure close to the £10,000-a-week initially reported by the Hull Daily Mail which led to Pearson to make an earlier comment on the issue.
Jewell says it helps having Bullard’s optimistic and outgoing approach to life around a club: "He’s a very positive person, obviously he’s had a couple of bad injuries at Hull, but in the two or three years I had him at Wigan I don’t think he ever missed a training session. And you certainly knew he was in.
"He was just infectious. You want to strangle him at times, but he’s a positive person and he wants to play football. He’s missed a lot of football.
"He’s a positive person and he will have a positive effect on training and around the place, and more importantly on the game.”