Few clubs have exited the Championship in such a state as 2020's Hull City, after a decade of horrendous mismanagement by the Allam family, but, miraculously, they're back, and winning 4-1 at Preston on the opening day. We spoke to Rick from @HullCityLive.
How was last season for Hull, straight back first time of asking...
It was a tremendous achievement after the capitulation the previous season but, like everywhere, was tinged with the disappointment of not being able to attend the games. It was a great distraction from the monotony of the two lockdown periods but seeing our team win a league title for the first time in 55 years, or rather not seeing it, was hard to take.
Hull so far this season…
Preston 1-4 Hull Jacobsen 8 — Lewis-Potter 35, Smallwood 62, Magennis 85, Cannon 90
Hull 1-1 Wigan Lewis-Potter 55 — Humphrys 50 (Wigan win 8-7 on penalties)
Hull looked in a real mess when they went down, what were the key elements of the turn around?
The poor recruitment was a key factor in us going down in 2020 but was also key in bouncing back. The club paid good money for former Leeds trainee Lewie Coyle from Fleetwood and Rangers’ Greg Docherty after a successful loan at Shrewsbury, while Alfie Jones and Josh Emmanuel were great free signings from Southampton and Bolton respectively, and Sheff Utd’s Regan Slater and Cardiff’s Gavin Whyte were good loans. All were key players along with those who'd stayed after relegation and some top youngsters in Leane Lewis-Potter and Jacob Greaves.
Where are fans on Grant McCann now?
I think for most, it's a clean slate now. He was incredibly lucky to survive last summer but he then had an excellent season and justified the faith in him. He was consistent in his approach, never wavered from what he believes is the way to play, didn't panic during a couple of blips and lifted everyone after a, frankly, humiliating few months.
Tell us about your summer transfer business?
It's been a pretty quiet one. We've secured a long-term target in Randall Williams for free as well as Andy Cannon but the only player with real Championship experience who has come in is George Moncur. Nathan Baxter (Chelsea), Di’Shon Bernard (Man Utd) and Ryan Longman (Brighton) are decent loans but it's clear that we're working under restrictions as a result of taking the EFL loan and the we can't pay fees and have a cap on the squad size.
Ins: >>> Andy Cannon, 25, CM, Portsmouth, Free >>> George Moncur, 27, CM, Luton, Free >>> Randell Williams, 24, RM, Exeter, Free >>> Ryan Longman, 20, RW, Brighton, Free >>> Di’Shon Bernard, 20, CB, Man Utd, Loan >>> Nathan Baxter, 22, GK, Chelsea, Loan >>> Matt Smith, 21, CM, Man City, Loan
Outs: >>> Jordy De Wijs, 27, CB, QPR, Undisclosed >>> Martin Samuelsen, 24, LW, Haugesund (Norway), Undisclosed >>> Max Clark, 25, LB, Fleetwood, Free >>> Reece Burke, 25, CB, Luton, Free >>> George Long, 27, GK, Millwall, Free >>> Jordan Flores, 25, CM, Northampton, Loan
Where is the team strong and weak?
The first 11 is decent. They're young and improving, most played a lot last season, they'll run and run and will do what McCann wants. There are plenty of goals from wide and strong set pieces. The options outside of those 11 aren't great so we're going to need a lot of luck with injuries, which we generally had last season.
How do you see this season going? What do they have to do to avoid a repeat of 19/20?
We'll need that luck with avoiding injuries and to get a lot of games out of the starting front three, Wilks, Magennis and Lewis-Potter, Honeyman and Docherty in midfield and the regular back four of Coyle, Jones, Greaves and Elder. A good start will be important otherwise we'll start hearing horrendous stats about our record in the last 20-30 Championship games and we need to carry the momentum from last season.
How was Preston on day one? You must have been thrilled with that?
It was a great result. It was a very similar approach to the one we adopted last season to be fair. We even had a makeshift left back, but that didn't hold us back. Preston weren't great, apart from the ten minutes at the start of each half but even so, we looked very impressive.
Can this club ever seriously progress under these owners?
No, is the honest answer. Despite an absence of live games for 18 months and a promotion, our attendances will still be awful because people just will not come back in the numbers we previously had ever since the Stadium move. There's no ambition now from the owners to gamble on success and that loan from the EFL just illustrates that they're going to run it like a business best they can and hope they can be clever on a budget. That's their right, they own it, but it's not going to bring the success of the recent past and won't bring back the lost fans.
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