Jim proved to be one of Fergie’s first bargain buys
Managers are hard at work right now, recruiting players for the new season.
It’s a bit easier to attract the men you want if your club has plenty of cash.
But lower- league bosses often have to offer something a little bit different.
Sir Alex Ferguson was putting together his first-ever squad at the end of June, 1974. He’d recently been appointed as manager of East Stirling at the age of just 32.
His top priority was to make best use of a £2000 transfer budget.
There were only eight players, and no goalkeeper, when he arrived at Firs Park. Most of the cash was spent on Clyde centreforward Billy Hulston.
Then Fergie started scanning the list of free transfers.
Striker Jim Mullin was one of three players who’d recently been released by Partick Thistle, and he caught the fledgling manager’s eye.
Jim recalled: “Fergie came to see me, and the main selling point was that he said I’d get a game.
“He hadn’t actually seen me play, but he’d done his homework and been told I could do a good job.
“That was a boost to my confidence at a time when I was still trying to get over the disappointment of Thistle letting me go.
“I’d really enjoyed my time at Firhill. But I didn’t feature in the first- team as often as I would have liked.
“I was a penalty-box player, and it was hard to get a game ahead of men like Frank Coulston and Jimmy Bone.
“My former Thistle team-mates – goalkeeper Tom Gourlay and George Adams – also joined East Stirling.
“There wasn’t much money left in the kitty for us. I think we got about £ 300 each as a signing-on fee.
“Although Fergie only spent around five months with the club before leaving for St Mirren, he completely reshaped the way things operated.
“He clearly had strong ideas on the way he wanted to manage. But there was no way of knowing he would be so successful. “I remember being with George Adams in 1999 when Manchester United won the Champions League Final in Barcelona.
“We agreed that, 25 years earlier, people would have laughed if you’d suggested Fergie would have that success.”
Jim was one of the scorers when East Stirling beat Fergie’s St Mirren team 5- 0 at the end of that 1974-75 season.
He said: “Scottish football was being reconstructed into smaller leagues, and St Mirren had already secured sixth position in Division Two. But I’m sure Fergie wasn’t pleased.” Jim started his football career at West Ham. He went on: “I was only 16 when I went to London, and I suffered from homesickness. “Ron Greenwood was very good to me and gave me a week back home once every six weeks.
“I only played one game for the first- team, and that was in a testimonial.
“Youth coach, John Lyall, tried to persuade me to stay for another year but I missed the family. “I came back to Glasgow to play for Eastercraigs, and then joined Partick Thistle.
“I played in one game in the run to Thistle beating Celtic 4-1 in the 1971 League Cup final. “It was an amazing victory at Hampden Park. “We were sitting in the second row from the front in the main stand.
“I don’t think my wife saw any of the goals because our centre- half, Nobby Clark, was sitting in the row in front and was on his feet every time the ball went near the goal!
“They were a great bunch of boys and it’s always great to see them again.”
Jim played with Dunfermline for four seasons after his time with East Stirling.
Since then, he’s had a variety of coaching and scouting roles in senior football, and is currently director of football at East Kilbride.