Wigan Athletic midfielder Jimmy Bullard has agreed to join Fulham on a four-year deal from the 8th of May.
Wigan manager Paul Jewell told his club’s official website: “Jimmy’s agent has alerted clubs as to the figure any prospective club needs to bid, and in the end it’s Jimmy’s decision to go.
“If a player decides to leave, it is best if he does. I have always said there’s no point keeping unhappy players, or at least players who want to move. It’s all come out of the blue. The timing is not the best but I understand that Fulham wanted to move quickly and not lose their man.”
On Bullard’s get-out clause, he said: “He would not have signed the new contract had it not been in there, and the alternative was having him walk away for nothing when his old contract expired at the end of this season. We had the same situation with Nathan Ellington and a similar clause was removed from Pascal Chimbonda’s contract earlier this season.”
He added: “Jimmy is sad to go but he sees this as the next step in his career.
“We don’t want him to go but wish him all the best for the future.”
He continued: “If we had decided to match Fulham’s wage offer, then maybe we could have kept hold of him but I didn’t want to set a dangerous precedent and be held to ransom. That would be extremely unhealthy.
“We’re getting ten times what we paid for him. Jimmy’s been fantastic for us, he’s not missed a game, he’s a great lad but once someone says he wants to leave, and there’s a clause in his contract to say he can, what can we do?
“He’s a good player, but so was Arjan de Zeeuw when he left the first time, so was Jason De Vos, so was Roy Carroll, so was Nathan Ellington. We got over those disappointments and came back stronger.”