Author: Admin

City fans since I first started going in the early eighties have appreciated three types of player the most in my opinion. Firstly the hardman, the tough tackling workhorse, that often modern football eliminates in how it is these days, thus Ian Ashbee still has his name sang, Billy Whitehurst almost has a mythical status, and Paul McShane is also well remembered. Secondly the flair player, the one who can do special things and entertain, the likes of Whitmore, Okocha, Geovanni, Barmby or Marwood are much loved. Finally the goalscorers, the times we had the difference maker up top, from Chris Chilton to Waggy and from Keith Edwards to Jarrod Bowen, these players are another level of popular, and hold a special place in our memories.

Lots of which I’ve covered over the last four years, often in the form of my reoccurring series, “The boy was a larker”. If I didn’t love all of the people in the list above, my old man did and they tend to be pretty popular with you lot too. Anywho… as ever I’ve took an awful long time to get around to saying, I started to think of some of the players during the years that would never get this treatment. Players who weren’t that level of beloved but might have been quite liked, whos place in our 121 year history may fall short of a full chapter, however perhaps still deserve credit. In truth this could be a whopping list because it contains everyone that wasn’t great, but also wasn’t terrible, so that’s a lot of football players. But digging deeper than that, who were the unsung heroes? Who didn’t really get the plaudits because they were neither great entertainers, goalscorers or hard men, but still were integral parts of our success? I’m going to go for one in the last 5 decades and see what you think.

As ever send your unhinged hate tweets on X to @thelikesofhull or block me and retweet lunatics who think ever more mad things about the world’s events whilst thinking that your last three girl friends left you because they were out of touch… you know… either or. Of course you might be reading this on bluesky too, and even thought it’s a bit quieter there, I’ll keep trying to put the blogs on both sites, as I know Elonville isn’t everyone’s bag these days. UTT.

Eighties Andy Flounders

Yes I think I mentioned him in a recent blog on outstanding subs. But Flounders really was criminally underrated and (as is often the way with Hull born lads). He was a proper poacher and a proper nine in an era when we didn’t really have someone of that ilk. You had Whitehurst as the target man, and lots of “ten” type players like Massey and Marwood, but Andy was an actual finisher. You’d think 54 in 126 games would mean he’d be hard to hang on to, but we actually sold him on to Scunthorpe who were at least a division below us (if not two) in 1987, a remarkable 175 in 408 during this pro-career also shows he didn’t lose his touch. Several of his goals were key ones (not least in the insane 5-4 away win at Leyton Orient in the 84/85 promotion season). He scored a mental overhead kick once at home to (I think) Bristol Rovers that same season. Andy Flounders never got the dues he deserved at City for me.

Nineties Graeme Atkinson

The nineties were a strange time to be a City fan, they started pretty badly dropping to the third level, then because of Windass and a few crafty buys they bucked up as we pushed hard to make the play offs two years in a row, then at the end of the decade we capitulated from one horrendous catastrophe to another, dropping to the lowest level and then more than flirted with going out of existence or the football league or both.

I think a few posters on X have said we overrate those who weren’t totally crap in this era as there was so little to cheer, and I do think there’s validity in this. However Graeme Atkinson fits the bill for this piece. Making his debut as we were leaving the second level as a teenager and then leaving City at just 23 to join Preston North End.

It’s a tribute to Dean Windass really with the sides of 92-95 because he dragged some pretty average talent along with him but I don’t think that includes Graeme, who could play an attacking 8 role, or push on to a number 10. He could pop up and score goals, he ran and ran and he had a nice touch in an era when not many fellow players did. He was good in the air for a smaller player and was an overachiever. In truth we probably sold him to pay the bills, but unlike other sales at a similar time there was no major enquiry. Dolan probs made a few quid too (he often got cuts of players sell on fees), so he could polish his head, wear new white superleague shorts and be shit, so the club won’t have seen an awful lot of the money paid. He had good spells at Preston and Rochdale after leaving us and I think he’s one of the more underrated players from his era.

Two thousands Junior Lewis

After a relatively good start, I’m going to risk it a little with this selection. Junior was one of the real boo boy targets of the time and was not flashy in the least. Peter Taylor had taken him from Gillingham to Leicester to Hull as he managed each club, and when he signed for us I remember Leicester fans on the message boards basically warning us like he was a large hurricane just off the East Coast of America.

He’d mainly line up in deep lying midfield, but could also play in defence on occasion. He was essentially the coach on the pitch, trying to keep the ball, shield the defence and control the opposition. In an era of Allsop, France, Elliot, Fagan, Burgess, Green and Barmby, this didn’t exactly mean he was prime Jude Bellingham. However he was the experience and the calmness that allowed City to counter attack teams and keep a lid on things in our half of the pitch.

Was he entertaining? No. But was he an integral factor in helping us get back to back promotions? I think so.

I’ll get my coat.

Twenty tens Alex Bruce

Again Alex isn’t a sexy pick, which is sort of the point. He wouldn’t and couldn’t be Curtis Davies, or Michael Dawson, Harry Maguire or Paul McShane. He just fitted into the squad, played when he was needed, rarely had a bad game, occasionally absolutely battered an opposing player and did his job. It’s easy to turn your nose up at him, he was the gaffer’s lad, but in truth he was a perfect squad player. He played 32 times in the promotion winning season of 2012-13. We needed him and he didn’t let us down. Sometimes we appreciate the players who come in and don’t lay an egg when we see the state of some of them who do… ahem.. cough.. Liam Ridgewell…

Alex fits well into the category of underappreciated in particular.

Twenty twenties Josh Magennis

Don’t start me on the squad of 2020-21. We’ll fall out. They are without a shadow of doubt, the least appreciated and most maligned group in the recent history of our club. We’re in the middle of covid, the owners are about as popular as “Brian Laws for men” aftershave and the best two players left in January of that year. We’re managed by a man who would be less welcome than at a Terry Dolan look-a-like competition than Terry himself, should it be held in Hull. There’s no crowds, there’s chaos all over the world. And bit by bit by bit, the most unlikely of stories begins to develop. On i-follow, this young City team can play and despite some of the big names in the league (Portsmouth, Sunderland, Charlton, Plymouth) they get a bit of momentum going.

Jacob Greaves and Keane Lewis Potter are new potential stars, Malik Wilks is a bit of a maverick but an entertaining one, George Honeyman is running midfields. We’re ok. And in the middle of it, galvanising us, calming us and keeping it sane (specifically Malik) is Josh Magennis. With his big shaved head and massive arse. Holding the ball up and sticking it on league one defenders so KLP can terrorise them. 19 goals in all competition to boot.

Yeh, you can tell me he’s a league one player, you can say they shouldn’t have gone down. But they did and he was, he was a really good league one player and he helped that City side go back up. That’s before we talk about the man as an emotional leader in the dressing room. Him and George will always have a place in my heart, because they got that dressing room together in the toughest of circumstances and won that league.

Fast forward to me driving home this week from the supermarket on Saturday, in the build up to the FA cup final, they talk about the leading goalscorers in this year’s competition… in the EFL.. Josh Magennis. Just getting an extension to his contract at 34 at Exeter after scoring 12 goals last season. You’re ok by me Josh, underrated and in the toughest of times, you stepped up for us.

Hope this finds you all well, call me a snowflake on Twitter and up the mental asylum Tigers..

Ok so this is the third blog I’ve done where I’m wishing you all an enjoyable break. In reality I shouldn’t bother writing much during the season and just do bits from April to August, as that’s when the content starts, so soz. It is though a good time to reflect back on the performance of the departing Ruben Selles, who I guess will sit in the middle of the pack when it comes to all time City managers, in that he took over a car crash and somehow got the self same vehicle going, and scraped and shuddered it over the finish line. To steal an eighties quote from the NFL “It wasn’t pretty but this ain’t no beauty contest”. I think that pretty aptly sums up the last six months under the Spaniard’s stewardship.

Of course we’ve got the tribes out on social media as ever, which does become tiring. On one end you’ve got City fans angry that we once again face another summer of reset and uncertainty, then you’ve got them being belittled by others who somehow are still hugely confident in the process to follow (2 terrible managers appointed so far, 1 ok, 1 good). I must admit I don’t feel quite as aggrieved as I did a year ago, when I like many others felt that we had the right person in charge of our club, sure it wasn’t perfect but this season would simply not have happened with Liam Rosenior at the helm. For Ruben, I think it’s a shame, and I don’t think we saw the best of him, but there were also signs that things weren’t great too. It’s just the constant change and the waste and turmoil that goes along with it that stings this time.

I almost wrote a piece in the run in, roughly called, “The pragmatism conundrum” in which I explored how City had turned the corner under RS, especially away, by banking in, countering and being hard to beat, but that this simply wasn’t working at home. Time got the better of me in this piece, but I think realistically this was the crux of the problem he faced. It’s fairly simple to look at our mental style under Timmy Waltz and say, “Well let’s leave two players back from corners” etc. And Selles made us almost instantly a tougher and more direct team who were harder to break down, but the issue then becomes, how do you throw the shackles off a little at home to break down teams that are essentially doing that back to us, and this is what didn’t really develop.

I think (and it is think, I’m not totally certain) that right at the end we seemed to move from a 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1 which was aimed at creating security for the attackers to push on and centralise Joe Geldhardt as his wide stint wasn’t helping him at all. This might have been done a little earlier in retrospect and it’s this lack of transition into a more potent force at home that’s seen RS get his cards. It is harsh clearly, and he had many mitigating factors, not least the season ending injury to Eliot Matazo, that might have delayed the formation changing as he was well suited to the role.(neither Regan Slater or Matt Crooks are natural deep sitting midfielders but were sometimes asked to do that) This and the lack of a potent or effective striker to fill the nine role were two hammer blows, essentially Kyle Joseph’s lack of effectiveness as he tried to adjust to a new league and our home woes has been enough to send Ruben to the dole queue, which again seems pretty rough.

Ruben seems an incredibly professional man, he did connect to the fans, he must have had hardly a day off in the last six months, you cannot question how hard he worked towards saving us from the drop, or his staff, the whole thing to me hinges on the philosophical debate around whether things were going to improve under him next season. Giving him a pre-season, 5-6 players that he wanted and 5-6 out that he didn’t want you’d give him a shot at making us a top half team, I think personally that’s the chance he deserved. But clearly others didn’t have the same faith, fans too and that’s not the direction we’re going in. The owners want success now, and that comes at a price, the price being in this case Ruben’s job.

We’ll see where we go, if it’s Steve Cooper, Marti Cifuentes or Ryan Mason I’ll keep my powder dry, but in the words of Jim McVie on Twitter, if we are “appointing some Serb that was manager of Dogshitspor a decade ago” I won’t be hanging out the black and amber bunting any time soon. I’m always surprised that people that I don’t expect, will occasionally read my blogs, George Honeyman’s representation reached out to me a couple of years ago to thank me for what I wrote (humble brag) and I’ve had others. So if Ruben you’re reading this or somebody you know is, you did good, you worked your absolute backside off and got a shambling mess of a team over the line, there’ll be things you want to improve and learn from, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to get a good job next and you deserve it. Thank you for keeping us up, and get yourself on a beach somewhere and enjoy it.

As for us lot, it’s going to be another bumpy ride this summer. The owner has probably just used his last move that he gets before the majority really turn and it needs to be a good one. Recruitment is going to be massive and we need to do it a damned sight earlier than last season. I can’t say I’m hugely confident of all of the above but then when can you truly ever say that as a fan of Hull City football club? Have a nice summer everyone (third time is a charm), let’s hope there’s some sweet new kits, and we have the bodies to fill them. Up the batshit mental tigers and thanks for reading and your kind comments this season.

Pete

I’ve thought long and hard about this post. Yes, it’s before Ruben Selles is officially sent to the bin and about a million players are googled and you tubed by the fans as the speculation and rumours replace any actual action, but I still think this is the appropriate time to reflect on what went wrong and more importantly what needs to improve if we’re going to be at the right end of the table next year.

I’m not a hardline fan opinion, therefore when I finally had my last bit of patience run out with the Allam regime in 2020 I had been pushed and pushed into having enough. James Scott replacing Jarod Bowen was enough to make the Pope himself egg Ehab’s Maserati. The same is true now, I’m not on the “Acun” train, which makes me apparently unpopular with his more fervent supporters, but I’m also not a person who doesn’t see some of the good things he’s done. I neither want the owners to be pelted with horse manure but I also don’t want them to pop over for sausage and chips like I’m 9. I think that’s generally a fairly even point to stand at.

Credit where it’s due there’s several things we need to take into account that’s changed and improved… our club output in terms of merch and kits has never been better, the food, bar and hospitality are much improved, the prices of attending are both fairer and clearer and there’s been a concerted effort to push the club onto a more aspirational mindset, the social media is better and well ran… You could disagree with some of that if you want to, but I think more people would agree than wouldn’t.

However the same people would largely point towards the same factors that haven’t been so positive and that’s what I’m going to focus the main body of my piece on. What needs to change next season to help us avoid repeating the same mistakes we’ve made over the past three seasons. In the end if we don’t learn, we’re going to run out of chances in this league because the financial choices made will eventually have more serious consequences. Anyway…. have a read, have a debate, block me and call me Shirley… it’s totally up to you. You’re in some auspicious company if you do block me though… one has an MBE and the other is stuck in fascist wormhole that means he is permanently stuck online… a bit like the movie Tron. Happy days!

Here’s five changes I think can change our fortunes next season..

1. Stop interfering with the transfers in and out, and let the coach/scouts/recruitment people make their decisions based on data, facts, what they’ve seen and learned.

We have on the whole signed some talented lads in the last few years, but it’s often been uneven and not necessarily been done in a pragmatic or ordered way. Thus we finished the season with a centre back at left back and had about 23 midfielders. It needs overhauling and bringing back to earth. As flashy as some of the transfers have been from Turkey, only really two have actually worked out (Ozan and Seri) whilst arguably a couple of others have been ok (Unc?) but lots more have left a lot to be desired (Lincoln, Sinik, Pelkas). A cynic (not a Sinik) might even say that the likes of Shota and Timmy Waltz were put in because they would accept more of this jiggery pokery. No more please, put in the right people, let them work with the coach, find the right players and the right fits, the interference hasn’t helped at all.

2. Communicate to the fans in an ordered and regulated manner.

A good 25,000 people plus support Hull City, another 20,000 are floating around somewhere between liking them and supporting them. Have an article in the programme once a month, or on the website, do an interview at the start, middle and end of the season, or do a talk at a set point. But don’t disappear like Homer through the bush when things aren’t going well, face up to the issues and be present. All fans deserve this and it will make you more respected in the long term. The silence post Christmas has been rather clear, and then when people say you’re not as invested or interested, it’s hard to deny. Be consistent.

3. Show some patience and listen.

I’d say 80% plus want to keep Selles. (and before you tell me they don’t that’s directly from a survey I saw online) That for a modern football manager that just about scraped us up is decent. He might go after I write this, he might not. I’d say the % that wanted Rosenior to stay was even higher. Now I’ve said the “R” word and I know certain people are going to be triggered. But if Selles gets the Rosey treatment the message that the owners are neither listening or learning are clear. Even the cleaners at the MKM wanted Walter gone and that was the first time the fanbase was listened to. If they aren’t listened to for the second consecutive summer, we better have a plan better than Shota Arveladze’s Mum’s Uncle’s personal trainer up our sleeve or it won’t end well.

4. Encourage fans at home to build a better atmosphere.

Now this one isn’t really so much on the owners. The atmosphere at the KCom is about as rabid as a Barry Manilow concert in Brid and it’s getting worse. I think the whole club and fanbase need to reflect on this, it’s not the only reason we were Dolan-eque at home, but it’s one of them. Whether is a new area for “singing” fans, move the away fans out of the north, or surrounding the ground with a fan zone pre game (something fans enjoyed pre-Pompey) , we ALL need to figure this out, including the owners. Is this an area where we’ve fallen short? Maybe… but they really haven’t been given much to sing about either…

5. Find more John Egans…

The best team we’ve ever had was also one of the most characterful. The cup final, premier league surviving team of 2014 had some class in Huddz, and Jelavic and Long. But it also had a core of Irish and British lads who struck together. Robbie Brady, Paul McShane, Liam Rosenior, Curtis Davies, James Chester, Allan McGregor, David Meyler, Jake Livermore and Stephen Quinn. This wasn’t a coincidence, Curtis recently was on “Undr the Cosh” and said as much, this bunch played golf together, went for meals together, their families were mates, therefore we saw that on the pitch, they were a proper group that had each others backs. Steve Bruce wasn’t perfect, but he knew this and we could learn from it now. The best winter buy was John Egan, easily, and he cost 250k. Find 3-4 more lads like this, who get the level and run the dressing room and get the fans… and we’ll be pushing up the league and connecting to the fanbase again. We need that British/Irish core (or players immersed in this level of football and are used to it, with some charisma) and we need some strong leaders to boot. This would be a quick and effective fix.

Thanks for reading… Have a nice summer. I’ll post something after the dust settles, or there’s a new kit, or Lee Walker needs me to write some City content before he gets cold turkey.. UTT. Keep the faith.

Well it’s the end of another season. I like you, dear reader, feel drained, elated, relieved, and now perplexed about this car crash of a club. The best thing that has happened this season was it ending and despite the highs and lows on the way, I just feel, like many of you, that I need a bit of a break from it all…

And then the rumours started Monday… sigh.

Let’s not address that now, let’s address the players who played and review the season, like I have with some grades for the last few years. Only one A grade, I’m sorry but you can’t give A grades out left right and centre after that. But some players get credit where it’s due.

 You won’t agree with all of them, I’ll get the usual blue tick, conspiracy theory, tin hat wearing loons having a pop, good for them and I’m happy as ever to get your hate tweets at @thelikesofhull .Some of the player summaries might be brief as we had lots of bit part players, and just lots of players…

Enjoy… enjoy the summer. And I’ll see you all next season (I’m moving into a scouting role in non-league so I’m hoping to get to some more games in person…)

Cheers.. UTT

Ivor Pandur A-

The only real consideration for an A. Ivo was superb. A human blockade. A very strong year and I’m reading he’s already won player of the season. He did have the odd ricket in him (I think he’ll be disappointed in Pompey’s equaliser) and his feet aren’t incredible. But he’s a keeper, in both senses of the word.

Lewie Coyle C+

Feels a bit harsh, and yet some fans will think it’s kind.  I think watching carefully he was often asked to do things tactically that made him more of a scapegoat. Watch how he squeezes close to his centre backs an awful lot, that’s not his choice, it’s what he’s being told. However this wasn’t his best season in the shirt, he struggled with tricky wingers and when pushing forward he often looked uncomfortable. I’d like to see him stay myself, and think he can bounce back from this. Certainly having two good centre backs next to him in Hughes and Egan helped. We’ll see.

Sean McCloughlin B

Another boo boy favourite. I think he did a grand job at left back and was a huge factor in our survival. Probably not the long term plan there but he was reliable and steady and made us harder to beat. A consummate professional that might be measured more in the long term when we have to watch him play for someone else, because he’s rarely got the respect he’s deserved with us.

Charlie Hughes B+

Nightmare of a start, injuries and mistakes. Then that was it. He’s class, he’s arguably better than Greaves and he’s only getting better. The goal at Sheff Wed was “Whitehurst-esque” (ask your Dad) and he along with Pandur shone the brightest this season. Future captain.

John Egan B

Arguably could have got an even higher grade, but didn’t play enough. Best signing of January, because he brought calmness, experience and discipline to the back four. I don’t know why but we’re just better with more Irish players (see Shane Long, Robbie Brady, Paul McShane, Dave Meyler etc) was the exact player we needed at the end of this season. One more year please.

Alfie Jones C+

I love Alfie. But it wasn’t his best year. He’s consistent mainly, and he isn’t slightly big time, but in a team where we lack steel, I felt the decision to put in Egan for him probably kept us up. Did he get pushed around a bit? A little? One of our best ever value signings, he’ll need to kick on again next year.

Cody Drameh C

There’s talent, clearly. He was unlucky with injuries, but he didn’t really grasp the nettle and take the right back slot with his actual performances, that were a real mixed bag and often questionable in terms of awareness and physicality. Be interesting to see whether he’s here next year, because he is talented for sure.

Ryan Giles E-

He didn’t want to be here. That was crystal clear. Sulky, petulant and half hearted. He’s not even convinced me that when he tries he’s the answer. Hopefully moves on.

Matty Jacob C

Another who may have to move on. I don’t mind him but this wasn’t the year to develop for Matty, and again he could look defensively naïve. Scored a lovely goal at Sheff United that you could see really meant something to him. I’d loan him out personally.

Fin Burns D

Didn’t really play. Didn’t look the hot prospect we’d been told he was when he did. Return to sender.

Steven Alzate B

Had a really golden period in the new year, considering he didn’t cost anything in terms of fee he was a gem. Is rumoured to be one we’ll sell. You really don’t have much time to form opinions on these players any more. Lovely on the ball, sometimes a little too relaxed for the situation we were in? He’d be a loss.

Matt Crooks B

Was as advertised a potential game winner. Deep runs hurt the opposition. Did have a couple of stinkers too, but came up with the goods when most needed. He’s champ ready and we’ll need to keep players like him.

Eliot Matazo B

Looked really good, scored a nice goal, gave us and bit of bite in the middle and then was out for the season with a torn ACL. Typical city.

Abu Kamara C

Clearly has ability. Speed, goals and is a threat on the break. His recoveries improved, but still doesn’t convince me off the ball. Ruben seemed to galvanise him but his body language and social media presence suggests he’s another that might not stay long.

Lincoln C-

Ran around a lot. Didn’t do that much. Again you can see there’s talent. Felt like another brought in from Turkey because of the ownership. Not for me.

Kasey Palmer B-

Unlucky with injuries. I really like what he brings as a player and I don’t think we’ve seen the best of him yet. I’d really like to see him play week in week out. Didn’t always get it done but I think in a more stable team he will.

Gustavo Puerta B

A very talented boy. Much like Palmer, in the right mix he could be an absolute class act. Was it often enough? Maybe not, but again if he goes (and he might) he’ll be a real loss. A bright light when there wasn’t many this season.

Marvin Mehlem D

Despite having the name of a WCW wrestler in the nineties, this was about the only notable thing about Marv, who looked out of his depth and homesick. Went not long after Walts did. We need to sell or release.

Regan Slater C+

Another boo boy target. Personally I think he was asked to play a position that didn’t help him. He’s not a holder. He obviously missed chances like we’ve never seen the like, but that could easily be just some bad luck. He’s had 3 great seasons, if we are writing him off with one bad one, it probably says more about us than him.

Oscar Zambrano N/A

Came, looked good, tested positive for moonjuice… out for a long time. Could be a gem. Who knows? I think we only got him because we ignored the fact that he had the ban coming. Duh.

Harry Vaughan N/A

Finally got a couple of chances when everyone was injured, banned or clinically blind. Thought he did well. Went out the squad again. A real shame, I honestly think this one will bite us on the backside in true Conor Townsend style in the long term.

Nordin Amrabat B

Came in, slightly older than Jesus. Showed more desire than half the existing squad. That was about it. Won’t stay so he’s been saying. Wasn’t a long-term plan anyway. At least he cared.

Louie Barry N/A

Came in to much excitement and before he could really get started. Got hurt. City’s injury curse strikes again. Hope he comes back next season. Speaking of which…

Mohamed Belloumi B

Looked the part… tore Cardiff a new one in the autumn and seemed one of our best signings of the summer. Then PING! You can’t have nice things Hull City fans!? Out he went. One to look forward to next season. Speaking of which…

Liam Miller B

Had his own song, looked tricky in bits, but perhaps was a little hit and miss. Would have got a ton of opportunities to prove himself over the season and then… PING!! Cheers for the massive overload on training Walts you perma-capped div. Sigh.

Mason Burstow C

Thought he might have cracked it when he scored against Swansea. But just didn’t really kick on and got lost in the mix. Had a good attitude but lacked the quality needed at the top end at times. May be one that moves on to get more playing time.

Joe Geldhardt B+

Very good. Scored some important goals and assists in the battle to survive and was as likely as anyone to show a spark that would save us in even the dullest games. Needs to play central. I’d love him back, a firm fan favourite.

Joao Pedro B

Moves like an arthritic 50 year old, however… he’s still got it. Scored a couple of vital goals and gave us the only nine who looked Champ ready and could hold up the ball. The fans love Unc and with such slim pickings you can’t blame them. Put him in deep freeze and thaw him out in July.

Kyle Joseph C

Didn’t really provide what he was supposed to, however you couldn’t help but admire his effort. Reminded me a bit of Jonny Walters at City, and we know how that ended in his career. Jury will be out on him but there’s something there. Get’s one and he might be off to the races.

Manager Ruben Selles B-

Came in to firefight and ultimately did it. I feel he fell into the phase of pragmatism a bit too much, thus we could bank in and counter to beat top six teams, but struggled brutally at home. Had to unpick a transfer policy that could only have been more mental if it was written in excrement on a prison wall. Wasn’t pretty but like Phil Brown did in 2006, he deserves the chance to have a summer window and put together a plan. He may not, which I think most of us think is a mistake. Time will tell. If this is it for Ruben, then he’ll be generally well thought of by this fanbase. A proper grown up who was often not surrounded by his like.

Ownership C-

I’ll probably get stick from both sides, one that thinks it should be worse, and one better. It was a chaotic and uneven window in the summer, slightly better in January, and overall, it’s been schizophrenic. You can’t come for everything they’ve done. Kits have never been better, tickets are fairly priced, the ambition is clear. But the method of getting there has been like a 10-year-old high on fizzy drinks and Harribo going nuts on Championship manager. Fans are just starting to turn and this must be the point where Acun learns from the clear mistakes. They have brought in some unquestionable talent, but they must must must give the manager time to filter out those who didn’t work and bring in a “John Egan/Joe Geldhardt” type or two to even out the balance of the squad. Do that and we can be in the right half of the table next year, don’t and we may as well get ready for league one football. It’s that simple.

Some players in our clubs history just seem to resonate with the fanbase, so when I offered up a poll for my latest “The boy was a larker” series, deep down I knew who was going to win. Stephen Quinn was a cracking footballer, Mo Diame delivered for us in one of the biggest games we’ve ever played in, Jay Jay’s cameo for us was wonderful, but it was never really in doubt. There’s simply an X factor that Abel had that is even greater than his contributions were for the club.

That did make me think of other cases. Billy Whitehurst for example, only ever really had one prolific season for us in 1984-85, where he scored 20 league goals, double his previous best and by the time he returned to the club three years after leaving, he was very much there to hold the ball up for others, whilst Geovanni might have had an even shorter streak, really in the first half of the 2008-9 season, although he’d still flash talent in the following games, Harry Maguire was another player that frankly didn’t really fit in until Marco Silva made him the pivotal part of a back 3 and again his excellent run was in reality… months.

Just like Billy, Geo and Harry though, what made Abel iconic and stand out from the crowd is personality and his relationship with the crowd. Geo recently said he preferred playing for City than Barcelona, in what might have been the least expected quote of all time about this club, but when it came down to the nitty gritty, he nailed it in this quote “The club really got under my skin. It was a dream for me. Those may have been the best days of my life as a footballer.” Love Hull City and it loves you back, all of the above players have played for other clubs but whilst they were here they loved it and so we loved them back even more.

Abel didn’t have the most auspicious start to his time at the club and in his first season he found the adjustment from Serie A to the English game hard, maybe dare I say a bit too physical? He was in and out of the team, a team that as we know is the greatest and most talented we’ve ever had, but still went down anyway (please note this current fanbase moaning about last season 2014-15 WAS THE underachieving team of all time in this City)

There were flashes in that season, for example the goal that I still think is perhaps our greatest team goal ever scored at Arsenal that season as the wet lettuce, excuse making, also ran, runners up weren’t allowed to touch the ball from the kick off to the second half as City carved them open and Abel towered above Monreal to bury a header into the attention seeking babies goal. I’m sure somebody far more tech savvy can find a link, to just that goal that does it justice. In the meantime here’s all 39 of his goals for us in one link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_Y5nISf3QE

That season slipped away from us and Abel uncharacteristically twatted perma-injured wage stealer Phil Jones in the last game of the season as a 0-0 draw with Manyoo wasn’t enough to save us from the drop. This meant he wouldn’t play in the opening three games of next season. However in retrospect it might have actually been a silver lining around our cloud, as when fully hitting the ground running that season, he may have been more difficult to keep and by the time he was back Jelavic and N’doiye had departed.

In 2015-16 he was often unplayable, from the moment he equalised at Charlton in his first game after his ban (more on that later) until the play off run he was too quick, too savvy, too clever and just too damned good to cope with for opposition players. 22 goals in all competitions and countless highlights, perhaps my favourite amongst these is when he essentially retires Burnley’s Michael Duff who is turned inside out by the Uruguayan who then whips a ball around him into the the corner before you can say “I’ll take my PFA retirement please”.

For me he was the best striker in the division that year…. he always did score a wide variety of types of goal too, he could beat a high line and slot in, he could cut in from wide, he had a header in his locker and he didn’t care one bit if it was a tap in from 2 yards out. Abel was mustard, all season and after a nervy and back foot start in the play off semi final at Derby, he was the one that lit the touch paper. As the ball broke to him in the midfield and after a good touch he took out the paintbrush and just passed it past Scott Carson for the opener.

In forty five years of being a city fan the scenes in the away end that day were right up there, and Abel was in the thick of it. Like a few South American lads, Abel liked a celebration and after scoring that opener he sprints at the delirious City contingent, jumps in the air and military salutes us, I’d still have that in a top five of most iconic celebrations I’ve witnessed following this club. Flares go off, the noise was deafening. What. A. Day. Abel loved it and we loved him all the more for it. His delight at scoring was simply infectious, going back to the Charlton goal, he simply dives into the away end and goes mental with the fans, he was one of us and that connection was always there.

In truth his 8 goals in around 50 appearances in the Premier League was a little disappointing, he suffered with injuries in his second go at the top league and you felt that if he’d have got a run after Silva came in during the spring run in, it might have just kept up out of the bottom three. However again he did like a big moment, none better than the double bicycle kick with Adama Diomande as City beat the defending premier league champions with the squad depth of a netball team. He also returned to his ankle breaking habits, turning Tyrone Mings inside out for Bournemouth before slotting in a glorious goal.

The year after, in what would be his last with the Tigers, Abel was once again struck down by a series of injuries, again I think it’s fair to say that if he played 30 games, we might have been a different proposition, despite the creaky defence that we had most of the year. He scored eight goals in his ten appearances that season and when fit, still looked like he could be as special as we knew he was. At the end of the season the club said they’d made a bid to keep him, but in truth it was never going to happen, he walked away for no fee to play in Russia and we were all a lot poorer for it.

He’s continued to score goals since 2018, whether in South America or further afield and at 34 he’s still banging them in for the marvelously named Liverpool Montevideo back in his home country. I’m not sure if he’s ever been back to Hull or England since he left, but like Geo, if and when he does, a warm reception awaits him. From his blistering pace, to his wonderful first touch, his Latin passion and his sense of timing on the big occasion, Abel won the hearts of our fans, and then there was that smile… what a guy, what a player and what an absolute larker. Viva Abel Hernandez. Thanks for reading. UTT.

It’s a funny thing free speech. We’re all in favour of it, until someone uses it to say something we don’t like. And I don’t mean the fascist, tin hat wearing, Andrew Tate types of things. No, in 2025 you sometimes really can’t seem to say anything about Hull City at all unless it’s what the recipient wishes to hear, and strangely on X/Twitter/Musk-vision.. the worst types seem to be middle aged men that will have a melt down if you dare to say something that doesn’t correlate with their feelings.

Now, I’m not one for holding a difference of your politics against you and I don’t think I know many City fans who hold abhorrent views on the club.. well…maybe a few, but I would by and large defend people’s rights to have them… ok maybe not Dave Fergus… but you take my point.

I’m writing this because today I saw City fans openly discussing pushing for the play-offs next season… after beating the worst away team in the league and I made the (quite reasonable I thought) point to say, let’s stay up and draw a line under what’s been a turgid and ugly season before we start to look that far into the future. We, put simply, aren’t very good and when the season is put to bed and hopefully we’ve stayed up, I’ll invoke the Alan Green quote who once described a 0-0 draw as so uninspiring that he’d think about it until he got to the first roundabout on his way home and had to decide whether to go left or right. This went down well with most, but for some more fragile types, it was hard to swallow.

Anyway… I hope this finds everyone well and I’ll try and get some time soon to do a new “The boy was a larker”, I’ll do a poll like last time so you get to have a say. In the meantime, I was trying to think of a comparable season or period in our history to now, one where, although the intentions are good, but we’ve had to pivot mid-season to try get ourselves out of a massive hole we’d got ourselves in, and I think after a little thought I’ve got it.

2006-7 started just like this season under a new manager, and one of which there was a fair bit of buzz about. Phil Parkinson much like Tim Walter was seen as quite the catch and lots of excitement and expectation followed us into the season. We spent a fair amount on to be fair, some talented players like Michael Turner and Dean Marney, and Sam Ricketts and the chairman Adam Pearson boldly stated that our new manager would take us to somewhere, that at the time, we’d never been, the Premier League.

Now, on an almost identical timescale as Timmy Walts… things fell apart.. the odd good performance masked bigger problems and we were often caught out, not being savvy or pragmatic enough in a league that would quickly kick you directly up the backside and by late November the writing on the wall was clear to see. Get rid, or go down. I’m not sure if I can remember two sackings as monumentally popular as those two. Mainly because we all knew that if we didn’t do it , and quick, we were relegation fodder for sure.

This is the part where I’ve had to really cast my mind back, because much like Ruben Selles, early Phil Brown fell into the category of, “Ok you’re better than what was before, but I’m not certain yet” as both new managers attempted to right the wrongs of their predecessor. I say this because I think we’ve potentially forgot that Phil Brown wasn’t love at first sight, he did improve things (3 consecutive wins around the end of 2006 and start of 2007 gave us a foothold in the fight to stay up) but there were some poor times too. Between the 30th of January and 9th April we lost 8 of 13 games and if you like me, saw the 3-0 drubbing at Barnsley in February of that year, you’d admit there were more neighs than yays in the stand that night.

What perhaps kept Tanman’s head above water in that poor run, was that 4 of those results were wins, and so although 13 points in 13 games wasn’t exactly ripping up trees, it also meant that we were at least keeping pace with most teams around us. Ruben has had high highs (beating Sunderland and Sheff United away) and low lows (pretty much most things at home) and just like Phil Brown he’s had to pick up some players from super low points and be perhaps a little more pragmatic and dogged than he’d ideally like to be.

I could go on with the comparisons… for Ray Parlour (old head who led by example) see Joao Pedro… for Charlie Hughes (talented and fantastic centre back getting used to a new level) see Michael Turner, for Ian Ashbee (seen by the majority of fans as below championship standard but a fighter till the very end) see Lewie Coyle. The more I’ve thought about, the more I’ve come to the conclusion that the two seasons are in many ways eerily similar.

We even had a superbly talented keeper in Bo Myhill that despite being one of our only truly stand out performers had to battle for his place that most of the fans would have given to him willingly… sounds awfully familiar… Perhaps the difference is (and there are several clearly) that the ins and outs transfer wise have made a much larger list in 2025 and although both ownerships clearly want the club to succeed, they are taking quite different routes to get there.

Of course you’ll know what the optimistic part of me (see I do have one, you don’t need to have the chairman around for sausage, chips and beans to be the only positive fan you know) is saying that, from the turmoil of 2006-7, came the best season in the clubs history and it still actually might be just that even now. The challenge and the graft that we had to put in to survive that year was the making of Ricketts, Myhill, Dawson, Ash etc, they’d become football based lunatics the year after, that, when paired with some heavier artillery in Folan, Jay Jay and Frazier Campbell, meant we were a different beast all together and incredibly hard to break down for the opposition.

I hope we’re talking at the end of the season on similar things, about pairing Charlie Hughes, Pandur, Puerta, and a newly signed Joe Geldhardt with a few more pieces to get us really competing. In the meantime we’ll need Ruben to summon up his inner Phil Brown, bite our nails and battle, but it’s a problem in May that we’ll all pray we’re going to have. *

Up the offside tigers. Thanks for reading.

* No Hull City fans were blocked by @thelikesofhull in the making of this blog.

Ok, I’m slowly recovering from my Nostradamus like status after not only correctly predicting our loss at Burnley, but nailing the exact score that would occur. I’d like to say it made me happy, but much like the 320 quid I won at 16/1 by correctly spotting in 2020 that we were going down like a stripper’s knickers (I call it “Misery insurance”) it really isn’t much of a silver lining around a rather large cloud.

One thing I did touch upon in my last piece was the fact that my Father is the holder of epic grudges. Jimmy Armfield was forever cast into his shit list for berating the club in 1984 when they failed to get through a snow storm, forcing the league game with Burnley to be postponed. Honestly, I think he’d had done that meme by his gravestone if he could have (nicely featured in the picture above… smooth Peter… smooth).

Now if I did his shit list across all forms of life, I’d need to write a novel, the old man is one not to forgive and importantly understands the pure entertainment value of this process. So if you see him in a pub, don’t start him on Gordon Brown selling the gold reserves, Thatcher taking the police off the docks, or nepotism in modern society… not unless you have a lot of down time.

This list will focus on the branch of his shit list that I like to call the “Petty corridor”, not Ben Petty, the lumbering and generally untalented early two thousands City defender, but more of a recognition that because of a one off lack of judgement, or poor decision, my Father has metaphorically created a voodoo doll for these people and wished a plague of locusts to descend on them. His curses obviously extend to the likes of our former owners, Leeds United, and tax avoiding off shoring billionaires that plague the current game, easy targets, so I thought we’d go a little more niche. Here’s five cases where my Father’s support for our beloved club, metamorphises into a kind of puerile dislike of someone or thing, that frankly is more entertaining than the entity themselves.

1. Trevor Brooking

Trev is boring isn’t he? West Ham fans love him, he could send an insomniac to sleep with his middle of the road punditry in the eighties and nineties and he’s about as dangerous as a plain cheese sandwich. But Trev god bless him was tasked for some reason to look at Hull’s stadium needs in the dying days of Boothferry Park.. was it FA related? I would have thought so. Anyway he concluded that a 15,000 all seater stadium would suffice for us and that was it. Trevor Brooking’s name was frankly a swearword in East Hull and nothing he could ever do since could redeem it. Even the sight of the former England international on TV sets the old man off like a Tourette’s sufferer in porn shop. Poor Trev.

2. Michael Oliver

In the news today for sending off a Liverpool and Everton player at the end of the match last night, Mr Oliver isn’t especially popular with supporters from many teams. However in November 2013 he gave an incredibly harsh penalty for handball against us for Spurs to gift them 3 points with a 1-0 win. Steve Bruce went absolutely mental and got fined. The old man went twice as mental but the FA shockingly overlooked his rants. Much like Mr Brooking, his face cannot appear on TV without the big man grumbling “Michael Oliver, man of the match for Spurs in 2013” and such. Quite.

3. Roy Hodgson

Now I had to really think about this one. I know he doesn’t like Woy and that he gets the treatment whenever his jowly dinner lady face appears before him but I had to go deep into google to remember why. The origins are here.. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-boss-roy-hodgsons-3388981

Roy in his wonderfully awful stint in charge of Liverpool had a hissy fit with City as he tried to recall Daniel Ayala, 3 weeks before the end of his loan spell and City (who had every right to) said no. He then spat out his dummy and said he wasn’t going back to City after his loan ended as we somehow got him injured, although why him being in Hull over Liverpool caused this remained a mystery.

His various downfalls after this point including his epic failure with the national team were seen largely by my Father as some sort of divine retribution for his churlish and antagonistic treatment of our football club. Unlucky Roy.

4. Cesc Fabregas

Or “Spit the dog” as my Father christened him. We all know the story, Cesc, dressed as a backing singer from Blue, entered the field of play at the end of City’s FA Cup quarter final with Arsenal in 2009. He had no right to be there and was not involved or on the bench that day. He then clearly spat at assistant manager Brian Horton and the FA went “Erm… big club… errr… we don’t care…. mmmm Spanish international” and that was that.

Not for the old man. He was thrown into the pit of those who would never return and thus each of his later career injuries or setbacks were met with a triumphant repost. I’m not certain of whether like James Richardson , Geoff is currently sat in a local coffee shop with a copy of Gazetta Football Italia, plotting the downfall of Como 1907, but in actuality… I wouldn’t rule it out.

5. Hull Fc/Grimsby Town/Scunthorpe United

Yes, it’s a fairly cheap move but these clubs doing badly just seems to make his little face cheer up. Historically you’ll know why, especially with the strength of Rugby League in the seventies and eighties. He said in 1982 as Hull FC played Widnes in the challenge cup final that “I hope they both lose” and then delighted in the fact the 14-14 all draw meant that nobody had won.

You’d think that both Scunny (currently marooned in the 6th tier of English football) and Grimsby would be beneath him as for all intents and purposes the last fifteen years has seen us occupy a vastly different world to them, but old wounds apparently don’t heal easily. He just “keeps and eye out” for them, which means he looks for their results and checks they haven’t won, then has a little smile to himself.

Even better still, he’s no fan of Rugby League but will regularly tune in to the Friday night game just to cheer on whoever FC play, and to double down he’s quite ambivalent when it comes to Hull KR and appears to hold no grudges. Sometimes it really doesn’t have to make sense.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. As ever send my Dad your hate tweets @thelikesofhull and let’s hope we have something to provide us with some actual happiness soon, rather than just the old man hexing half the football world. UTT.

The winter of 1983-4 was particularly cold. Regular snowfalls left the country under a fairly regularly white carpet and even though most schools remained open (not like in modern times, because you know… progress or something) it was somewhat of a slog. Undeterred by such small factors as “living” my Father was determined for us to travel to watch any Hull City game where he wasn’t at work. Thus me, him, an ordinance survey map and a few rounds of sandwiches in a tupper ware container invaded a rather dinky red Datsun Cherry in the early weeks of 1983 and headed to Turf Moor from South Humberside. (yes I know… it doesn’t exist blah blah blah… it did then…)

Sometime later (I was at the time 9 years old) my middle school teacher would wax lyrical about my geographical knowledge of England only for my mother to retort “Yes, he reads maps for his Dad as they go and watch Hull City play away, that’s probably why”. This journey definitely pushed my abilities however as not only did it we attempt to cross the Pennines in frozen conditions with driving snow, we did it in a car with an engine slightly less powerful than the average hair dryer. My Father, ladies and gentleman, no respecter of mother nature or the limitations of Japanese industry.

However, arrive we did, only to get to the game and be greeted by the radio declaring that the game was off and Jimmy Armfield castigating City for not arriving (something that made my father add him to his “shit list” for the rest of his existence, more about that another time). It seemed the City coach had not endured the M62 quite as well as we did and we had indeed gone “all this way for nothing” as the song goes. So we turned around and did the same insane journey in what was essentially a 1983 version of Fred Flintstone’s car, only with the pretense of an engine rather than our feet.

We have done the story many a time about how the re-arranged game months later led us to be denied promotion by one goal scored, so I won’t do it again, but somewhere between Burnley playing to lose a game by less than three goals, rather than say “win it” in a match that meant nothing to them, Armfield’s north west biased rant against City and my nine year old’s tears in May added up to a lifetime love of City, and also an irrational hate of the wooden chaired dump that is Turf Moor and everything that came with it.

Over a decade later I was at University in Liverpool and a lad from my digs had a girlfriend who supported Burnley. Talking to her only served to confirm most of the things I already believed about the club. You’d honestly think that AC Milan and the San Siro had been dug up, rebuilt in Lancashire and covered in twenty four carrot gold. The sense of entitlement and how “big” they were was breathtaking. Especially considering the lack of doing anything in particular since the sixties. I went to watch us lose 3-1 there in 1993? I think. Against my better judgement and probably more surmised by my lack of money, I accepted a ticket with my housemate’s girlfriend in some sort of posh Burnley stand. I may have, as City were bounced around by the physically stronger but crass Burnley team said a tad too much, and her father, gave me a mouthful, the miserable old goat. It once again highlighted my dislike of anything claret and blue or Lancastrian, or both.

Where else to go? Well Brian Laws, the biggest end of a bell that ever drew breath was the manager there, which again makes me grind my teeth like a stray dog seeing a fat postman that he longs to assault. Help me stattos but didn’t he help them win 4-1 at City to all but send us down in 2009-10? I may have tried to blot the entire thing out. That season just about summed up the curse that this horrendous club seemed to have on us. We’d equalised in October at Burnley through the mercurial Geovanni’s free kick, only for Mike Jones to disallow it, because he was a gigantic plum and then doubled this down by booking Geo and later sending him off. That season alone they were awarded three penalties against us in 180 minutes of football. My one redeeming crumb of comfort was that they were relegated too, although this only guaranteed we’d have to keep playing them.

Now I know I’m biased, but I’d like to think that in our best versions (The promotion team of 2007-8, the Prem team of 2008-9, the Bruce promotion team of 2013 and FA cup team of 2014) we were essentially a good watch. We had players you wanted to see, sometimes these days I still have people when they know I support Hull beam about the likes of Geo, or Jelavic, or Huddz. Again I know I’m biased in reverse, but they really don’t add an awful lot of entertainment, even in their effective phases. Any team where Sean Dyche is the most successful modern day manager gives you a major clue. The fact that Eddie Howe spent a year there and then decided he left the kettle on in Bournemouth and left also indicates somewhat of a pattern.

I mean, there are some slightly redeeming factors I guess (If I had a gun pointed at my head) Robbie Brady played for both, as did George Boyd and I like those players, erm… didn’t Tony Norman start there? Possibly.. It’s just hard, I don’t argue that most of my rampant hatred of them is illogical (it even makes my quite like Preston North End and Blackpool) but as the old Monty Python joke goes in an abridged fashion “What did Burnley ever do for us?” I’d argue almost nothing and in fact they’ve been a source of pain for this club for many years. Even the current money bags version of them have built a reputation as conceding no goals and not entertaining anyone, it just seems to be their DNA.

Occasionally we’ve laughed in the face of the devil and turned them over, just as we’ll be hoping for later (Clue I’m writing before the game takes place, but expecting the worst, please please let me be wrong) a 1-0 away win in freezing conditions in 2013 helped us on the road to promotion, in front of a paltry 10,450 fans (yes, you’re not the giant you claim to be) thank to the ageless Stephen Quinn. A 2-0 home win over Christmas in 2015 featured Abel Hernandez essentially retiring Michael Duff as he turned him inside out that day. It hasn’t always been a snake bitten match up.

Somewhere on my X/Twitter/Elonbook timeline will no doubt feature a Burnley fan saying something original like “Bless the Hull fans” etc. Which, whilst proving a point in some ways, is inevitable with this kind of blog. However, my claret and blue heckler… if you’re still having this read to you by your literate friend… I admit most of my dislike of your club is irrational (like most peoples) perhaps inflamed by some injustices and casual acquaintances that underlined the bad taste I already had from my earlier experiences… take it as a compliment, you’ve probably just beat us 2-0 after being awarded 14 penalties and the ref celebrated with a knee slide, be happy… or not… after all… you might have to live in Burnley, so in many ways… I’ve already won… 😀

Send your hate tweets to @thelikesofhull on twitter and UTT. Cheers.

Hello dear readers, I hope this finds you well and that you’re enjoying a relatively City free “spoiling everything” few days. You may be wondering …but this isn’t a strange clickbait mental health post today, despite the headline, instead it’s a short piece about an accidental and incremental gain I made a few weeks ago, and perhaps a little of me wondering why that was.

So I’m sure I’m not the only one who has realised that if you watch a streamed version of sport, Twitter/X is often quicker than it. So when I was watching our away win at Millwall a few weeks ago in the club offices before coaching, I took my updates off the the City twitter, as I didn’t want to know that George Honeyman had scored 18 seconds before he did. By the time we actually did score, our own warm up was underway and I only found out later. As happy as I was (and the team I coach won as well) the first half was pretty dreadful and somewhere along the line I forgot to put it back on.

Days turned into weeks and despite an infuriating 2-1 home loss to QPR and rabble rousing 3-0 destruction of Sheffield United led by old potato face himself, I haven’t turned it back on, even with all the flying rumours associated with the January transfer window and I have to say, I’m ok with it. City and the world of supporting us is a very intense watch, everyone seems to have a very strong opinion and like most people reading this, I probably broadly disagree with at least half of what is said.

A case in point…this week the ever brilliant Tiger tube shared a video from the local news about Brian Horton coming in as Hull manager and taking pre-season training in 1984, you can see it here https://x.com/TigerTubePlayer/status/1886692831042908390

This was following a heartbreaking and ultra “Typical city” glorious failure to get promoted to the second level the year before under Colin Appleton by one goal scored, and his subsequent resignation. It made me wonder looking back, what a lovely world that was. The season ended, the papers were printed, decisions were made and six weeks later, we re-started. No angry recriminations, no endless whataboutery, no endless chastising of the admin to announce something, just a new season under a new manager, with maybe a few editions of the truly beautiful green sports mail to give us the headlines.

I think there’s a lesson in there somewhere and in my usual long form convoluted sort of a way there’s a message I’m trying to highlight. Less is more, we live in a society where news and events are so instant on social media that often the world knows about them before they’re even announced. Instant gratification rules and part of me doesn’t love it or long for it to continue. I really do miss the days of the Sports mail arriving at 6.30pm and pouring over it’s content, and whilst I know that’s now gone, I don’t need to buy 100% into the modern ways of sports consumption.

All I have to do is add to stop looking at the #hcafc hashtag and I think I’ll be a reborn man. This may actually be an even darker and more ominous wormhole than the official source. A quick check on there and as well as the rumours, opinions and conjecture, we seem to have acquired some burger king sized whoppers sharing their silver foil hat opinions on the world or frankly speaking in an entirely new language that I neither understand or have the desire to translate, as well as the clickbait, some pretty unkind takedowns of fellow fans and opinions that even Elon Musk might think twice before going to share.

I’m sure there are some normal people with hcafc in their x/twitter names (and let’s be honest I’m leaving myself wide open to a feeding frenzy of gen z anger on here afterwards) but the “oddball conspiracy discussing indecipherable content quota” seems notably higher than in the general public at large, which is quite something on this app these days as it’s already a cesspool of misinformation of Brian Laws type proportions.

But fair play to them (I guess) it’s their world to explore as they wish and let’s let them crack on. What I guess my point is, is that I’m notably happier and less stressed about this wonderful batshit football club, when I’m not spending so much time exploring this bizarre world that’s now been created. In the meantime we signed John Egan, I quite like him and I’ll go in with an open mind to the rest of the season. I do like others think we lack a wide left footed defender of quality but after witnessing Ryan “cry baby no tackles” Giles impersonation of a left back on telly this week. I’m still glad he’s gone. But here’s the key… I’m ok. I’m not as invested perhaps, but just like the Kempton Stand diehards in 1984, I’m ambivalent about the future, although I think we’ll stay up and spending all day arguing back and forth with Asa_Hcafc from Heddon who is a “Pandur enthusiast” isn’t going to keep us up anyway.

Fingers crossed.

UTT.

There’s a reason the blog has become more and more of a walk down memory lane recently. Well, I say recently, sometimes something sparks my interest in the current situation (sacking Walter Tim or getting knocked out of the FA cup) and I use that to look back, but on the whole I’d admit I’ve avoided saying too much about the club in the last two years.

Two or three reasons really, one I’m not really going much as my time is being taking up with non-league coaching, so most of my City consumption is TV based and I think it’s hard to get a totally accurate take on things. Two it’s not the most inspirational write, I think the current product gets a hell of a lot of attention and posts and mine isn’t significantly different or more valid than anyone else’s.

Three and this might be the most poignant reason, City twitter and the other versions or it are somewhat of shark infested waters for me these days, lots of “I told you so” merchants, finger pointing, points scoring and tribal-ness for me, and I suspect many of you are like formerly some of the most prolific city fans and have kept a low profile of late.

Sometimes I write a reply to snarky comment, and then just think “nah” and delete it, it’s wasted energy, I don’t want an argument with someone about City, it’s bad energy, if you really think what you think, good luck to you, there’s an element of pile ons and put downs that aren’t really for me on this app. So I’ll keep my powder dry.

So, with that in mind let’s break down January 27th 2025 into 3 things under the heading of “Good City and Bad City” and if you’re ok with my takes lovely, if not, send your hate tweets on X to @thelikesofhull (my name was taken in vain unintentionally by disappointed Sheffield United fans last week, so that’s always a good sign) or pop onto Bluesky and call me a twat or something… it all works. UTT and all that.

Good City

Ivor Pandur

Player of the year hands down for me from what I’ve seen. Often great even when we’ve been tepid and he’s got better and better. Had no issue with Rushworth and he might even be a tad better with the ball at his feet but you’ve got to believe the boys in the squad back Pandur and will feel at ease with him back in goal. Sometimes keepers are hard to totally surmise with just their saves, Pandur has a presence now and you back him in the big moments, he’s calm but he’s also the aggressor in one on ones when they happen. Acun has got far from everything right, but he definitely nailed this one. You could even argue he could attract attention from the league above.

Ruben Selles

Obvious I know but it’s still true. Ruben has come in, assessed everything around him and quickly set about putting things right. He’s pragmatic but calm, passionate but realistic and he’s clearly got the boys onside. Not unlike a certain French football league manager did a couple of years before him, he saw a leaky defence and some people not pulling their weight and started by sorting that our first. We no longer look like conceding every time someone comes forward and slowly he’s providing the team with players who can make impact at the other end.

Good managers can bring in new players who make a difference (Crooks, Geldhardt, Matazo) but the real sign of how good Ruben is, is the difference he’s made to those already here and who might have been struggling. Sean McCloughlin looks reborn, Joao Pedro was already one of the better players in but he’s gained a spring in his step, Abu Kamara has gone from the outhouse to the winners enclosure.. and I could go on. We’ve got some way to go yet, but I think we’ve found another good one, so let’s hope we keep him this time.

Jared Dublin

Again it’s early doors, but we’ve shipped out what wasn’t working (Mehlem, Giles, Longman) we’re looking to ship out more (god knows we need to) and what he’s brought in so far looks a distinct improvement. As I’m writing it looks like Louis Barry is going to be added to the list and Geldhardt and Crooks were both outstanding on Friday night as well as Matazo fitting in well straight away. Sure we’ll see how much Amrabat plays and what Lincoln can do, but it does seem to bode well overall. I think if we can get a left back in, we’re almost there, especially if Charlie Hughes is nearing fitness. The finances may well be a damned sight trickier to balance up, but let’s hope we hit the jackpot with somebody and that’ll help plug the gap. Well done to this point Mr Dublin.

Bad City

Everything related to the Ryan Giles deal

This whole thing was a disaster both financially and on the pitch. We’ve paid way too much to take a player that however you dress it up had essentially just failed at Luton (no matter how much they spent or how well he’d done before, he couldn’t dislodge Alfie Doughty and didn’t deserve to if you speak to any Hatters) We’ve paid him plenty for the pleasure of some very half hearted performances and he’s left for a club that don’t have to buy him if he continues to be Stephen Kingsley with nice hair. It’s done now, and there’s no going back but jesus… what a mess. Please learn from this.

FFP, the mounting losses, eek

This is one I usually keep to myself, mainly because like most things financial there’s lots of missing details in there and the people who are shouting from the rooftops that it’s impending doom AND those who are saying that those people are idiots and this is how things should be done… are probably both wrong. Far from being the Martin Lewis of football blogs, I’ll just say we’ve had a couple of real goes at chucking the dice so far and it’s not really worked, let’s hope the next one does, so we don’t have to shake like a shitting dog when we read “The price of football” and their breakdown of our finances on twitter. It doesn’t take a genius (and I’m not one) that we probably can’t do this forever.

Fan goading and feuding

Honestly, it’s a messy place the #hcafc hashtag at times, sniping, whataboutery, angry tin hat wearing lunatics, personal attacks etc etc. I try just to swerve most of it, but it’s hard. Is is that hard just to be civil to other fans of this club? I have mates that have wildly different takes to me on life, and football and both, does it really help to make these differences so stark by disrespecting each other? I don’t think so but then maybe as an older fan (51 damn it, when did that happen?) maybe my run ins with John Fenwick on City Independent 25 years ago gave me a little more wisdom.

A small piece of advice, read Tony Turner (@tonytiger67) hands down the funniest bloke on the whole of twitter and a never ending source of brilliant city quips, dip into Tiger Tube (@TigerTubePlayer) and get lost in the reams of brilliant City content, have a look at what John Uzzell says (@Uzzell01) for a balanced view that has reflects what most fans really think and the same for the City Southern Supporters club (@HCSStweets) for the away perspective from folks that have lived a life outside of Hull and are still mad enough to love us all the same.

I know I’ll get stick for leaving out other good people and creators of city content, there’s plenty of good people out there is essentially what I’m saying, go have a chinwag with them, you do you…. Turn down the volume of the squeaky wheels, enjoy being a City fan, because the process of the ups and downs of supporting this club are going to cause you more that enough pain. You don’t need to add to it.

Ok I’ll put my tin hat on and hide for a bit, hopefully the current team are heading to a better destination and there’s a reason or two to be cheerful. Thanks for reading, keep the faith.