HULL HORROR SHOW A LONG TIME COMING
ON Saturday, Hull City fans are plotting to kick balls over the stands and into the KCOM Stadium in protest at the running of their club. any supporter whose effort lands in the vicinity of the opposition goal will be doing better than their team managed during tuesday’s 8-0 humiliation at Wigan, the club’s worst defeat in 109 years and one that has sparked a fresh uprising against the owners, the allam family. the Hull Daily Mail — banned from home matches for ‘negative’ coverage, but present at Wigan — recorded: ‘Hull’s pulse has been increasingly hard to locate during a catastrophic run through 2020, but this was the night an aimless and ailing club finally flatlined.’ the defeat leaves Grant McCann’s side two points from Championship safety with two games to play, the first of which is the mammoth visit of Luton — one place below them — on Saturday. But how has it come to this? Hull were in the Premier League three seasons ago. as recently as New year’s day they were in eighth position. Since then, however, there has been just one win in 18 matches. the January sale of their two best players — Jarrod Bowen and
Kamil Grosicki — is the most obvious reason for the crash, compounded by captain Eric Lichaj and vice-captain Jackson Irvine failing to agree terms to carry on post-lockdown. But their loss speaks of a far wider decline within the club, where animosity between owners and supporters has long been the norm following failed attempts to change the name to Hull tigers and the removal of concessionary tickets. as one source close to the club told us: ‘Wigan felt like a train that had been coming down the tracks for three years. Summer after summer there had been a downgrade on the squad in terms of experience and talent. there is no player over 30 and most of them are loan signings and free transfers. the owners have wanted to sell for six years now, and until they do there will always be this feeling of conflict and disenchantment.’ With the club on the brink of relegation from the Premier League in 2017,
spoke to Geoff Bielby, chairman of the Hull City Supporters trust. at the time, he said: ‘the owners will cash in on our best players and they’ll be replaced by loanees and sub-standard players. I fear the parachute payments will not be invested in the squad or the club and we could have a situation where our assets are stripped away. We could well start spiralling down the leagues.’
Bielby revisited his words this week, and told us: ‘the prophet of doom? I’ve been resigned to eventually being relegated to League One for a long time. ‘there has been a strategic withdrawal of investment since 2017. Head coaches have walked away, all citing a lack of ambition. they can’t all be wrong. But Wigan felt like the players had finally deserted us, too. It was a total capitulation.’ It is said that
Hull is unsellable at the £40m asking price and, while it is far from being in a state of financial distress, what remains is a shell of a club. they do not own the stadium, the training ground is small and basic and any valuable playing assets have gone. and what of McCann, the 40-year-old ulsterman who said he was ‘so, so sorry’ but refused to turn on his players? as one source close to the dressing room said: ‘He needs the players in these next two games. It might be that Wigan motivates them, that’s what they have to use it as. ‘Southampton lost 9-0 this season and came back. the manager still has the players on side.’ McCann’s popularity among supporters has taken a hit since January, but there is also sympathy, especially given the loss of influential players. Bielby says he is managing with his ‘arms tied behind his back’. ‘there are no leaders,’ added the source close to the club. ‘the manager should have killed them after Wigan. you wouldn’t bet on there being any response against Luton.’ If not, League One beckons. ‘at the end of it all the club will get what it deserves,’ said Bielby, and he has been right before.