Hull City: Six Months Of The Acun Era

It has been six months since Hull City were taken over when Turkish businessman and TV personality Acun ılıcalı, though his Acun Media Group, purchased the club from the Allam family. Acun was paraded on the pitch ahead of his first game as owner, the 2-0 win over Blackburn Rovers at a buoyant MKM Stadium on the 19^th January 2022.

Pic: @acunilicali

The sale brought an end to the Allam’s 11+ year stewardship of The Tigers, and not before time. The club was run down, worn out and unambitious  - though financially secure – before the takeover but is already unrecognisable. The years of warring between the fans and the former owners are a thing of the past.

Whether the ideas come from Acun, his right-hand man Tan Kesler and CEO Jim Rodwell or from the brilliant but long-suffering staff already at City - they’ve clearly torn up the copy of “How not to run a football club” they inherited. They have set about creating a harmonious and exciting environment for fans to return to the MKM Stadium as well as repairing the relationship with the local media outlets to ensure widespread coverage of the club and access to games for fans who can’t go because of age, health or financial restrictions.

The much maligned membership scheme has had an overhaul to revert pricing to a zonal system. There is fair pricing based on the best views in the stadium, a fantastic offer of free memberships for children under 10 and outstanding pricing for the young adults who are the lifeblood of the club’s future. They were also the ones who suffered most from the removal of concessions five years ago and attracting and retaining them is, rightly, a major priority.

After several successful discounted games last season, the new permanent match day pricing is as attractive as the membership pricing and that also rewards the young fans as well as making City a great prospect for opposition supporters and the thousands of students and visitors to the City who can only pick and choose their games. Unfortunately, moving away supporters back to the northeast corner of the ground means the fans in those blocks have to move seats AGAIN but the move has been well communicated and is well meaning and hopefully most understand the need.

The “CITY” in Hull City is no longer a dirty word and has been embraced by all marketing. That’s not just locally but widely in Turkey, where Acun has introduced City on primetime TV shows and secured impressive sponsorship deals with Correndon Airlines and TOMYA but throughout the world thanks to Correndon’s Hull City emblazoned plane. It’s far from lousy now.

Most importantly to many, the ambition being shown on the pitch is where the difference is most stark. The January transfer window was quieter than many predicted, most probably because relegation was still a very real threat, but the signings this summer have been higher quality, bigger risk and larger investment.

Nathan Baxter and Allahyar Sayyadmanesh impressed on loan last season and bringing them back was a no-brainer. Baxter returns for another temporary spell from Chelsea (with an option to buy him) and Allahyar has joined permanently from Fenerbahce for about £3m.

Tobias Figueiredo and Jean Michaël Seri were Championship standouts last season. They were promoted with Nottingham Forest and Fulham respectively back in May and are a level of signing we haven’t been in the market for in years. While both were free transfers, they’re on contracts we haven’t offered since the summer of 2017.

Turkish international midfielder Ozan Tufan has cost £4m from Fenerbahce. Colombian striker Óscar Estupiñán came in on a free from Vitoria Guimaraes, where he finished as the 5^th top scorer in Portugal’s top flight last season. Soon to be confirmed are the arrivals of winger Doğukan Sinik, another Turkish international, from Antalyaspor and big Gahanian striker Benjamin Tetteh from Yeni Malatyaspor. These are all exciting but riskier deals. They’re the result of Acun and his team’s contacts and scouting network in Turkey, are unknown quantities in England , save for Tufan’s unsuccessful loan spell at Watford, and require big fees. They feel like the sort of signings who will either set the Championship alight or will be returning to Turkish clubs on loan in January, with little in between. It’s has certainly brought more anticipation than hoping free transfers from League One and Two will bear fruit but obviously brings higher financial risk – and reward.

The length of contracts offered to these new players, and existing squad members, has been another welcome shift with three and four year deals being given to secure highly prized assets. The club were financially stable before but watching tens of millions of pounds worth of players walk away free defied that cautious approach. The new arrivals are generally tied down to 2025 and beyond alongside existing assets like Matt Ingram and Brandon Fleming.

Pic: @bazdjcooper

While there is clearly much to be excited about so far, plenty is still unknown about the new ownership. We have no idea of the finances available to Acun, any backing he has or any intentions beyond the very admirable ones he talks about as a football fan like any of us – Acun being a huge Fenerbahce supporter. Most of that is none of our business either, but no fan of a club that has been in receivership, administration and varying degrees of financial meltdown as often as ours would not worry, even just a bit.

Despite some of the hysteria amongst the arse-kissing sociapaths on social media, the new owners are not beyond fair criticism for their decisions. The sacking of Grant McCann, given the job he was doing on a tight budget, was ruthless. I credit the owners for their honesty in the statement given after McCann left, and they did clearly always want their own man, Shota Arveladze, in charge but it was a very harsh decision. As was the decision to release some key personalities in the squad this summer, such as former club captain Richie Smallwood. It’s hard to argue against the strategy to upgrade key positions but they have to get the decisions right when letting go of people who were more than capable of doing a job and were well respected and liked in the dressing room.

Similar could be said of the sale of George Honeyman who has been our standout player for the last two years. It’s unclear how committed Honeyman was to staying given mixed messages in media interviews given before and after he left for Millwall, but it’s clear that while Arveladze valued him, it was only to a point, and the contract offers made reflected that. New contracts are being offered to encourage players to commit to City, which is great, but the offers aren’t always to the level required. At least one other first-teamer has rejected offers because they’re nowhere close to what they could earn elsewhere. I hope that is just teething problems.

Fans will have noticed that while City have been linked with every player who has ever been to Turkey on holiday, there are many other rumours linking the club with domestic players who aren’t quite in the same ballpark. Such as the suggestions of Rotherham striker Matt Smith or AFC Wimbledon midfielder Jack Rudoni. This is mainly because the club’s original scouting team are working pretty much the same way they always have while Tan Kesler’s team have established knowledge of players in and around the Turkish top flight. It’s a curious set-up that needs work, as does the public nature of the transfer business. It’s refreshing to see the club and media working harmoniously but all transfer targets being named in the press well before the club have them secured is a harmful trait.

The biggest negative so far has been the departure of Keane Lewis-Potter to Brentford for around £20m all-in. It was inevitable. He was going to join the Bees last summer before a late change of mind from the club and Brentford sniffed around again in January. The fee is a good one for the club and the move is good for the player but Acun was desperate to avoid losing KLP and his public comments that he wouldn’t sell even for £30m were ill-advised. The club have made the best of the situation though, securing that near club-record fee and re-investing it in fees and wages for international players.

The departure of big personalities like Smallwood, Honeyman and Tom Eaves and the ultra-talented Lewis-Potter has created gaps we hope will be filled by Seri, Figueiredo, Tufan, Sinik, Estupiñán and Tetteh. While the latter group have more talent, their ability to settle in Yorkshire and to unify in the dressing room and on the pitch are huge unknowns. Both Arveladze and Tan Keslar have spoken this week about the need to concentrate on gelling this group now rather than on how many more signings they need to make. That’s comforting to hear because it’s going to be a challenge. The closest comparison for City is probably 2001/02 when Brian Little’s squad, fresh off an unlikely push to the Division 3 play-off semi-finals with players who weren’t being paid and transfer restrictions was ripped up and replaced with players who were probably better but lacked the same experience and fight and fell away quickly after a strong start. Arveladze, still an unknown quantity himself, has a huge task to avoid the same fate but he’s well aware of it, that’s clear.

In all, it’s been a whirlwind 6 months for Acun ılıcalı’s ownership and there have been far more positive changes than gripes. On the field, there is ambition that has been missing since Steve Bruce left us six years ago. Off it, there is a level of interest that’s been missing for nearly a decade and real hope of challenging again.

Bring on Bristol City on July 30^th. The Tigers are back.