Like most of us, my main emotion on May 3rd 2025 was relief. What had been a torrid and hugely stressful experience was over and somehow, against most logic and sense, it hadn’t led to us slipping through the trap door to league one. I was jubilant, kind of, but I was also exhausted and genuinely looked forward to an off season where we weren’t going to frequently ruin every Saturday for us. One of the nicest things that day was walking into my local for a beer only to find five depressed Luton Town Fans drowning their sorrows whilst wearing my Hull City shirt, I offered to buy them a drink to be fair, and we all ended up getting on. The south isn’t all bad.
The summer as you all know was tumultuous and it seemed we’d simply exited the frying pan to dive straight into the fire. It’s all well and good coming for these nerdy types who do Championship podcasts and websites and battering them for saying we’d come 23rd this year, but what were they (from their mum’s spare room on their sixth form lap top) supposed to predict in reality? You can’t really blame them, not for that bit anyway.
Sure we did manage to make a fair few really impressive signings considering the chaos, that wasn’t entirely the clubs making, and with the key one being the Bosnian Simeone himself, Sergej Jakorovic, I must admit I thought the mid-table would beckon. But as every week has gone on and despite an injury list that’s longer than Brian Law’s excuses for losing volume one, we just keep going. And here we are as I write at the end of January in 4th and just three points from automatic promotion.
Now, with Ipswich Town’s super deep pockets and considerable depth, I can’t see us finishing above them, or Coventry who have a large gap, but these are definitely first world problems to have and I dare say none of us imagined we’d be wrestling with these sorts of possibilities. It could still end up that we come up short, we all know that and there’s probably more reasons to point to a dip than this continued rise that we’ve seen. I know this will trigger the odd reader (let’s not forget someone called me “The dislikes of Hull” just a few weeks ago) but I wouldn’t see 8th or 9th as failure even now, I’d see at as proof we’re on the right path to building a promotion season next year.
Either way, happy days, but all of this led me to think about why this has happened, why have we bucked the trend, why do we continue to trigger the likes of PotterDave2002 and Blade4eva1234? Because even the data (which isn’t the be all and end all) suggests that this shouldn’t be happening and it won’t continue. Well in the words of the great Mick McCarthy “It can”, and here’s the reasons in my mind it’s happened this season.
- A determined push on British style players and high character people.
I listened to Curtis Davies on “Undr the cosh” a while back. He put the success of the City squad under Bruce firmly down to having the right people and togetherness as well as the talent. Quinn, Brady, Chester, McShane, Huddlestone, Rosenior etc etc all lived in the same area, they socialised, they played golf and they were high character players. The rest took care of itself essentially.
I think we had some real talent last season but they were rudderless at times. They also had some good characters (Coyle, Slater, Hughes, Egan) but not quite enough. So add Lundstrum, McBurnie, Ajayi, Geldhardt etc to that bunch and it’s tipped the balance. They have lads who have experience and leadership and aren’t afraid of anything. Yes they are better players than last year but they also know the level, and look after the younger ones, or ones that are new to the country and create a positive but resilient atmosphere, where put frankly people can succeed.
2. The right manager
I’ve already written a piece on him so I’ll keep it brief. But Sergej has taken this improved recruitment and has put it on the pitch in an ordered, logical and balanced way. That’s harder than anyone could imagine and how he’s papered over the cracks at times has been little short of magical. I know David Akintola gets some stick but his pace in the counter that leads to this week’s opener is frightening. He’s put him in for small bursts in specific situations and has got a tune out of him, I honestly can’t think of another manager we’ve known who could have done that. The man is a diamond, and our next battle will be how to keep him.
3. Being class in both boxes.
Like I said earlier, data isn’t everything. It’s also not irrelevant either. We are quite literally second to bottom on expected points. Now, whilst I’ll agree that is clearly a broken stat, it does show we’re overachieving and beyond the good recruitment and tactical know how, this is the next biggest factor for me. We’ve not wasted many chances when they’ve come and jesus christ, we’ve laid it on the line to stop the opposition when they’ve been in our box. I’ve lost count of the blocks, stops, tackles and clearances that we’ve made this season when it mattered. This (and that’s the key part here) isn’t luck, it’s good play, good coaching and good preparation. We’ve been great in both the final third and defensively in ours.
4. Playing without fear.
I don’t know who was more scared last season, the players or the fans, you could see the stress on the pitch, and the tension in so many games. That eats at you, it leads to mistakes and it leads to misses, and it did. This year there’s a swashbuckling attitude to us. If we go 1-0 up, we push on to make it 2. If we go 1-0 down, you can see the players egging each other on, calming themselves and motivating themselves to get back up off the canvas. Whoever is doing the sports psychology part of the club is doing great perhaps? Maybe it’s more senior player or coach led? I’m not sure but I do know that it’s clear as day. This team plays with no fear.
5. Houdini ownership
I thought about this one. I think this is the right balance to put it in. Clearly things didn’t go as planned this summer, however somehow the owner finds a way to make it work, and has done. Will he always? I’m not sure. Was the FA just in what they did, considering they essentially banned two players from playing that were signed whilst we weren’t actually in an embargo? I’m going to say no. Did they deserve Dave Fergus phoning up twice a day? I’m going to say yes.
Look Acun isn’t perfect. No owner is, and no owner is just here for the love of the club, however he’s made more comebacks than Tom Jones and just seems to be somebody that makes it work, I’m sometimes a little perplexed how. But that’s probably another one hundred owners across Europe.
You don’t have to be an expert on football finance to see the game is rigged. Man City have had more charges than the average i-phone hanging over their head for the last three years, but nothing ever seems to happen to them. The FA pick and choose who can and who can’t. Should Mason Greenwood just be able to travel a couple of thousand miles to be able to play every week? Probably not. Should Man United’s owners have been able to buy them and plunge the whole club into hundreds of millions of debt? Nope. Should we the taxpayer have paid for the changes to West Ham’s stadium. Again I’m going to say no. But these things all happened.
Let’s give the FA the amount of respect the owner does, not very much. They’re a cartel, as are FIFA and UEFA, corrupt to the core and self serving. If like me you wanted to pop your own eyeballs out and cook them in oil to avoid watching any more of the World Cup draw last month you’ll get my point and if Acun knows the special sauce that gets us out of trouble, I say good luck to him, for as long as it works, because Hull City AFC have never had the recipe until now.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the read and this finds you well. Happy 2026, and fingers crossed we keep being the worst team Potter Dave has ever seen and keep winning. Up the tigers and keep the faith.