226: Steve Bull, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Pro Set English League 1991/92

Richard Allinson takes a look today at a man who was a goalscoring sensation in the Black Country long before the Premier League days. In a time when forays into Europe were only a pipedream and before Molineux was graced with the likes of Raul Jimenez, Adama Traore and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake there was the one and only Steve Bull. Over to Rich.

Over the years, the English national side has been blessed with some of the best strikers of their era: Lofthouse, Finney, Greaves, Hurst, Keegan, Lineker, Shearer, Owen and Kane. A man that rarely enters the thinking is Steve Bull. Therefore, in lieu of an appearance on a quickly cobbled together Channel 5 programme called something like ‘England’s Greatest Goal Getters’ (which would inevitably conclude that Merseyside’s most successful potato was in fact the best) Bully will have to settle for a post on this blog. Sorry Steve.

Despite playing in the third tier of English football at the time, Steve Bull won the first of his 13 England caps in May 1989, coming on as a substitute for the injured John Fashanu against Scotland. Presumably Fash had to go off with an injured elbow after a Scottish centre half had ruthlessly rammed his jaw into it. Bully scored in this game, immediately putting him on a par with one cap, one goal legend David Nugent. Unlike Nugent, Bull continued his good start to life in international football by scoring a couple against Czechoslovakia as well as one against Tunisia - his final goal for the Three Lions. This was enough to earn him a place in a New Order music video and a plane ticket to Italy, both by-products of being picked as part of Bobby Robson’s World Cup squad. Bull played four times during Italia ‘90 without finding the back of the net. On the plus side, he also didn’t shit himself mid-match like Gary Lineker so his tournament can still be considered something of a success. 

Away from the international arena, Bull’s record at club level was remarkable - he plundered 271 goals in 504 games. Although he wasn’t a one-club man he might as well have been. Ask anyone about Steve Bull and they are unlikely to reply “you mean the guy that played six games for Hereford?” To most, Bully is Mr Wolverhampton Wanderers. His career is so synonymous with the club that there is a stand at Molineux named after him and in 2018 he was made a freeman of the Black Country city. In his thirteen years at Wolves, Bull scored 250 goals in 474 games including an unbelievable 18 hat-tricks, the last of which was against my beloved Grimsby Town in 1996. The Wolverhampton Wanderers that Bull joined in 1986 was a far cry from the Europa League bothering side of today. They were in the bottom tier of English football at the time and despite Bull netting 15 league goals it wasn’t enough to guide his side to promotion. The next season he stepped up his goal scoring game and battered in 52 goals in all competitions as Wolves took the Fourth Division title. The following year he did pretty much exactly the same, scoring 50 goals as the club secured back-to-back promotions. 102 goals in 2 seasons - it is the stuff that Championship Manager dreams are made of. 

The following season saw Bull start a relationship with the Second Division of English football which would last until his retirement. In fact, Bull only appeared in the top division once and even then this was as a substitute for West Bromwich Albion in his early days. It wasn’t as if Bull was without his opportunities though. Howard Wilkinson attempted to sign him for his Leeds United squad that would eventually go on to win the ‘old’ Division One title. Following on from this Ron Atkinson tried to sign Bully for Coventry City and Wolves boss Graham Taylor had agreed to the deal. It all looked like it was going ahead until the local press and Wolves’ fans kicked up a fuss and the transfer was called off. In the modern era this would no doubt be classed as a people driven rebellion highlighting the power of unity and social media. However, the 90s were a simpler time where a local journalist and some beer bellied blokes had a bit of a moan and it worked. As a side note, Graham Taylor clearly liked Steve Bull as much as he did German referees. He dropped him from the England squad and tried to sell him. Maybe Bully wanted to knock it...

On his retirement Bull was awarded an MBE for services to Association Football and was considered a cult hero nationwide. Not bad for someone who was ostensibly a lower league player. Post retirement, Bull set up the Steve Bull Foundation which aims to provide charitable support to organisations in the Black Country and wider West Midlands to assist young people, the disabled, the homeless and the disadvantaged. He also has his own website and an app with a quiz on his own career (which I should have completed for research purposes, but I couldn’t be arsed). Steve also offers to record personalised video messages to fans and will even make phone calls to supporters for their birthdays. To complete the set, he also does his own line of signed Steve Bull birthday cards. On top of this he has also been running Bully’s Supper Club for the last couple of years - basic premise: have your tea with Steve Bull. 

There you go then. Steve Bull a really good bloke who scored a lot of goals. You can’t beat a bit of Bully...