Hull City and the oddest of odd seasons…

Supporters of Hull City AFC live in interesting times. Most F365 readers have heard of their harrowing fight against owner Assem Allam’s scheme to rename the club Hull Tigers. But there’s so much more. When fans sang “City till I die,” Allam memorably replied: “They can die whenever they want.” He and son Ehab instituted a hated membership scheme which abolished concession prices and told long-time City season ticket holders to “earn their stripes”.

There’s been a long desperate wait for the club to be sold, and protests and boycotts only led to the club openly blaming fan unrest for difficulty in closing a deal. Early this season, a member of the excellent Amber Nectar fan podcast summed it up best: when asked what ten things he wanted the Allams to do for the club, he replied “f*** off” and repeated it nine times. Few would disagree.

But although the off-pitch happenings will make a best-selling book in the East Riding someday, the on-pitch stories this year have in their own way been equally extraordinary. They provide an object lesson in…well, I’m not quite sure if there’s any kind of lesson, to be honest. But let’s take a look.

Only about three weeks before the season began, Steve Bruce, by some measures the most successful manager in the club’s history, abruptly resigned. Everyone knew the Allams were the cause. The club was left in even more chaos than usual, and assistant manager Mike Phelan, best known for his many years under Sir Alex Ferguson, was promoted to caretaker manager. But his cause seemed hopeless: injuries and under-investment had left the side with only 13 senior players, and there seemed hardly any plan for improving the squad. City were the mockery of English football, and no one anywhere expected anything but a long, soul-sucking slog to inevitable relegation.

The season started with a famous 2-1 victory over Leicester City. If we knew then what we know now, it might not have been so famous. But it was a real live well-deserved victory, featuring a fine save by Eldin Jakupovic and an excellent winning strike from Robert Snodgrass. When Hull followed that with a classic keep-things-tight away win against Swansea and a similar near draw at Manchester United, there was universal clamour to hire Phelan on a permanent basis. Typically, it took well over a month for the contract to get sorted, but at the time few doubted it was the right move. After all, if the club had started so well, imagine how they’d perform when Phelan had the full chance to implement his ideas.

Unfortunately, Phelan got the chance. And they were some of the strangest ideas ever seen on a football pitch. Basically, Hull passed the ball around a lot. And that was it. Occasionally they tried to get the ball to an attacker, but it seemed almost an afterthought. It was suicide by football. In defence, even worse: the side just sat back, and as such seemed incapable of stopping opponents from passing the ball between the lines. In mid-November the side were dead last in the league in preventing pass completions in all three zones of the field. Only when they fell behind did they start playing – sometimes not even then – and it was never enough.

The side had a few good performers. Snodgrass was a reliable attacker and a genuine dead-ball expert; Jake Livermore seemed reborn as a deep-lying midfielder; veteran Michael Dawson, coming back from injury, was blocking shots at ridiculous rates. But the late-August signings, on which sizeable hopes had rested, had done little. David Marshall in goal was inconsistent, and many fans wanted Jakupovic back. Dieumerci Mbokani thudded around the pitch impressively as always, but as always to little effect. Ryan Mason, the big signing from Spurs, seemed to have forgotten how to play football. But to be honest, with Phelan’s tactics – and he tried a number of formations – it really didn’t matter who was on the pitch.

Plummeting to the bottom of the table, City won only one game in three months, and it’s a good candidate for the weirdest result of the entire league season. Down 0-1 to a barely interested Southampton from an embarrassing early penalty, and absolutely supine for the first hour, somehow they won a throw-in in the attacking half. Out of nowhere, excellent passes by Mason and Sam Clucas got the ball to Snodgrass in the area, who struck home. Two minutes later a Snodgrass free kick was nodded in by Dawson. At which point the side once again sank from sight, miraculously holding on through a string of Marshall saves. Supporters said it was as incomprehensible a win as they’d ever seen.

Oddly, through all the league disasters, their luck actually held in the League Cup. A hard-fought win at Exeter City was followed by a last-minute win at a clearly superior Stoke, then a heroic stand with ten men and a win on penalties against Newcastle. It was as if the two competitions were taking place in different universes.

The nadir was reached at Middlesbrough in early December. Against the worst attacking team in the league, with three points both necessary and possible, Hull sat back again. Boro couldn’t break through from open play, but a 60th-minute corner did the business. A late flurry amounted to nothing, as usual. It was the twelfth straight game in which Hull had conceded the first goal.

Perhaps never in the history of football had 21 years of coaching experience seemed so thoroughly out of its depth. But the outcry after the Boro loss was so vehement that Phelan was jolted into action. He moved Snodgrass from the wing to the middle, settled on a three-man defence with young Harry Maguire in a starting role, and most importantly, instituted a high press. In their next match City went straight at Crystal Palace, scored first, and came within a few minutes of victory. The overnight transformation was astonishing. The next week they went toe to toe with Spurs at White Hart Lane and stayed close for an hour. Maguire started to make his mark; Tom Huddlestone was rounding into form. They really were playing like Tigers, even if the fans quite rightly preferred Hull City AFC.

But as good as the performances were, the results wouldn’t come. At the London Stadium, Hull were the better side for over an hour, and Mbokani should have opened the scoring – but they lost when Lee Mason awarded West Ham the softest of penalties. They then easily held off Manchester City until another penalty made the difference. Next they matched Everton, scoring on a set-piece and a classic Snodgrass free-kick, but an error by Marshall and a bizarre 84th-minute defensive breakdown meant only a draw. Then to The Hawthorns, where they outshot West Brom 10-4 in the first half, took the lead on a nifty stab by Snodgrass, but fell in the second period to two corner-kicks and a misplay by Maguire.

And then midnight struck. In one of the more surprising sackings of a last-place manager in recent memory, Phelan was canned. It seemed a perverse decision, since the side were playing much better football, but as we know it turned out to be inspired. Marco Silva of Portugal had been waiting in the wings, signed two days later, and the rest is ongoing history. And thanks to Paul Merson and friends, everyone’s paying attention.

What has Silva changed? We’ve heard the usual training-table stories (no more apple crumble or puddings) and bonding exercises (the team arrives at home matches together by coach), but more importantly he’s upped the training schedules and worked every day on set-pieces and team shape. Lisbon wasn’t built in a day, though: against Bournemouth, Maguire conceded a Sunday league penalty, and at Stamford Bridge the side conceded from a late set-piece which clinched the game. But disciplined clean sheets against Manchester United and Liverpool, with a corner-kick goal against the latter, suggest the drill is working. This weekend’s loss at the Emirates also shows they’re comfortable in an open match, not once seeming outclassed or outfought by a far more talented side.

Tactically Silva is flexible, although he seems to like the 4-1-4-1 deployed against Arsenal. His most important single change has been to reinstate Jakupovic in goal, who’s rewarded the decision with several excellent saves. Another standout has been Andrew Robertson, who in the last three games has played better in defence than at any time in his Hull career. Huddlestone was so-so against Arsenal, but on the whole has continued his fine play as the midfield anchor. Maguire has put the penalty behind him and pursued his upward curve. And Evertonians will be shocked to find out that Oumar Niasse, while hardly the next Big Dunc, is proving to be a hard-working, intelligent, useful forward. Overall, the side just seems more cohesive.

Which, when you think about it, is extraordinary. Because the hallmark of Silva’s brief tenure has been change in personnel. Snodgrass and Livermore out, a United Nations of players in. In the win against Liverpool, Silva went with three players getting their first league start, and a total of five who had  not been with the club when he arrived: Omar Elabdellaoui, Evandro, Kamil Grosicki, Andrea Ranocchia and Alfred N’Diaye. Against Arsenal the number was upped to six with Evandro sitting down but Niasse and Lazar Markovic in the starting XI. If Hull do survive, it should go down in history as one of the most remarkable bits of team-building on record.

It’s early days, of course. But of all the sides in the relegation race, Hull are the one most worth watching. And, thank goodness, it looks as if most of the interesting times will be on the pitch. A young manager with new players, new ideas, and a completely unpredictable outcome. The only thing certain is that if City do stay up, the supporters will dismiss the Allams’ role and give Silva all the credit. At most we’ll hear a thanks or two before the next repeated “f*** off”. But we’re supporters too, and buoyed by a triumphant end to the season, wouldn’t we be tempted do the same?

Peter Goldstein