Author: Admin

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.

1. 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.

As the famous John Lydgate quote that is often attributed to Abraham Lincoln goes…

“You can please some of the people all of the time and you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”

Well… so it came to pass this week for this City blogger as I incurred the wrath of City X, with lots of Callum underscore lots of numbers and Craig hashtag HCAFC couple of flags coming for me. The reason why? Well, not that it’s terribly important but I was a bit puzzled by the metaphorical tartan bunting some parts of our fanbase were laying out, and desperately wishing for our half fit striker to be elevated to play for the Auld Enemy (C) in next summer’s world cup. I mean, whatever floats your boat, but I support City and occasionally I’m tortured by England, I just can’t gather the energy to be buzzed up by other countries, even if City players might play for them.

Anywho… somebody called me the “Dislikes of Hull” and a geezer that does pub music around told me it was the “dumbest thing on the internet today”, quite the complement really, considering what he ranked above my post. I guess the bad news for my detractors was at least 44 people broadly agreed with me, and I figure this is just a 2025 thing, some people like what you say, some people don’t and some want a plaque of locusts to descend on you and your known relatives for the foreseeable future. It’s just the way of the world these days I’m afraid…

In my slight defense I try to do for City what the national medias have given up, see both sides, not necessarily get too positive or negative about owners, managers, players, eras etc. There’s a real lack of balance to outputs these days, in and out of the city stratosphere. Sure, what I said was meant as a bit dry and darkly humorous, but at the same time it was just what I thought. None of us are getting out of this life alive and perhaps it’s all a little too serious on socials these days. Ho hum.

So with my new darker, less positive persona revealed, I thought I’d have a go at redemption. Write something on the current product that was positive (please note, it was just two blogs ago I did exactly that with a blog about the aforementioned “Scottish” striker) but here we are.

Waaaaay back in one of my earlier blogs in June I said of our manager…

“I can’t be the only person impressed by Sergej Jakirovic. The way he conducts himself, his calmness, the professional manner in which he displays. His experience is wide, he’s a winner and you get the impression he’s the calmest man in the room”

He’s proved that so far and then some. He’s positive without being deluded, he’s liked by the players without being taken for granted, he’s savvy and his in game decisions have got more and more impressive over the opening months to the season. Game after game (Swansea away, Norwich away, Preston home) if things don’t start the way he wants, he doesn’t panic, but he begins to put them right. That to me is where a manager really earns his money and it’s where some (and some that are very well liked historically at City) came up short on occasions.

Then there’s the other ace up his sleeve. Lots of managers are great with THEIR players, the ones they bring in, the ones they’ve worked with before, that’s pretty standard. But the really good ones get a tune out of players that were already here. Look at what Phil Brown did for Michael Turner, what Brian Horton did for Billy Whitehurst, what Marco Silva did for Harry Maguire or Sam Clucas.

So who is Sergej’s successes? Several you could argue, this is far and away the best we’ve seen from Ryan Giles for starters, yes perhaps that’s an easy one but there’s others. I think John Egan has gone up a gear, Kyle Joseph looks like a player reborn and speaking of negative fanbases, Regan Slater has pulled down their pants for the umpteenth time, because he’s been a crucial part of what’s gone right. There are others too, and it’s interesting to see when Sergej has taken players out of the limelight for a while, in my view protecting them, then easing them back at the right time, that’s a good manager ladies and gentlemen. That’s really not easy.

Everyone can’t succeed though, and we’ve loaned out or moved on players too, and will again in January. Kasey Palmer will be fancied to be out the door at some point but I can see nothing to suggest that the big Bosnian hasn’t given him every chance to succeed. You could also argue that Mason Burstow is now an asset to the club to be used at some point for either money or to bring back, and again that was a decision that time has shown to be wise, even if the timing was in a vacuum a little worrying.

His calmness is shown in the performances and he has an aura. Where can we go with this? I think we’re all at that junction philosophically? Play offs, really would be insanely good, considering the restrictions on the club and where we came from last year. It would vindicate the ownership and be frankly an amazing story. But in reality, if we don’t quite make it, top ten or thereabouts, I still think it represents big big strides forward, and the big man is a huge factor in the improved results, style and success we’ve seen.

We’ll see I guess, someone has already popped up on Twitter to take down my pro-Sergej take, telling me it’s not Christmas yet. Maybe if I’m getting stick for being too positive and too negative now I’ve got something right. What I do know is that the Christmas period is going to be fun, watching this team is enjoyable again and Sergej and his coaching team as well as the ownership for bringing him in deserve the plaudits. Somebody told me this week I should be pleased for Oli McB, if he makes his dream of playing in the World Cup, well I’ll match that up it a little by saying that if Sergej dreams of managing Bosnia and Herzegovina in the World Cup, I hope it doesn’t happen, because I hope he’s at Hull City, soz and that, but that’s who I love first, second and third and that’s never going to change.

Thanks for reading.

UTT. “The dislikes of Hull”

After I head into my third year in non league football now, I have an analogy I’ve grown to use to describe the stadiums we go to. (Now we’re at the third level of the pyramid they are a bit grander, for reference, one level above North Ferriby, same as say… Gainsborough Trinity) They fall into to just two categories, loved and unloved. Sure, some have some quirky stands, some interesting bars and dugouts, but it really doesn’t matter if you know the community love the ground, its had a lick of paint and it has heart.

My point extends to football ownership, you either love the club or you don’t. Sheffield Wednesday (cough cough) have just escaped one that didn’t, and we’ve had several as you all know and could name infinitely. One of which isn’t Don Robinson, because Don loved this club and everything that came with it. You don’t get perfect grounds, and you don’t get perfect owners, but you do get ones you love, and we loved Don.

I read yesterday a superb piece by the super talented Richard Gardham on Don, which I’ve linked here. https://www.hcss.org.uk/don-robinson-an-obituary/ like most things on writing about City, I’m in awe of how brilliantly he puts it, so subsequently, yesterday I did consider just bookmarking a piece on Don for another day, however I decided today, that as much as I don’t feel I can match something so well put, I owe it to my ten year old self to pay tribute to the great man.

When City had gone into administration in early 1982, we as family had just moved nearer Hull after many years away so my Dad, my cousin and I were able to attend more regularly. Don coming in almost magically, matched that period and City transformed from years in the shadows to a time of great hope and optimism almost instantaneously. We had the makings of a decent team, despite being in the lowest division (Norman, Marwood, Mutrie, Roberts, Whitehurst) and by the time our first full season under Chairman Robinson rolled around there was a fair buzz in the City. He brought in old friend and colleague Colin Appleton and City were on a pretty smooth path to promotion in 1982-83. But it was the other things that captured the imagination.

The launch of “Tiger cola”, the Florida trip, the record release, the pre-match entertainment that took as much from Don’s background in wrestling as it did football. City was an infinitely fun place to be in an era when there was a whole lot less entertainment to be accessed. I remember them throwing out sweets before the game, the Charlie Chaplin impersonator, and of course Don himself on horse… brilliant, delightfully crackers and utterly infectious.

It made a difference, despite a time when we really were in the shadow of that other sport, attendances began to rise, coming out of the doldrums of three and four thousand and more than doubling generally, with us even getting five figures for bigger matches, which in the old stadium was no mean feat. Don was the epicenter of everything, available to the press, to the fans and to his players, he was essentially the ringmaster at the circus, and everything that brought life into the club ran through him.

1983-84 would be so so close to back to back promotions, and the goals scored travesty that hurt the fans and players so much could have derailed the club but Don then hit upon possibly his best ever decision. With a disconsolate Colin Appleton leaving for Swansea, Don put his faith in the young player Brian Horton and gave him his first job as a manager in football. It was a marriage made in heaven. With Brian’s more positive style of play, and modern approach to the game, added to some clever signings, we were utterly irrepressible and the 1984-85 season was frankly a joy to watch.

We had style, we had goals, we had steel at the back and we were backed by a loyal and noisy fanbase that were united in their love of the club again. Don brought that back, when it had completely gone, and when Colin Appleton had left, he found someone who he knew matched the ambitions of the club. Lots of the pictures doing the rounds in the last few days were of Don celebrating with the fans on the last home game, after promotion to the second level was achieved, in many ways it was his finest hour.

By the late eighties Don had grown frustrated with the club, despite being a mainstay in the second level, in some ways this was a side-effect of his drive to do better. It’s a well known story that he sacked and then desperately tried to unsack Brian Horton following a 4-1 home loss to Swindon, but it was too late. Brian stood by his values and in truth it was never really the same again. After we’d had three more significantly less effective owners, it said a lot about Don, that he tried to return in the late nineties and save us from David Lloyd, it didn’t work out that time, but if it had, we’d have certainly moved forward more quickly than we did.

I think the overall message of this piece is, if you’re anywhere between your late forties onwards, you know what Don did for the club, and I keep getting the same thought in my mind since yesterday. If the promotion celebrations of 1985 was indeed his finest hour, then perhaps the play off final of 2008 was his utter validation. Because so many of the people in that sold out crowd that day, were there because Don Robinson invited them to dream the impossible and will it into being possible. Don was the godfather of the dream, the dream then came true.

He was a force of nature you don’t see in the modern day, a showman and a salesman, but ultimately a fan who just wanted to make those around him love life as much as he did. I love the quote about playing on the moon so much, it summed him up perfectly, anything was possible and indeed probable whilst Don Robinson ran this football club, and honestly? You did it Don, you really did it… City really did play on the moon, we went further than anyone could have dreamed before you dreamed it. Your will power, vision and character enabled it to happen…

Rest in peace my friend.

UTT.

Good mate of mine used to play with with Jon Parkin and I think he told me this story… The team are having a pre-match meal for an away fixture and just got a lad on loan from QPR. They’ve got chicken salad, and the new lad looks over at Parks. He’s got smiley faces, chips, beans with cheese on top. So the new lad asks, “Why’s he not eating the same as us?”. Without looking up Big Jon says, “How many league goals have you scored this season?” the loanee answers that he hasn’t. “Well then young man, I’ve scored 27, so when you’ve scored 27, you can have smiley faces, chips and beans with cheese on top, ok?” and continues to eat his dinner.

I’m re-telling (and probably butchering) this story for two reasons, one he’s ex-City and it’s funny and two, right now if Ollie McBurnie had smiley faces, chips and beans with cheese on top, I don’t think anyone would mind.

I was on the fence when he came in this season, partly because he’s not always been prolific and partly because he’s frankly trolled our club both on and off the pitch for years, however we’re far from the only one. I’m very glad to have been wrong and (try doing it a little more on X City yutes, it’s quite endearing) I’m not afraid to say so.

In my slight defence I think I was exhausted by FIFA playing lads called Jason_#hcafc lots of flags having told me in the past that Malcolm Ebiowei is “about to cook” and the “streets will never forget” Salah Oulad M’Hand. Buuuuut… then it’s my fault for reading this utter gubbins in the first place.

McBurnie is a really rare talent in the second level in that he can hold up the ball like a big man, but he doesn’t have the first touch of a dustbin like Lyndon Dykes or Keiffer Moore for example. His interplay, and two touch and one touch interactions with others are to be fair, pretty much Premier League level and within weeks he’s become our best striker at the club in a long, long time.

How long? Well, that got me thinking, when we brought back Frazier Campbell in 2017, he’d lost a bit, but could still do a lot of that dog work too, I think McBurnie is another level up from that, and don’t even form the word “Estupinan” because he’s waaaaay below OM. I guess in reality you’re saying he’s the best since Abel Hernandez if we’re talking about an out and out number nine, and I know, that’s a big statement, but I’m not sure we’ve had a better one in that time.

He’s not perfect, and there’s a couple of bits I think he can do better. He and the whole team pretty much hit a wall on the hour at Watford and when he’s shattered, you can see it very clearly, but he didn’t have much of an off season, so that will continue to improve. People have mentioned him getting in the Scotland squad, but personally I’d rather see him on the training pitch here and recuperating at 29, than going off to Middleofnowherevenia to lose 2-0 with his national team.

And there’s something else at play with him. Something we’ve addressed before with other players (see Honeyman G), we were soft last year, we lacked personality and fight last year. Crooks helped with that, Egan does, Lundstrum certainly makes a difference… but Oli turbo charges that. He does not back down, does not allow us to be bullied and won’t let others around him do it either. This is the championship, the league of fine margins, we need what he has in bottles being given out to the whole squad. If there’s one thing we can all agree on (and there’s probably only one thing City fans can ever agree on) it’s that the fans love a fighter, love passion and love someone who loves them back. Oli is all of the above.

So… we have the new cult hero, we have a proper nine and in his small cameos so far, we might even have an ok back up in Destin. With OM’s discipline, age and style, we will need it at some point, but it’s also worth noting that the much maligned Kyle Joseph (steady on there Jason_#hcafc lots of flags) has looked a better player already alongside Oli and I think it’s the best thing to have happened to him, if he can learn from the man himself.

We do need more, our midfield still isn’t quite right and defensively we are currently Shakin’ Stevens shaking a packet of shaky steaks reading Shakespeare, we’ve got to get some stuff sorted out if we are to get the thoroughly dull mid-table existence lots of us crave, however Oli McBurnie is far and away the shining light so far and long may it continue. Thanks for reading and UTFT.

So I was coaching in the morning Saturday, so getting to Swansea wasn’t realistically an option. I’d popped out after training and done a few bits and was doing the Sky Sports watch of doom about 4.50pm before getting ready to go out to eat. Hope springs eternal and all that but it felt like another defeat was imminent. From the highlights and listening to fans it felt like we’d maybe not started great and perhaps the side was a little unbalanced? But credit Sergej and we changed bits second half that allowed us a foothold in the game and it looked deserved, albeit pretty late. All 5 subs (Gyabi, Ndala, Destin, Slater and Belloumi) play parts in the goal and it means we continue to have a solid feel in these early days.

Little did I know as the full times were all ticking across that my day was about to infinitely improve with “Swansea City 2 Hull City 2 John Egan 90 + 7” popping up… I nearly jump out of my skin and proceeded to do a kind of old man pogo of doom across the bedroom, which woke the cat up and the Mrs who had been having a pre-meal nap. She’s from Denmark so in her discombobulated state, spoke fluent Danish, at which point I cheerily pointed out 1. Sorry and 2. I had no idea what that all meant (she later told me she was explaining her dream to me). You just can’t beat a last minute goal can you? It’s a specific feeling that it’s so hard to rival in life, and it doesn’t have to necessarily be a winner. A 98th minute equaliser sometimes feels like a winner, such is the relief and emotion.

So this got me thinking of my five favourite last minute City goals. And in a moment I’ll tell you them. I have however done games I was at. So by definition some good ones don’t make the cut, namely…

Charlie Hughes last year at Sheffield Wednesday away. (2025)

Robert Snodgrass’s incredible free kick at Burnley to get us a draw. (2016)

Jacob Greaves mental header moments after Huddersfield equalise. (2024)

All would be worthy to make the list, the Greaves one especially I’d say would be high on many of the younger fans lists but rules is rules.. (and by that I’m clearly making these rules up)

Have a look, I’ve tried to include some video links and I hope you enjoy it. As ever thanks for the comments and retweets, so send your hate tweets to @thelikesofhull and cheers for popping in.

5. Lewie Coyle vs Nottingham Forest home May 2022.

I still don’t know if I’ve ever seen that many people laugh at a football game. But this is a sneaky favourite as an injury time goal. Forest were trying to get the best draw for the play offs and City were just happy to finish the season under the new owners and in mid table safety. The game jumps to life in injury time as first Forest score a penalty and (considering the at best not that important significance) over celebrated like no tomorrow. Brennan Johnson throwing his shirt off and smoke bombs going off.. only for 15 seconds later Jacob Greaves to find Lewie Coyle who crosses to the back post, KLP swipes at it, misses it and it goes in. It’s pure comedy and it’s still the quickest I’ve ever seen an away end silenced.

Fast forward to seven minutes in this clip to relive the brilliance. Lol.

4. Jimmy Bullard vs Sheffield United away December 2010.

Now, as good as a job that he did, exciting Nige “Mr Happy” Pearson’s back catalogue of City games aren’t exactly an entertainment fest. But this game really was very good. On Boxing day in the freezing cold, City jumped out to a 2-0 lead thanks to increasingly in form Jay Simpson’s double. (nice to know even 15 years back City fans were writing off strikers too soon), only to be pegged back by a Ched Evans double.

Then with the Sean Bean Army pushing on in the very last minute, Vito Mannone, the beautiful man, picks off a Sheff U header and releases whippet like Cameron Stewart who flies into the counter attack and when known wig wearer Steve Simonsen can only parry his shot, old glass knees himself puts in the rebound. City’s away end goes potty and the red half of Sheffield are left crying into their really poor beer whilst listening to an obscure Pulp album… probably…

Here it is in all it’s analogue beauty… enjoy

3. Andy Robertson vs Derby County away, play off semi final first leg, May 2016

Keeping up a theme, this goal also sprang from an opposition corner, where Derby were hoping to give themselves a late foothold in the play off semi final after City had held off a strong start and stuck twice via Abel Hernandez and Moses Odubajo’s twice deflected shot.

I think a combination of Elmo, Abel, Sam Clucas and Jake Livermore win us consecutive lose balls and Moses then steps into the counter attack and plays it to Robbo who drives it home. Absolute scenes in the away end and the 98th minute goal would prove eventually decisive to take us back to Wembley again. One my favourite ever City goals and one that belongs in the injury time hall of fame. Fast forward to about 3 minutes 25 to enjoy this beauty…

2. Keane Lewis Potter at Charlton December 2019

Driving, freezing rain at the Valley, 97th minute, 2-1 down to Charlton on a Friday night on live TV. City have one last go and biscuit wristed George Long pumps a free kick into the area, it gets recycled to Kamil Grosicki who curls a beautiful deep cross into the area and KLP flicks a header onto the post and keeper Dillon Phillips (cheers Dillon) and in. Shammy leather faced Lee Bowyer cries and absolute bedlam ensues in the away end. Some lad breaks his finger after going sailing over the top of me, and he still didn’t care. In a terrible, horrendous season this was one of the good days. Incredible.

1. Manucho vs Fulham away March 2009

Lets be honest Manucho was crap. He did almost nothing for City, and yet here we are. We’d been paggered by Fulham for most of the game. Matt Duke had been an absolute wall and then we went and nicked it.

In truth we don’t talk enough here about Richard Garcia, he survives several bobbles and challenges and then delivers an absolute peach of a cross that the big Angolan simply couldn’t miss.

Daylight robbery can be viewed from about the 4 minute fifty mark. We didn’t care one bit and it was almost certainly the goal that kept us up that year. Happy days.

Thanks for reading. Up the last minute tigers. Hope you’re all well.

I’m a sod for this I know. You don’t see a blog from me on City for weeks and then I’m inbox-bothering you twice in a few days. Soz and all that but I guess once I do one, I’ve started thinking about stuff, and the next often follows…

Anywho… a bit of a change of tact from the usual as a couple of bits have happened to people I know recently and it’s made me think about how people are. I, like many of you have lots of groups I’m part of, whether literally (Hull City Southern Supporters, Real Bedford FC coaches, HCST) or whatapp, twitter, and other groups. I have quite a few people I’d regard as friends at City that I’ve barely ever met, in a very 2025 way. Luke Flanagan and Rich Walker for example did the “Tigers Tigers Blah Blah Blah” podcast some years ago, and they were kind enough to ask me to go on it a few times, we’ve always stayed in touch and not many weeks go by without a whatsapp being exchanged between us, often based on someone being a “meff” or just random stuff.

I hear from multiple City fans online that I’ve sometimes never met and I’m part of Twitter groups too, which has led me to get to know other City fans, I’ve met several in real life at games as a result. Again most likely like you, I’m part of more whatapp groups than I care to remember, whether it’s old school mates, a fantasy football league, beer or celebrating old school football games, these groups are sometimes fun, sometimes not and often pretty busy (god bless the mute button).

“So.. what’s he blithering on about again?” is what you’re no doubt thinking again dear reader and I’m gonna try to get to the point. (honestly) Recently an old friend of mine had gone through a bad time, I will spare you the details, but thanks to another very good mate of mine he was helped into rehab, and in the last 18 months or so has slowly recovered. He’s been through the mill and for a long, long time I feared the call would come to say he’s gone. It didn’t though, thank god, and although the demons are never too far from the doorstep for any of us, he’s been making progress. In a group I’m in with ten lads I went to middle school with, he rarely ever said anything for the longest time. Then this summer, he began to say a few bits, just join in with a daft joke, or ask a question. I took him out for lunch this summer, and we had a great time, laughing like little kids and remembering funny and stupid shit from the past. He’s not all the way back yet, but he’s in a better place.

I’ve another mate that’s struggling at the moment, again I won’t go in too deeply but there’s been tell tale signs he’s not right. The same lads in the same group have noticed too, I’ve tried to reach out and get him for a beer, it’s not going to be simple but I’m hopeful. Without some of these modern ways of communication, nobody might even know….so.. my point is this. We’re all existing in very different way in 2025 than we did in the past, I have old mates, online mates, whatapp mates, football mates, coaching mates, teaching mates, pub mates etc. I guess I even have Twitter mates?! I met Rich Skipper a few years back after I wrote a piece on his Dad Pete, we had a beer before we got paggered 3-1 by QPR and we have generally stayed in contact, I guess that’s an example. (Hello Rich… hope you’re well and enjoying the nice weather there…)

Men’s mental health is more and more under the spotlight. Suicide data shows that whilst 5.6 in 100,000 females commit suicide, that’s over three times higher in men at 17.1 per 100,000. The reasons are well established and I’m not going to turn this into a informercial (although increasingly it’s reading like one). My Uncle and big City fan back in the day was one of those men. I remember being at games with him and my Dad and cousins in the eighties, nineties and early two thousands. He loved City more than pretty much anything else. The last time I ever saw him, we were bemoaning how crap City were at half time when we were 2-0 down at Leyton Orient, near the start of the Adam Pearson days, he walked back to his mates and I never saw him again. He was a good lad and often in the years that followed, I’d wished he’d seen the better days the club had, he would have been so, so happy to have seen it.

Twitter can be a cesspit at times, and as City fans we’re not the best, it’s really saddened me to see young men (largely) posturing and threatening others, belittling and going after several fans on here. I just don’t get it. You don’t like them, we can see that, but that stuff can be paralysing and some people just don’t get over it, it deeply effects their mental health and they can slowly slide into crisis. And I’m not lecturing, I think at times I can laugh at the nonsense posted by others and even if it is deserved I don’t really know what good it’s doing. We can all try to be better in that regard I think. We can all be a virtual Ash, hugging Peter Taylor at Yeovil.

So finally here’s my point (longest pointless blog eveeeer), it’s hard in 2025. It’s hard for men, and I’m not ignoring female fans too, I’m just trying to address the statistics that show this threat. We’ve all got different types of interacting with each other, some virtual and some in person. Keep an eye out for your mates, if you’re feeling down, reach out to one of the ones you trust. Maybe ask a mate you’re worried about for a pint before or after the game or watch a game together in the pub, or just drop them a message. Because something as little as this could be the thing they need to get through the day. And if you are that person, the one who is struggling, be my old mate in the whatsapp group, people want to help you and you’re not alone, honestly.

During lockdown in 2021 me and my cousin watched every City game pretty much online together, it was a horrible time. There was a lot going on for both of us, but it was such a positive bookmark for the week. In retrospect it probably got both of us through it and looking back, it wasn’t much, it was just time spent together like a pair of divs, making jokes, cheering when we scored and being a general idiot. For reason’s best known to ourselves, we christened Josh Emmanuel “Sexy Josh” that season and would sing the WWE wrestler Shawn Michael’s theme music when he’d do something good, even now if I see he’s playing or got a move somewhere I can hear “He’s just a sexy josh… he’s not your boy toy” in my head. (my cousin won’t thank me for this, but after over fifty years of friendship he’s used to my stupidity and randomness)

We are lucky. We have Hull City, it makes (and sometimes breaks) our weekends. It’s made us mates and kept us entertained for years. Look after those mates, and those families, tread lightly sometimes, and be prepared to reach out. You never know the difference it might make, it might not seem like much to you, but it could mean the world to the person you message. Take care.

UTT.

I hope this finds you all well. I haven’t written anything since the 100th blog and to honest I was kind of waiting for inspiration. It’s a bit too early in the season to comment too much on the current product. Plus you’ve got the thought police on regular duty… we beat Oxford United and we’re heading for the play-offs… then when we concede seven in two games… we need to relax! (lol). I honestly can’t be arsed with all of the online nonsense at the present. I hope we’ll be better than last year and would like to see us in mid-table. I think Brandon Williams could do with a game now, and that when we have Belloumi and Millar back properly, I think we’ll do ok, but that’s about it.

Anyway, probably down to the International Week boredom (C) I started to think about my favourite “entertainers” at City over the years, five players who were mavericks and would be a little bit different from our usual product. Have a read, I hope you enjoy and add a comment, like, retweet, etc if you do. UTT and hopefully we’ll get a result Saturday at Swansea and my timeline will be full of Sergej in a chef’s hat stirring a chilli….

My top 5 maverick players to watch at Hull City…

5. Evandro. Strangely enough when I posted about him the other day (he’s coaching in Doha) lots of you agreed he was a wonderful talent and one bloke said he’s shit!? Ahhh… City fans.

When Marco Silva brought him in during the winter transfer window of 2017, he seemed to fit in well and certainly despite our ultimately unsuccessful escape campaign Evandro had won some fans with his clever touches, neat interplay and highly technical ability.

Injuries robbed us of seeing him enough but in his third and final season for us we saw some wonderful moments, not least the bicycle kick after a flowing move at Villa Park that put us ahead that day. Evandro just saw the game really quickly, and combined incredibly well with others. I’m pretty confident that if you spoke to Jarrod Bowen, Kamil Grosicki etc that they enjoyed playing with the Brazilian.

Sometimes you can come up with all kinds of clever ways of saying things, but I just liked Evandro, I loved the way he played and I was happy to part with my money to see what he was going to do.

4. Theo Whitmore. I think he’s been in “The boy was a larker” so I’ll keep it succinct. Theo was light years ahead of his time. If he played now, and was coached early, at an Ajax or top european academy, he’d be far and away the greatest West Indian footballer the world ever saw. Big words I know, but I do mean it.

In an era where everyone (often including us) kicked it, whacked it, hit the big man, played off… Theo was playing by another set of rules. Sometimes City played him in the ten, occasionally out wide, I think (city historians help me!?) he’s even played for us as an eight in advanced midfield. To be honest he wasn’t much use if you wanted him to win a header, or a tackle. But if you wanted the first touch of an international, Theo was your man. If you’re too young to remember him go have a looked at Tigertube.

He’s just a joy. He sees the whole pitch, his languid gait and long legs defy logic and gravity at times, the end to end goal he scores against Darlington (I think) at BP is just mesmerizing, you can watch it over and over, as City break from a corner and he exchanges passes with the diminutive Clint Marcelle before effortlessly slotting home.

Maybe I’ll take it on the chin that Theo was more special because we weren’t easy on the eye in this era, that’s probably true, but he really was something. Whether it was a scoop pass, a back heel, a flick flack, or a stepover Theo was your man. When Adam Pearson came in, we just simply spent too much money and had too many players, so Theo slipped off the radar. The reality was those early teams under the new owners should have been based around Theo, not with him on the periphery, maybe then we wouldn’t have underachieved so much in the early days of the new era.

3. Kamil Grosicki. I thought long and hard about this and like Theo, there’s a point where I think… “We were largely turgid when Kamil played… maybe that made him look better than he was”. Then I remember how John Uzzell would hunt me down and kill me if I didn’t include him… so I did.

In truth there’s something maverick about Kamil’s attitude. He could blow hot and cold, he was (and presumably still is) insanely quick and therefore in the blink of an eye could change a game. He’d be very busy online (did anyone ever have a can of “Turbo Grosik”?) and there’s obviously the time when David Meyler tells him to go to bed on the transfer window and that he’d see him in the morning.

One of my favourite moments was after he scored our third goal at Luton in 2019 and for reasons best known to himself, climbed on the advertising hoardings, held on to a pole that held up the net and saluted. Just Kamil doing Kamil things. The City fans loved it and went duly mad in the away end.

I guess that’s the way with a maverick player, he’s going to do something you don’t want to miss, and that’s the way Kamil made the fans feel.

It might have been the season before when he scored from fully 40 yards out from a free kick at Millwall, I was there and can assure you he meant it, he shot from 40 yards out and scored, like he’d just hit a side foot pass from a throw in. Amazing.

I saw him once in the Hilton Hotel in Hull before a game. I think he was in the dog house with Slutsky at the time and had only just been included in the squad. I got in a lift and there he was in his City tracksuit. There’s a photo of us somewhere on my phone. We had this mental broken English conversation where I asked if he was going to play and he kept saying “I hope, I hope” and I called him a hero, and he looked confused. Ah, happy days.

2. Jay Jay Okocha. He played 18 times for us. 18. It’s ridiculous. It’s almost a quiz question to other fans, because they don’t even remember him playing. But I don’t think I’ve ever been more entertained in so short a time.

From the torture he offered future tiger Alex Bruce for Ipswich to the cheeky skills and flicks, Jay Jay was just a joy. I do think that season he gave those around him a boost, the players, the fans and the management, because when he did play everything about him said “I’m better than you” and that goes a long long way.

My favourite memory is against Wolves though. I’m not sure it’s even on video but we beat them away 1-0 and they hammered us. They hit the bar, Bo saved everything, we didn’t deserve it. But if that wasn’t insult enough, Jay Jay towards the end of the game ran the ball into the corner to waste time. Apart from it wasn’t the corner but the halfway line, with it’s flag in place (do they still have them? Maybe not) anyway… Jay Jay attracts one and then two and then three angry Wolves players, but he spins away from them, pinballing it past a sea of legs, and then begins to run across the half way line being chased by the same players. The fans just cheered and laughed.

The only way it could have been any funnier was to add the “Benny Hill” theme music to it. Jay Jay was cut from a different cloth, and he joined in the Wembley celebrations in May, he’d been a big part of what went on and I think his time at City will always be cherished by the fans.

1. Geovanni. It had to be him didn’t it? The genius from Brazil? From the moment he blew open the first ever Premier League game vs Fulham by cutting in and driving an unstoppable rocket into the bottom corner the love affair from us to Geo was set.

It was no surprise that in recent interview he shocked the journalist by saying he loved playing for City the most. Not Man City, not Benfica and not Barcelona, and you know he meant it. He said it was like a family at City and the fans loved him the most there, and we did.

People point to the Deano goal at Wembley as to changing our fortunes the most, but more of the general public will remember Geo’s gravity defying thunderbastard at the Emirates. And rightly so. It was something from another world. I’ve never seen anything like it from a City player and I’m not sure I ever will.

Geo was simply a delight, I saw him once of the pitch and although he couldn’t speak a word of the queens he didn’t disappoint, he lit up the players lounge, entertaining the mascots and putting Tom Cairney in a headlock to cheer him up. His personality on the pitch was matched off it.

For City, he simply had another second on the ball than anyone else. It really wasn’t more complex than saying Geo…. go do something good. And he did with regularity. The boy, like the above four, was a maverick and one who entertained us more than we could have ever wished for. What a player.

Thanks for reading gang and up the tigers. Cheers.

Way back in May 2021, I was bored stiff during our days being in and out of lockdown and missed the whole process of watching City. So in a bid to stay sane, I decided to have a go at writing about us. It’s something I’d done before in doing match reports for City Independent back in the day and to be honest I’d gone stir crazy, I’d ordered about every city shirt on Hull City Retro, I’d retrospectively bought a load more off e-bay and i-follow could only take you so far, so I had a go at speculating who in the squad that had just won the league could thrive a level above, and here it is.

https://thelikesofhull.co.uk/449507705/449507706

Now whilst it was pretty average at best in it’s content I’m quite happy with the prediction that..

“Coyle, Greaves, Alfie Jones, Honeyman, Docherty, Lewis Potter and probably Malik Wilks” were the players that would cut it. The fact we’ve still got two of them now and two went to play in the Premier League suggests I got away with that one.  Another 98 blogs and 4 years later here we are, I hope I’ve kept a few folks entertained and given us something to talk about. That’s always been the aim, I do have a background in coaching, scouting and semi-pro football, but I’ve always tried just to write as a fan, and try and recreate a discussion you might have in the pub before a game.

Anywho, thanks for all the retweets, comments, likes, and general support over the years, it’s meant a lot to me and getting the odd message from players, former players, or their families has too. I tend to write about the past because the current way of thinking in 2025 is fairly infuriating and I just can’t be bothered with the hassle. Despite this I’m refreshingly unpopular with several loud members of the City X community, like Bobby Beef OBE, Dawson’s thing-a-me blocking machine and too many other thicko trolls to name. I follow the team, not blindly the regime and I see the good and the bad, I personally like to think I strike a balance, but you can’t please them all.

Sooooo… as I hit 100 blogs, I reached out to some of the City fans on X/Twitter that don’t want to run me over and asked them for some questions to discuss about our club. It was a very similar process to how people were selected for the pre-season tour, only I didn’t pretend it wasn’t fixed (see what I did there?) Thank you to those who replied and thanks to everyone who has supported me. There’s too many to mention but I only ever did this to stave off insanity and to make a few of you smile, so I’m really grateful I’ve achieved the latter. UTT, keep the faith and enjoy these twits asking me questions.

From my favourite City poster John Uzzell @Uzzell01on Twitter.

“Why do you love Charlie Palmer so much?”

The answer is two fold John. Firstly I know his nephew Graham (who is now a cameraman) from growing up, so I met Charlie a couple of times when he was playing non-league. He’s hilarious, if a little grumpy and had loads of great city stories. I did love him as a player too, and thought he was really underrated, so when message boards started up in the nineties, I’d post under the name “Charlie Palmer”, hardly anyone posted under real names, it was kind of like a fashion thing. It did used to make my mates laugh that if I went to City away, some fans would still call me Charlie because of my online name. It’s just stuck and I don’t mind one bit.

From Ken De Mange’s Socks @de_socks on Twitter.

“How pivotal was the strike partnership of Billy Whitehurst and Les Mutrie in the 80s and what were your favourite goals by them?”

I have to admit Les was early in my football fandom, although he was an important part of the 82-83 promotion team, whereas Billy was my hero as a kid. My fantasy team at University was called “Billy Whitehurst is god” and I won’t be having my mind changed. Favourite Billy goal was probably not his best, but the equaliser against Liverpool in 1989, just because of the significance. I saw most of his goals in 84-85 under Horton and some of his headers were incredible. I do think you make a point though about Les’s influence. Chris Chilton is often mentioned in the development of Billy, but learning from a canny veteran like Les must have also improved him. People also think of Flounders or Edwards more as his partners but Mutrie was an excellent foil that would run off Bill’s shoulder and create opportunities.

Jamie T, @ThatjamieT on Twitter asks

“Who are the most bat shit mad city fans and name them in order, and why is Dave Fergus number one?”

Brilliant! Dave is delightfully crackers and covers more unintentional Partridge than almost any of his peers. The sad thing about X/Twitter is a lot of that is gone, the days of the nutty city fan aren’t really there any more, and perhaps we’re worse off for it. I’m not sure about a list but the most crackers online fan I ever remember was John Fenwick, who message board fans would know very well. John (I’m guessing he’s no longer with us) was no fan of Peter Taylor and would often write long, illogical and cutting pieces of his tenure. Now you might ask the question, but didn’t Peter Taylor do a good job? And of course the answer is yes, but that seemed only to spur John on and dig out poor Peter even more.

Further still he’d often refer to a “dossier” he’d put together about said manager as if he was collecting evidence that would see the former England U21 boss put in shackles and routinely pelted with rotting fruit and veg. Quite bizarrely he was the most angry about the dropping of Paul Musselwhite for Bo Myhill and was absolutely certain this was going to hugely backfire. Certain posters of the time just would poke him slightly and set him off, it really was the kind of madness that you don’t see today. God bless him.

Rich Skipper @rich_skipper on Twitter asks

“What’s your favourite game (home and away) not including Wembley?”

Very unintentional Partridge again but “The answer to both is Derby County”. The comeback in the spring of 1985 was one of the most astonishing things I’d ever seen, it just doesn’t happen. 2-1 down and reduced to ten men, City looked like losing a pivotal game in a very tight promotion season, so when we equalised around full time the scenes were of sheer relief. I remember my cousin and I looking at the programme to see if this would keep up in the top 3, then deep into injury time, a towering Billy header and it was 3-2. Utter chaos in the Kempton, Derby had brought a big crowd and there was a lot of eighties style posturing. But the air just exploded, grown men wept, it was a miracle in era when you didn’t get one. Obviously Rich your Dad played and he must like us have felt it as a huge moment in that Brian Horton team going up. It was my Grandad’s last ever City game and I still remember turning around and seeing him pogo-ing up and down in the Kempton without a care in the world. It was so perfect that was his final City moment.

The 3-0 away demolishing of them in the 2016 play-offs was just as epic, but for different reasons, we’d been smashed there 4-0 just weeks earlier and I don’t think any City fan had high expectations that day, but after being under pressure early, we broke away and Abel scored a perfectly slotted goal from distance and ran at the City fans like a lunatic, doing an impromptu hop and salute. Within minutes we’d scored again with the criminally underrated Moses Odubajo being helped by a double deflection and we were on our way. The scenes in the away end that day were just bonkers, the noise and the smoke, it was manic. Then to top it all off, we broke in injury time and made it 3 through Andy Robertson, it was absolutely bat shit mental by that point, people flying around, my old man was stuck by an amber smoke bomb, just brilliant. You could go for a lifetime and never see anything that good. The City fans being at their best sang “We’re fucking shit” so loudly, mocking the Derby fans taunt of weeks before. Immense.

Rich Walker @bigbadwalks on Twitter asks

“What’s going to happen to City between now and your 200th blog?”

Blimey, if I look back, one hundred blogs ago, we’d just gone up, we weren’t in the market to spend but we had a really good crop of young players coming through, as the previous owners looked to sell. It’s almost the reverse of now, no debt, no spending, good youth, limited ambition vs lots of debt, high spending, a lack of youth, lofty ambition.

Look my feeling isn’t great about the current direction, I felt/feel like it’s going to end in tears at some point. I think the key question is does Acun do a Houdini and use his friends, influences, investors to get us out of this hole, or does he sell, or do we slowly die on the vine? I’ll get pelters from the blue drink brigade but I think we’ll see League One before we see the Prem, and I’ll have to really emphasise this.. I don’t want to! (this seems the go to of the Acun backers, if you suggest we might fail, that you somehow enjoy it, I don’t and I don’t want it) But it’s hard to see it not happening.

Keep it light Peter! I’ll also predict that Lee Walker will buy 346 pieces of merch, Stan Ashbee will have the Ian Ashbee song sang about him, because he’s that good, Dave Fergus will complain that an away top looks like the Ukraine flag, and Bobby Beef CBE will invite a second owner over for chips, smiley faces and beans and they’ll watch re-runs of Dangermouse together.

Finally the greatest City fan of all time for me, Lee Walker @wakka80 on Twitter (as if you didn’t know) asks…

“Why do certain fans not believe what the local media report?”

It feels like a good question to end on Lee, the answer is essentially “2025 shit” people don’t want news anymore, they want to be told (a little like John Fenwick did) that their take on everything is right and therefore anyone going against this is wrong. I personally think Mike White and James Hogarth have just described the events, the fact the club were caught cold by these reports isn’t on them, they knew what was happening. Baz Cooper has played a much more careful tune and that’s fine but nobody reporting the current issues did anything wrong. If you push me a little, it sticks in my teeth a bit that Phil Buckingham only chimes in behind a pay wall when it’s bad news. He wasn’t my favourite City reporter when he was at the mail, and I have no issue with the validity of what he’s said, it just feels a bit backhanded, both Mike and James have covered the more positive news too.

Anyway gang, thanks again, it means a lot, you’re all the reason I’ve done the blogs and I’m really pleased I’ve now hit this milestone, I could probably have spent my time better, but that’s the story of a City fan’s life. It’s definitely helped me keep (fairly) sane, and if it made you smile, or took you past some fun memories sometimes, then that’s more than alright with me.

Up the tigers, and thank you.

It was only the 25th June when I wrote on the blog last folks, and Nostradamus himself would have struggled to best me when the end of my introductory tweet before my piece read.. “Such positivity won’t last”. I mean my expectations weren’t huge, but boy have the club taken this literally.

It’s been yet another mess of an offseason and potentially more messy than we’ve seen in a while. We’re currently under a three transfer window restriction which means at this time we can’t pay a fee or loan fee for a player until 2027. We’ve appealed this and blah blah blah. Let’s be honest if you’re reading this, you know very well what’s happened and don’t need me to retell it. Although do you?

City twitter is still awash with the tin hat brigade shouting anyone down who dares to be unhappy about said turmoil, and I’ve even read those saying that until we know “the facts” we shouldn’t comment, and that people seem “happy to see us fail”. Good grief. So with that in mind, let’s cover some facts we know. We twice didn’t pay fees in time, once to Villa and once to known rule abiders Man City, and this has brought about these restrictions, we also have been running up unpaid debts to other local and national companies, which may or may not be now paid off. We’ve appealed but people who know a lot more than me have basically said “Good luck with that”.

So here we are, the fan base seems very conflicted with a lot of people voicing frustration at the owner, some people defending them to an extent, and some still fully waterboarded and singing his praises like a latter day saint. Myself? I’m probably about a cup quarter full, as I said on the old X/Twitter/Musk mail this week. It’s been coming for a while and although I can see that Acun might still want to succeed and probably didn’t foresee this coming, that’s still not ok, if anything it points towards incompetence over not caring and I’m not sure which is worse.

Edit, today Phil Buckingham did a piece (unpopular opinion, not a big fan, he phoned it in towards the end of his tenure and literally only pops up to write articles on us when it’s going badly) which points even more to serious holes in the club’s finances, although it does suggest the owner may be open to moving on. However…

The whole idea of an owner as some sort of saviour is all a bit strange anyway? Isn’t it. They aren’t the football Bob Geldof turning up to help us out of some sort of god given sense of charity, they’re all doing these things for very specific reasons and a love of Stan McEwan, Patty and Chips and Maureen Lipman isn’t likely to be near the top of their list. When did we realistically last have someone who actually supported the club as an owner?

The Allams weren’t fans of Hull City clearly.

Don Robinson wasn’t a fan.

That tennis whopper wasn’t.

Russell Bartlett or Adam Pearson weren’t fans.

Christopher Needler wasn’t.

Was Harrold? Help me historians, I think he was.

Paul Duffen definitely wasn’t or isn’t.

Ironically I think Martin Fish might have been.

This is my point. Old Fishy, fell into the job when the previous Chairman was ill, he didn’t really want to do it. Most if not all of our owners were taking over the club to try to oversee some sort of success/profit/build something, with a potentially very large club, serving a large city with a huge catchment. Acun said a lovely speech about the Humber being like the Bosphorus, but unless you’re a grown man, who is retired and invites people over for sausage and chips for tea, I’d hope you didn’t get suckered in by that.

He sees like we all do the potential for success, and he has indeed had a go. He’s not done particularly well, but you could say the difference between him and Duffen was a couple of league places two years ago and a successful play off campaign. They both made big plays to get to the big leagues and one “succeeded”… kind of. Although that didn’t end great either.

I guess what I’m trying to say in a long winded way, that you know and love, is that everyone who has ran this club wasn’t doing it for some sort of selfless quest to end up in heaven, and most of them didn’t really manage to get what they were trying to achieve in the first place, although I for one solidly believe Don Robinson would have eventually got us to play on the moon.

We have a clear choice, going boom and bust a lot, like the last fifty years, or living to our means which means almost certainly not being in contention for the top league in the country, or maybe going down a kind of moneyball stat based approach like Brighton or Brentford. That’s the choices really, because if we roll the dice and spend, it’s almost certainly going to bite us on the arse unless we strike gold with one of the players. The players who we have sold for the most in the last decade have tended to come through the academy (Potter, Bowen kind of, Greaves) so the lack of investment in the current batch doesn’t seem overly clever either. Ho hum.

So you might be asking? Hang on you bedwetting, lefty, misery loving twatbucket, I thought you said this was going to be a positive take. Well here goes. Hold my beer.

I can’t be the only person impressed by Sergej Jakirovic. The way he conducts himself, his calmness, the professional manner in which he displays. His experience is wide, he’s a winner and you get the impression he’s the calmest man in the room. The one thing we can all agree on (I mean most of us, City fans couldn’t ALL agree the day ended in y) is that we did/do have better players than the league showed last year. We really shouldn’t have been so far down, whilst Millwall almost made the play-offs. Therefore, before a fire sale, he’s got some real talent in this squad in Hughes, Miller, Egan, Alzate, Puerta, Belloumi, Pandur, Drameh, Kamara etc. I’d also argue he has players who have struggled that could turn around under him, like Slater, Burstow, Joseph, Giles. I’m not saying they will, but they are clearly better than they’ve shown.

Sergej went into Carrierbagspur (C) who were under an embargo and expected to go down, he didn’t just keep them up, he did it easily and I think had like the third or fourth best record in the league from when he arrived. He’s canny, he’s experienced and I don’t think the current plight has bothered him. He’s the good news. A great manager at this level trumps everything. You can give old ham sandwich face Wilder millions and millions and he’ll still fail, meanwhile Cifuentes or Rohl were at dysfunctional clubs (like us) and they were never in danger. If and I know it’s an if, Sergej gets a tune out of this team, and we’re just ok in the league, then either Acun can sort out his books or ship out and the most interesting coverage will be off the pitch. Potentially on the pitch, we could just be ticking on. Like I said, you can’t say I’m a complete pessimist.

It’s a sad reality, that this blog will either have people hating on me like that curly haired lad who does you tube videos and ranting like Cornflake Chris watching GB news. or telling me I’m wildy optimistic and I’m drinking the Hopium. In truth, like the rest of us, I’m trying to just make sense of it all and hope that we can emerge from this mess with something to cheer. I wish we could just have normal off-season, and just you know… play football and that. But unfortunately that doesn’t look likely. Sergej is my hope in this, he’s the antidote to our current issues and he’s the silver lining to this cloud. Let’s back him.

UTT. Keep the faith.

11 year old me was in the back garden in November of 1984. City were away in London and just after half-time struggling Leyton Orient scored a fourth goal to stun promotion chasing Hull City and lead the game 4-1. My Dad had heard enough and had gone upstairs away from the pain that
Hull City AFC can give you on a Saturday afternoon, as he was coming off shifts it meant he wasn’t in a position to have made the long trip to London, and at this point he was thanking his lucky stars he didn’t make that mistake. Anyway, just then Radio Humberside (through our kitchen window) broke the news that City had made it 4-2 and with twenty minutes or so perhaps it wasn’t quite over. I headed into our house to offer the hopeful news to the old man, however, remarkably, by the time they went live to London, we’d just made it 4-3, with still fifteen minutes left, my walk broke into a run.

I breathlessly shouted this news up the stairs and my Dad walked down dumbfounded. “They’ve scored twice? Are you sure?” I assured him I was and we once again serenaded the small silver Hitachi radio in the kitchen in the blind hope that a miracle might be in the offing. Now, ninety nine times out of one hundred, this scenario would most probably just as easily deal you further heartbreak but a few minutes later the bamboozled reporter (I’ll definitely need a City historian to source me who was covering the game, but I’ve a vague memory of them being southern based) was describing a Stan McEwan equaliser in the dying embers of the game. Me and the old man jumped around the house in celebration, somehow City had snatched a point in the most unlikely of circumstances, three goals in the last 20 minutes and our day wasn’t to be totally lost.

We’d only just stopped celebrating when they went live to Brisbane Road again, only it wasn’t the full time whistle that they were describing, somehow, some way, a cross had arrived at the back post and Andy Flounders had tapped in an injury time winner. It was 5-4 City. I can’t remember the next period of time but I do recall running around and around the back garden like a demented cocker spaniel with the zoomies. It was a full on, actual miracle, within a minute or so they confirmed the final score and despite listening to this we still waited for it to be read out on national radio minutes later. My old man just grinned.

This emotion, excitement, despondence, hope, heartache and finally vindication, and all we’d done is tune in a radio and listened to the events second hand. I’d have given anything to be one of the 300-400 City fans in the away end that day. I think historically speaking it’s our greatest statistical comeback of all time, although that Brian Horton team rarely knew they were beaten and came back from 2-0 down at home to Derby County with 10 men the same season to beat them 3-2 with a towering last minute goal by Mr William Whitehurst, which was the last game my Grandad Hanson ever saw City play… he couldn’t have chosen a better one.

Why am I telling you this story you may ask? Well, with pre-season training about to start and another season now on the horizon, it’s sometimes easy to forget it’s moments like these that make our football lives worth living. And the really beautiful thing is, you never know when they are going to happen. 35 years later I made the last minute decision to finish work and go straight to south London and watch us play Charlton Athletic in the pouring rain. 2-1 down in the 96th minute, this didn’t seem like the greatest call, but as the seconds ticked away, Kamil Grosicki picked out a peach of a cross and KLP (with the help of our new back up keeper) headed home. Chaos in the away end, someone flew over my shoulder, Lee Bowyer’s half a pound of ham face convulsed with agony, and it was all suddenly worth it.

Those moments, when Mo Diame opened up onto his right foot and sent a beautiful arching, dipping, curling effort beyond the reach of Live Aid Wednesday’s keeper, when Jacob Greaves headed in at Huddersfield in injury time seconds after they’d equalised, when City broke from a corner and Andy Robertson makes in 3-0 at Derby, dancing round a hot and bothered Steve Bruce as the away end was engulfed in orange smoke, when Deano hits that volley, when Ian Ashbee swivels and swings in that glorious curler at Yeovil, when Geo hits the shot of the century that swirls and dances and laughs at the Arsenal keeper as it seers into the top corner. They all make it worth it. The nonsense, the travel, the expense, the stupid sales of players and the broken promises, the sneering of “big club” fans and the near misses, the struggles and the boring turgid 1-0 defeats. In those great moments the rest of the world can go and hang, they can whistle, because you are actually free in that exact second, free from the mundanity of normal life and connected in a way to hundreds or even thousands of virtual strangers. It’s why we go back, it’s why we can’t walk away and it’s why we’ll never stop.

So the new season is looming, a few signings in, no doubt quite a few out, will we go up? You’d need to be quite the optimist to think so and a season of mid-table consolidation would be snatched up by most city fans I know. But you never, never know and that’s the beauty of it. I don’t know diddly squat when it comes to predicting this mentalist club, and if you think you do, I’d suggest you’re probably wrong. There’s a million rumours about who will be coming in, some will happen, many won’t and we’ll all check the #hcafc hashtag about fifty times a day. Sergej Jakirović seems in principle a decent move to bring in, his career has shown he wins more than he loses which we’ll certainly take after last year. But let’s see what it brings, it might be awful, it might be brilliant and it’ll probably be both, often at the same time or moments apart. And just when you think like leaving the game, or turning that metaphorical radio off, it might just all fall into place. Here’s hoping…

Thanks for reading. UTT.