Ten Years At The KC Stadium - #6

In this series of blogs, I'll pick the Top 10 Players, Games and Goals from the 10 years at the KC Stadium and will throw in a variety of top 10 lists and boring facts! This is number five in the series and number six in the countdown:

FACT: The Tigers have taken on 90 different teams in competitive games at the KC Stadium. We’ve also entertained the likes of Aberdeen, Dundee United, Hearts, Osasuna and Royal Antwerp in pre-season friendlies.

QUIZ: Can you name the 11 current members of the football league who haven’t played at the KC yet?

 

Top 10 Players - #6

Nick Barmby

Everyone knows all about Nick Barmby. He’s the best footballer to be born in Hull in the last 50 years and arguably ever. He went off to Lilleshall (the St. George’s Park of the day) and signed for Tottenham Hotspur. He’d move on to Middlesbrough (£5.25m), Everton (£5.25m) and, somewhat acrimoniously, Liverpool (£6m), picking up 23 England caps, going to two European Championships, scoring the first goal of Sven Goran Eriksson’s England reign and playing in the 5-1 win in Germany in 2001.

By 2004, he was finished. Leeds United had paid £2.75m for him 2 years earlier, a deal which cost them over £100k per game and £500k per goal from the transfer fee alone, and he’d been on loan at Nottingham Forest while Leeds were slipping out of the top flight. Chortle. That summer Barmby took a pay-off from Leeds United, said goodbye to the Premier League and the public gaze and got himself set for retirement by joining his hometown club, fresh out of Division 3, on a free transfer.

He enjoyed a fine season with The Tigers though Peter Taylor handled him with kid gloves, often replacing him around the hour mark with the job done. Barmby started 38 games and chipped in with 9 goals including the fastest goal in the clubs history (7 seconds) against Walsall in November and a memorable double at Hillsborough in December as The Tigers won 4-2 at Sheffield Wednesday on a night we’ll never forget. It was a season that ended in a second successive promotion and took Barmby a step closer to the level he’d played at for almost his entire career. He’d never make it back to that level of course, not even the most ardent Hull City fan had dreams that ridiculous.

The next two seasons in the Championship were frustrating for Barmby. Both heavily hit by injuries and the second compounded by a sour relationship with manager Phil Parkinson. He still managed to bag another double at Hillsborough to seal a 2-1 win, the third season in a row he’d scored there (Quick quiz: Against which other team did Nick score 3 seasons in a row between 05/06 and 07/08?) and he bagged a late equaliser at Stoke which kept The Tigers afloat in the Championship. He was over-shadowed at times by Dean Windass but had a knack of scoring in crucial games.

The 2007/08 season, our best ever, is well documented. Unfortunately for Barmby, he missed two massive chunks of it between September and December and then February and April. He returned for the business end of the season, scored in both legs of the play-off semi-final and then played 70 minutes at Wembley in the blazing heat as The Tigers secured promotion to the Premier League. 4 years after he was finished, Barmby was a top division player again. He played in 18 league games that season, City lost only 3 (and he was sub in two of them!) As was the case for most of his 8 years at the KC Stadium, we were a better team with Barmby involved.

Unfortunately, injury cost him the chance to be involved in many of the Tigers real glory days in the Premier League. He did clock up nearly 50 appearances in the two top-flight seasons though, more than anyone could ever have predicted. The last two years of Barmby's City career were full of upheaval. Firstly he saw the entire squad ripped to bits following relegation and then watched Nigel Pearson try to rebuild it in the wake of the Allam's takeover. Barmby had a good season himself in 2010/11, scoring 7 goals and being Nigel Pearson's go-to guy whenever a game needed changing. Even into 2011/12, at the age of 37, Pearson continued to call on him to add a bit of experience and quality to his exciting, young side. In November 2012, he took over as caretaker manager following Pearson's departure, later taking the role permanently and hanging up his boots. That meant that his last game for the Tigers was as a substitute in a 2-1 home win against Cardiff, a game in which he fittingly scored the winning goal. Barmby made a good fist of managing the team and put his faith in his young players and the way he wanted them to play football. Sadly, we missed having a plan B at times. Barmby himself would have been ideal. He was sacked in the summer for disagreeing with the clubs owners which prompted outrage from many City fans, so high is that regard in which he's held.

Nick Barmby came home in 2004. Most people thought he was here to play out his last couple of seasons in the comfort of League One. Most people don't know Nick Barmby. He's a winner. He's demanding of himself and everyone around him. He won't let his or anyone else's standards slip. He helped drag the club, kicking and screaming, from it's lifetime of mediocrity into the big time. He's a big game player. Whenever the pressure was on, whenever the stakes high, Nick puffed out his chest and took on the challenge. If not for the injuries restricting his appearances in several seasons, he'd be much further up this list. He served Hull City with pride as player, coach and manager and his "couple of years" turned into 8 mostly wonderful ones. City are flying high at the moment and Steve Bruce is doing a wonderful job. But I'll still be forever sorry that we didn't get to see Nick Barmby lead the club his way. 

Top 10 Matches - #6

Hull City 4 Darlington 1 - 09/08/2003

Opening days don’t come much better than this one. Peter Taylor’s side began the season as one of the promotion favourites, a tag they hadn’t coped well with in either of the previous two seasons. It was to be the first full season in the KC Stadium and on a roasting first day of the season, Darlington came to town. 9 months earlier, they were the party poopers who ruined the last ever game at Boothferry Park. This would be our day.

Four of Taylor’s five summer recruits started the game with Andy Dawson missing out through injury. Right back Alton Thelwell, jack-of-all-trades Richard Hinds, winger Jason Price and Danny Allsopp, signed to form a strike partnership with the deadline busting buy from the previous season Ben Burgess, were all included. The only negatives on the day were the inclusion of Taylor’s buddy Marc Joseph ahead of club legend Justin Whittle and the slightly disappointing crowd of 14,675. It was still a terrific bottom division turnout but down on some of the gates the previous season.

Jason Price was the star turn on the day having a hand in several of the goals and forcing two good saves from Andy Collett in the first half. Midway through the half, the home crowd had something to cheer about as Ben Burgess met Joseph's header from a corner, Collett saved his header and Burgess snaffled up the rebound. We were lifting off. But not just yet. With the Tigers struggling to maintain the tempo in the heat, Darlo came back into the game. Barry Conlon should have equalised but shot straight at Fettis before the same player finished well from 10 yards sending the teams in level.

The Tigers came out with a roar in the second half and banged in two in two minutes to kill the game off. Price struck a deserved goal amidst chaos in the Darlo area before turning provider again, flicking the ball on for Thelwell to race into the area and thump a terrific volley into the far corner. It could easily have been 6 or 7 after that with City playing some easy on the eye football that we’d craved for years. In the end, we settled for four with Danny Allsopp hitting a third debut goal of the afternoon. His shot from 20 yards into the far corner of the net was a real crowning moment.

It would have been just like Hull City to promise much and deliver little but this side were an exception. They fulfilled all of the promise they showed on that August afternoon and were promoted, the clubs first move up the league ladder for 19 years.

Top 10 Goals - #6

Dean Windass (Hull City 1 Sheffield Wednesday 0 - 30/12/2007)

This is a forgotten gem, I think. Great free-kicks have been few and far between at the KC Stadium (though we’ve seen a few corkers on the road) and this is by far the best. It settled a local derby and earned a win that would be crucial come May though we didn’t really know it at the time. 

10 Biggest names to grace the KC Stadium

1. Fernando Torres

2. Xabi Alonso

3. Robin Van Persie

4. Michael Ballack

5. Didier Drogba

6. Carlos Tevez

7. Steven Gerrard

8. Ryan Giggs

9. Robinho

10. Jan Venegoor Of Hesslink

QUIZ ANSWER (SPOILERS AHEAD!):

 

Accrington Stanley, AFC Wimbledon, Aldershot Town, Barnet, Burton Albion, Dagenham & Redbridge, Fleetwood Town, Gillingham, Notts County, Stevenage, Wycombe Wanderers

Quick quiz answer: Watford

Higher Than A Four?

Steve Bruce sensibly made it his first priority as Hull City manager to fill the vacant goalkeeping position following the departures of Adriano Basso, Vito Mannone and Peter Gulacsi this summer. The club have been linked with numerous players in numerous positions over the past few weeks but separating the accurate stories from the fairy tales that are eagerly spread by greedy agents and the ubiquitous SKY Sports News at this time of year is a difficult task. As each name appears in a newspaper or on a website fans debate the merits of each name, the likelihood of it happening and the reasons why the player might not come to Hull or why Hull wouldn’t welcome the player.

Leaving aside specific names, it will be interesting to look at the areas Steve Bruce may look to strengthen. This isn’t easy for two reasons. The first being that it’s impossible to know just how many players Bruce will be looking to add to his squad. When speaking on the issue, he has only offered “three or four” as a vague answer In terms of adding quality to an already talented first eleven, that’s probably a sensible number. However modern football is about far more than the first eleven with most clubs looking to carry twenty or more quality players, usually two for each position. The tigers struggled in the last quarter of the 2011/12 season when the rigours of the season caught up on the relatively small first team squad. Nick Barmby was criticised for not using some of the fringe players to freshen up the team but the simple fact is he didn’t think they were good enough. He saw those players in training every day as player and manager for months in some cases and years in others and he didn’t think they could do a better job than a Matt Fryatt or Corry Evans playing at eighty percent of their capability. 

Steve Bruce has promised that everyone will start afresh under his management. It’s a standard and sensible approach. There’s no point him alienating anyone in the dressing room when he needs to maintain harmony in the squad and there’s no point him running down a player that he then hopes to offload to another club. Even though I’m sure he’ll attempt to give everyone a clean slate and to judge them with an open mind, it won’t be lost on him that some players have failed to impress the previous two or three managers (who can’t all be poor judges). So while “three or four” additions is a fair guess from a new manager it doesn’t take into account the lack of depth he might find or the players he might not fancy once he’s worked with them. It’s also difficult to second guess the manager because we don’t know how he’s going to set the team up. Bruce appears to be a 4-4-2 man. He likes a pair of strikers and pace and creativity from his wide players. I’d be quite surprised if we see him wander too much from this system but it’s hard to know what he might have taken from his Sunderland experience or what he might do to accommodate the system that the players have been used to for the best part of 18 months. 

Defensive cover is sure to be something on Bruce's mind. With club captain Jack Hobbs out of action until around Christmas, James Chester is missing his regular partner. Liam Cooper and Sonny Bradley covered at the end of last season but both lack experience at this level. We were lucky that first choice right-back Liam Rosenior avoided injury and lengthy suspension last season as young Danny East was the only natural replacement. Only at left back where Andy Dawson, entering his 10th season as a Tiger, and Joe Dudgeon compete do we have depth and options in defence. Experienced cover at right-back and centre-half comes in the shape of Paul McShane who, despite being the only City representative at the European Championships, hasn't been wanted at the KC. While undoubtedly committed and an infectious character, he lacks pace and is prone to error. The club would love to get his Premier League-level wages off their bill but it's proven difficult. McShane is no stranger to the manager as it was Bruce who "sold" him to us in the first place in part-exchange for the best defender we've ever had. It still hurts. I still wake up in the night screaming.

There is sure to be at least one striker recruited. We've been crying out for a bigger front man for two years. Under Pearson and Barmby, I often referred to it as a Plan B striker. Under Bruce, I'm sure he'll be looking for a Plan A striker to provide a foil for the smaller front players we already have. Nigel Pearson recognised the need last summer but the man he brought in, Dele Adebola, proved to be one of his few mistakes in the market. It was the right man but about three years too late. Pearson's hands were tied a little tighter than Bruce's are expected to be so the mistake need not be repeated. In Matt Fryatt and Aaron McLean we have ready made partners for any new forward. Fryatt is a natural goalscorer, one of the best outside the Premier League, while McLean can stretch defences with his pace and will work right across the front line. Any further additions up front will depend on what future Jay Simpson and Mark Cullen have at the KC. Simpson showed flashes of brilliance under Pearson but never consistently enough to convince him that he was the man while Barmby rarely used him at all. Cullen has been around the first team squad for three years without threatening a real breakthrough and has struggled to impress while out on loan. It wouldn't be a surprise if both or either were shipped out during the season, temporarily or otherwise.

The midfield area provides a few interesting questions for the new boss who has already stated that he feels it's an area in which we are strong. Though that hasn't stopped the rumour mill linking the club with Ryan Tunnicliffe, Paul Coutts and David Meyler. In the centre of midfield we have the old, calm head of Paul McKenna who exceeded all expectations last season. Corry Evans brings youthful exuberance and bundles of energy while Tom Cairney has all the ability in the world but needs to take games by the scruff of the neck. Seyi Olofinjana should provide height, strength and attacking threat from midfield but no Hull City manager has got a lot out of him so far. It's unlikely that anyone will take him off our hands so Bruce will have to try and get the best from him or else he'll become the most expensive piece of furniture at the KC Stadium ... again. With four reasonable options, one of whom eats up a great deal of budget, I think additions to the midfield are unlikely unless a quality player is available on a low-cost loan.

The wide areas appear the most urgent in terms of strengthening. Cameron Stewart is the only natural wide player in the senior ranks now that Robbie Brady and Josh King have returned to Manchester United. Stewart is hoping we'll see the best of him this season after an injury hit 18 months at the club. He endured a disappointing end to last season but feels that was caused by the effects of the long lay-off catching up with him. Bruce likes to employ wide players. In the past wingers like Jermaine Pennant, Antonio Valencia and Stephane Sessegnon have done well playing under him. Another player who's done well under Bruce is Sebastian Larsson who started as a central midfield player but settled into a wide role. That brings us to Robert Koren. Assuming City can fight off interest in Koren from Leicester City and Reading, Koren's position in the team will be a question for some debate again. Koren was originally deployed as a left sided midfielder by Nigel Pearson who didn't fancy him in a two man midfield. When injuries forced Pearson's hand in 2011, Koren moved into the middle and did a terrific job for a few games. The team then settled into the popular 4-2-3-1 system that they'd use for the remainder of Pearson's reign and most of Barmby's with Koren becoming a second striker. This position suited Koren with the team built around him and allowed him to concentrate on attacking, free of any defensive responsibility. If Bruce does settle on a more traditional set-up it raises questions about Koren's position again. Whether Bruce sees Koren as a central midfielder or a wide player also probably affects how many wide players we'll see brought in.

Bruce has already signed a pair of goalkeepers. If he added a winger and a striker, we'd have a good first eleven and he'd have made his "three or four" signings. However looking at our seven subs on a match day, we'd have a similar problem to the one we often had last season in that very few players on the bench had the ability to change the game. Olofinjana would give a bit of extra height and McLean some pace up front. To really change games though, we'll need another couple of attacking players who can challenge for the first team and have impact from the bench. Three or four then starts to become five or six or seven. Steve Bruce may have to do a bit more wheeling and dealing than he's planning. Or perhaps he's planning to do a bit more wheeling and dealing than he's letting on?

A Quiet Summer

Spending the off-season in turmoil is nothing new to Hull City. Many a summer has been spent fighting off administration, attempting to gain access to our own ground or simply coping with the latest turnover of owners, managers or players. Rarely in the history of Hull City has a tumultuous period been so needless and so self-inflicted. The Tigers finished the 2011/12 season in 8^th place in the second tier of English football, a finish bettered less than a dozen times in the clubs 108 year history. There was plenty of cause for optimism; we had a young and hungry playing squad led by a loyal and committed young manager playing an attractive brand of football. Thanks to the generosity of the Allam family, the club’s once-dire financial situation could be described at the very least as stable.

Then, like clumsy cowboys, the Allams shot themselves in the foot. Nick Barmby was suspended by the club. The Allams took offence to remarks he made in media interviews after the Tigers trip to Portsmouth. Barmby urged the owners to share his ambition and take the club to the next level. In doing so, he also intimated that funding previously promised in the January transfer window had not been provided. It wasn’t the wisest thing for the manager to say whether it was true or not. The reaction of the owners was baffling. Instead of sorting out the situation behind closed doors and forming a united front, they suspended Nick Barmby. 

Taking personal feeling out of the equation and the fact that Nick is a club legend and genuinely “one of our own” the owners had taken a manager they spent a great deal of time convincing to take the job, a manager who’d provided continuity after the mid-season departure of Nigel Pearson and a manger who the players trusted and respected and dismissed him over a minor row. The disciplinary and appeal processes were a charade. The owners’ damaged ego meant their decision was made and was final. Nick Barmby’s stubborn nature meant he was never going to accept a u-turn once he’d been wronged. If firing a local legend as manager wasn’t a large enough public relations nightmare the Allams also terminated the consultancy agreement with club saviour Adam Pearson. The reasons have never been revealed and may well be valid (if rumours are to be believed) but the statement that appeared on the club’s official website stating only that Pearson’s agreement had been terminated “without notice and without compensation” was vulgar.

While our Championship rivals were busy preparing for the new season, trimming squads, opening contract negotiations and starting player recruitment, Hull City hit the pause button. It took a week for the owners to confirm the sacking and another fortnight for the sham appeal process to conclude. It would be another three weeks before a new manager took charge. The Allams shouldn’t be criticised for taking their time making a crucial decision but for causing the six week hold-up in the first place.

It was an excruciating six weeks for Tigers’ fans because, aside from the dismay over the decisions being made, the whole saga took place in near silence. An article appeared in the Hull Daily Mail in early May which was so one sided it could have been written by the Allams. Confirmation of Nick Barmby’s sacking and the end of the appeal process were the only other communications between owners and fans in the six weeks. And this at a time when the fans hadn’t received season ticket renewal forms. Some may suggest it’s quite the noble act for the owners not to ask fans to stump up the money for season tickets before slaying one of their favourite sons. In the realms of the football business it’s extremely odd. The renewal forms did eventually make it through with the still seething Tigers fans asked to pay 15-20% more for season tickets, 150% if disabled. Those in the South Stand were told that it was to become the football equivalent of a crèche without any consultation. And all the while, the club didn’t have a manager, the fans had no communication from the owners and the media, local and national, threatened us with candidates such as Kevin Blackwell and Gary Megson.

The Allam family saved Hull City football club. They committed over £50m to buying the club and paying off existing and future debts. That’s FIFTY MILLION POUNDS. Their contribution to the football club must never be under-stated and never taken for granted. Without the Allam family, Hull City would exist as a lower division football club if it existed at all. The Allams earned, and deserved, a lot of goodwill from the people in Hull and East Yorkshire. In six weeks, they almost wiped it out. They aren’t above valid criticism. Complaining that a man who’s spent £50m on the football club won’t spend £3m on a new striker isn’t valid criticism. Complaints over the treatment of Nick Barmby, the season ticket fiasco and the lack of respect for the paying customers most certainly are.

The summer finally began moving in mid-June as Steve Bruce became the 38^th permanent Hull City manager. Bruce, best known for captaining Manchester United to their first English league for 26 years (and the first of many Premier League titles), has extensive experience in the second tier having managed Sheffield United, Crystal Palace and Birmingham City at this level winning two promotions with the latter. That experience of taking a team up from the Championship was one of the key items on the Allams list of qualities they wanted from the next manager. They don’t appear to be concerned with appointing someone who’ll provide continuity and will play in the attractive manner that Nigel Pearson established at the KC and Nick Barmby was so keen to continue. In fact all the talk of continuity and of appointing members of the coaching team who would remain in place should a manager up and leave that the Allams were so keen to stress after Pearson left was forgotten. Stuart Watkiss, Steve Wigley, Sean Rush and Kevin Kilbane have all followed Barmby through the exit door.

Instead the reins have been handed over to Steve Bruce. He’s appointed his own backroom staff. Steve Agnew left Middlesbrough to become Bruce’s assistant manager while Bruce raided his old club Sunderland to take on Keith Bertschin as first team coach and Stephen Clemence as reserve team manager. While contrary to their original plan this is normal practice for a football club. Bruce will be in charge. He’s an experienced and well-travelled manager who’s enjoyed relative success at a number of clubs. He had a reputation for spending lots of money which will be tested at Hull City were funds are limited. He’s signed a number of expensive flops in his time as a manager but has also unearthered some gems. He has a well-pencilled little black book. He has contact with some of the biggest clubs in the country. He has experience of scouting world wide. His teams play a reasonably attractive style of football but one that is far more direct than we’ve been used to for the past two seasons. He has a reputation of being more of a mentor than a tactician. He’s old-school. I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing. One thing is for certain, it’s going to be a different season at the KC Stadium in 2012/13.

The summer hasn’t had a great effect on season ticket renewals. Getting people through the gate could prove a difficult challenge unless the Tigers roar on the pitch. Despite a steadily growing number of transfer rumours, there have been no additions to the squad as the players gather for pre-season. Steve Bruce’s only bit of business so far has been to ratify the contract extension offered to Andy Dawson which is most welcome. The squad looks a little thin at the moment and there are vultures hovering around some of our prized assets. The Allams have been ambitious in their choice of manager. That ambition will be tested further this summer by the players we recruit and the players we retain. Some have opined that Steve Bruce is “just a big name”. The football world outside of east Yorkshire disagrees. Despite finishing 8^th in the Championship in 2011/12 and appointing a “big name” manager, the Tigers are less fancied than newly promoted Charlton and Huddersfield to win promotion to the Premier League. Outsiders have under-rated our young squad for over a year, so it’s not a complete surprise. It does suggest that there is still plenty of work to be done if the Tigers are going to worry the rest of the division this season.