Premier League survival for Hull City would be an “absolute miracle”

What a horrendous few months it has been for Hull City fans. That sunny day at Wembley Stadium, where the club guaranteed their return to the Premier League, now seems a distant memory.

With Steve Bruce’s resignation, no replacement manager yet appointed, no new signings, five first-team injuries and an ongoing civil war between the fans and the owners, can you really blame the Hull City faithful for fearing the very worst ahead of the new season?

“What a mess”.

Former boss Bruce left the newly promoted club last month – Photo: Simon Stacpoole / Offside.

This is the usual response I get from friends and supporters of other football clubs when I explain to them why, after 16 years, I decided not to renew my Hull City season ticket for this coming season.

Please don’t get me wrong, every other Saturday afternoon for the next nine months is going to be unbearable as Premier League football returns to the KCOM Stadium, but now finally people are starting to understand what an absolute shambles my beloved football club has become under the current owners.

The straw that broke the camel’s back for me is the Allams’ absurd and unfair ‘Membership Scheme’. Under this new scheme, which has completely replaced the traditional season ticket system, concessions tickets have been abolished.

To put this into context, a three-year-old child, a 16-year-old student, a 40-year-old adult and a 90-year-old OAP will all pay the same price to sit in exactly the same seat at Hull City home games.

As a consequence, some parents have seen their children’s tickets go up by up to 1,000%. This has forced future fans and families away, and has made watching Hull unaffordable for many families, as well as lifelong fans who may now be OAPs.

The relationship between Hull fans and the owners is at an all-time low, however, the relationship has been deteriorating for a number of years now. The sacking of Nick Barmby as manager back in 2012 started the hostilities, before the attempt by the Allams to rebrand Hull City AFC’s official name to ‘Hull Tigers’ made things worse.

Hull owner Assem Allam – Photo: Mark Leech / Offside.

The recent membership scheme, Bruce’s resignation and no new signings this summer, all of which has been done with absolutely no consultation with Hull supporters, have simply made the situation progressively worse over the past four years.

Unfortunately, for the first time during the Allams’ reign at the club, the situation on the pitch looks just as bad, if not worse, as the one off it. As I have already mentioned, as it stands the Tigers’ currently have no permanent manager, a string of high-profile injuries, and no new signings just three days before our Premier League opener against champions Leicester City on Saturday.

It now looks increasing as though current caretaker manager Mike Phelan will be in the dugout on Saturday where he will have his first taste of management. While Phelan temporarily covers the cracks in terms of the management position, there is no hiding the weaknesses in our squad.

The likes of Eldin Jakupovic, Harry Maguire and Adama Diomandé are all set to make Phelan’s first starting XI, despite all three struggling to make City’s Championship starting XI for large periods of last season.

Perhaps one bonus of this whole situation is that City’s extremely limited squad makes predicting our starting line-up and tactics for Saturday easier than usual.

Goalkeeper Jakupovic is set to start against the Foxes at the weekend – Photo: Mark Leech / Offside.

Excluding our first-team players with long-term injuries; I expect our starting XI to look something like this on Saturday: Eldin Jakupovic, Ahmed Elmohamady, Curtis Davies, Harry Maguire, Andy Robertson, Robert Snodgrass, Tom Huddlestone, Jake Livermore, Sam Clucas, Abel Hernandez, Adama Diomandé.

Perhaps paradoxically, the squad’s spirit appears as strong as ever despite the clear fundamental problems the club is facing. Unfortunately, in what is surely the most competitive Premier League in history, this spirit will not be enough to ensure survival.

If we stay up it will be an absolute miracle at this point. However, stranger things have certainty happened.

There is a well-known saying in Hull, made famous by Phil Brown during his tenure as manager – “Hull City never do anything the easy way”.

The Hull City faithful are praying that come next May, we will be able to say this again, ideally about a Premier League Hull City owned by custodians who value their loyal supporters.

Oh, and a squad of more than 13 fit first-team players would also be nice!