Nigel Adkins will not be Hull City manager next season.
After weeks of meetings with Assem and Ehab Allam, they were unable to convince
him to stay and take on their bargain budget rebuild challenge.
Adkins is the third manager to walk out on the Allams in
three years after Steve Bruce in 2016 and Marco Silva in 2017. In between, Mike
Phelan and Leonid Slutsky were sacked after failing to work the same miracles
as their counterparts amid the constant sale/release of key players, erratic last-minute
recruitment strategy and continued fan unrest.
This summer promises to be the lowest point yet for a
club that has been slowly dying since the minute Mo Diame’s goal went in at
Wembley in the 2016 play-off final. With hindsight that may have been the worst
possible outcome despite the elation of the moment. The Allams decided not to
sell a club they freely admit to not wanting to own that summer and it’s been
downhill ever since. The “preparations” for a fifth season in the Premier
League were shambolic. And somehow every summer since has been worse. 2017 saw
Leonid Slutsky fielding youth players in friendlies while suffering the embarrassment
of seeing players sold from within his pre-season training camp. 2018 saw players
walking out on vague contract offers because they’d rather be anywhere but
Hull.
This will be the worst. We’ve already seen divisions in
the fan base reopened by a ridiculous vote on “membership” options for next
season. Rather than fix a scheme that has seen (real) attendances regularly
fall below 10k, the club offered fans the chance to vote on two models. One
being the current disastrous model and the other being a return to a
concessions model with the caveat that fans relocated to the North Stand will have
to move again.
And now Nigel Adkins has decided that his future will be
better served elsewhere. And not a single fan can blame him. He wasn’t
universally popular when he arrived in December 2017 and his ultra-positive
personality grated on many, particularly during times of struggle. But last
Autumn, his belief and confidence in his squad and his methods turned a side
struggling against relegation to one challenging, fleetingly, for promotion.
His team played attractive, positive football and while they came up short –
expectedly after the poor starting position – his reputation has been restored.
Adkins was hugely successful at Scunthorpe and
Southampton before spells at Reading and Sheffield United left him on the
scrapheap. He was desperate to get back into management and desperate to work
for Hull City and has ensured through his hard work in the face of adversity
that his stock is high once again. He had the option to stay and work with the
Allams’ reduced budget and non-existent ambition or to leave as a free-agent
and gamble on a job coming along that suits him. It was a no-contest.
So where on earth do Hull City go next?
Let’s not pretend
that there won’t be applicants. In the same way there have always been players
who want to play for our club, there’ll always be managers who see it as a
step-up on whatever they are doing currently. But will any manager worth his
salt fancy the challenge set by the Allams? The challenge of rebuilding a side
without the likes of out of contract David Marshall, Evandro and key striker Fraizer
Campbell and soon to be shorn of captain Markus Henriksen and flying winger Kamil
Grosicki and star larker Jarrod Bowen on a fraction of the wage budget and with
little of their transfer fees to reinvest.
While Nigel Adkins over-achieved in challenging for the
play-offs last season, he did have key players through the spine of the team to
work with. As well as Marshall in goal, Henriksen in midfield and a frightening
triumvirate of forwards in Grosicki, Bowen and Campbell, he was able to sign
Tommy Elphick for the heart of the defence. The difference in the team when
just Elphick was missing for the second part of the season was obvious. The
brains’ trust running City thought Liam Ridgewell was an appropriate
replacement. That’s the frightening reality we are working with.
It’s impossible to be anything but hugely pessimistic for
the season ahead. Off the field, the club claim to be interested in building
bridges and a shiny new badge (with our name on it – shock!) was supposed to
herald the start of that but the vote on memberships and upset caused over re-relocating
the North Stand fans contradicts that completely.
On the pitch is anyone’s guess. Who knows who the Allams
will find to replace Adkins. In their defence, they have generally made good
managerial appointments. Even the ones that haven’t worked out have had more to
do with their subsequent relationship than the actual appointment. And 18
months ago, no—one was excited at the prospect of Nigel Adkins. But regardless
of the talent of the new man/men, they will be working with one hand behind
their back.
Staying in the Championship next season will be a very
good achievement.
