Time For Action, Callum

Forget all the grudges –and prove worth.

- Chris Dunlavy

TO TONY Pulis, Callum McManaman was a stain on his managerial CV, an expensive flop who failed to pull his weight at The Hawthorns.

To Callum McManaman, Tony Pulis is a pitiless tyrant who stunted his development and pulverised his Premier League dreams.

Neither would say so, of course, but it didn’t take Hercule Poirot to decode the final, frenzied minutes of Sunderland 3-3 draw with Middlesbrough last weekend.

McManaman, 26, celebrated his late leveller by making an angry beeline for the man who froze him out at West Brom.

Pulis, who paid Wigan £4.75m to make McManaman his first signing as Baggies boss in January 2015, offered a pithy riposte.

“I understand why he is frustrated,” deadpanned the 60-year-old. “He was at West Brom and I never picked him. He went on loan to Sheffield Wednesday and they didn’t pick him. Now he is at Sunderland and they don’t pick him!”

Ooh, Tony. Put those claws away. Now the pantomime is over, however, we are left with a serious question. Does Pulis have a point? Or was McManaman harshly treated?

Factually, that Pulis broadside hit the bullseye. Since departing the DW, McManaman has worked under four different managers – Pulis, Carlos Carvalhal during last season’s loan at Sheffield Wednesday, Simon Grayson, who signed him for Sunderland in August, and now Chris Coleman.