Sheffield Wednesday legend leaves managerial role as club condemns 'personal abuse'

As a player, Lee Bullen was the Owls' skipper for their famous 2005 League One play-off final win and spent many years in the club's coaching set-up both at senior and academy level, acting as caretaker manager on three separate occasions.

In January 2022 he left Middlewood Road after 11 years in his Wednesday coaching guise to take up the top job at Ayr United, guiding them to a second-place finish last season and qualification for the play-offs, where they lost heavily to Partick Thistle.

But this time out has proven to be more difficult and The Honest Men slipped to ninth in the Championship after a goalless draw at Arbroath over the weekend, a result that extended their poor run of form to one win in 11 league games. Bullen has recently been one of the figures faced with abuse in recent weeks, with a club statement making clear the abuse of Bullen both online and in stadiums as unjustifiable.

Reports of Bullen being likely to part ways with the club hit Ayrshire media on Sunday before the news was made official on Monday morning. Ayr chairman David Smith said: "It is undeniable that the club is unrecognisable from the one Lee walked in to over two years ago and this is testament to his work throughout his time as Head Coach.

"Lee embodies the #WeAreUnited and has been a terrific ambassador for the football club. He has delivered the on-field targets set by the board throughout his time in charge from avoiding relegation in the 2021/22 season, to overachieving on expectations with a 2nd place finish last season, in addition to generating a significant player sale for the first time in many years.

"The relationship with the Academy has never been stronger and much of that is down to Lee's time and effort in developing that link. Few will know the personal sacrifices he has made to make our club better.

"Despite having the obvious challenge of recruiting a new midfield given injuries at the start of the season, ultimately on-field results over a sustained period of time have not been good enough and it is with real regret that we have come to this decision."