Phelan emerging from Fergie’s shadow at last
AT HULL’S training ground yesterday morning, four players worked out in the centre of the bright green acres. It was tempting to wonder if the club’s meagre squad had been reduced yet further, until it became clear we were looking only at the goalkeepers.
It made for a decent gag, at least, and one the man at the centre of this peculiar situation would probably appreciate.
Entrusted with the job — on a caretaker basis at least — of guiding a group of 13 players through the early days of the season, Mike Phelan has realised quickly that a smile and a shrug can work as well as anything when it comes to deflecting the muck and bullets of the Premier League.
Results help, too, and it has been a combination of all these factors that sees Phelan lead Hull against his old club Manchester United this evening with a record of played three, won three, this season.
Hull’s record is even better than United’s. Both have won twice in the Premier League — Hull against Leicester and Swansea — but Hull also have a midweek win against Exeter in the EFL Cup.
It has been quite an effort by a club shrouded in such uncertainty that the manager who took them back to the Premier League, Steve Bruce,, chose to walk away. ‘There are e three things to solve at this football club,’ said Phelan yesterday. ‘Who’s in charge? Who is the next manager? And what players are coming into the club, if any?’
Phelan’s summation wass reminiscent of the famouss remark about the England d cricket team in 1986. Theree were only three things wrong g with them, it was said, priorr to their Ashes tour. Theyy couldn’t bat, bowl or field.
England won that series, off course, and although Phelan’s s team are a long way fromm achieving anything yet, the e 53-year- old is advancing his s case for being offered a manaagerial job for the first time.
‘I am not a manager at the moment,’ he stressed. ‘I guess my career has gone in a roundabout way. But the challenge is great and we have worked really hard here. When I stand on the touchline this weekend, I will feel good, very proud, proud of those players on the field. But I will also feel proud of some of those on the other side, who I have worked with and helped along their journey at United.’
Phelan’s association with today’s opponents began when he was signed as a hardy midfielder by Sir Alex Ferguson in 1989. He played more than 100 league games for the club but it was as a coach and assistant from 1999 that he made his name.
Released by David Moyes when Ferguson retired in 2013, Phelan drifted for a while, working in the media while awaiting an opportunity to return to football. In that time, he said two notable things. The first — that he had in effect been United manager for the last five years of Ferguson’s reign — was odd. The second — that it was time to establish an identity for himself outside the constraints of an assistant’s role — was not.
He returned to the latter point yesterday, saying: ‘You were in an environment at Manchester United where it was important just to do your job, whether that was in a supporting role or as a coach.
‘At the head of it all was one of the greatest managers ever, so for me to just do my job was imperative. But after that you learn a few things and get a bit of your own identity about what you’d like to do. I’ve reached that point now.
‘I’m 53 and it’s coming to the point where I want to try to put myself out there. It’s been great to do that here. Why would I not want to be a little deeper involved?’ Many fine coaches never become great managers. Examples can be found in United’s recent history in the form of Steve McClaren and Carlos Queiroz.
PHELAN would argue that people will not be able to judge him until he is given an opportunity and certainly there have been many recent endorsements. Former United defender Phil Neville has spoken enthusiastically about him, while Hull captain Curtis Davies said this week: ‘A lot of people don’t want the manager’s job here and Mike Phelan does want it. For a man to want to lead us says a lot. It is just about shifting his role from head coach to manager.
‘He will be the same guy, whatever the title, and the way he has gone about the job so far speaks volumes for him and what he can do. He has helped us pull these results out.’
Hull have not bought a player since winning promotion in the play-offs last May. With a proposed takeover of the club by a Chinese consortium — yes, another one — being studied by the Premier League, Phelan is right to want clarification on his position as he seeks to bring in the ‘three or four’ players he needs before the transfer window closes next week.
Everything, it seems, is on hold at Hull City, even the building work scheduled at the training centre where Phelan spoke.
United, however, will arrive like a steam train from the west tonight and Phelan already has an eye on next week’s international break.
‘I may get some sleep,’ he said, laughing. ‘I need a few days away where I can breathe, a little time without answering my phone.’
If Phelan does get everything he wants at Hull City, he may be advised to forget all about that.