Daniel Storey has been nominated for Writer of the Year at the Football Supporters’ Association Awards 2024. You can cast your vote here.
A while after West Brom’s first goal went in, enough time to allow the away end to quieten down and the bad news to settle in, a ripple of applause moved around Hull City’s MKM Stadium.
The participants understood that their team needed support, but a full-throated roar felt deeply misplaced given the events of the previous week. Behind one stand, a thick mist hung over Hymers College and Sculcoates beyond it. It felt strangely akin to this half vote of confidence: a sleepy reaction to a sleepy team on a sleepy Sunday.
There is a marked difference between the sounds and behaviour of home and away supporters of the same team, even among those who do both. The miles and the money tend to bring with them a stronger bond and greater patience, a “we’ll support you ever more”, “we’re all on the road together” mindset that temporarily places players and clubs on a more equal footing.
It comes with a flipside. Managers can typically survive some unrest at home, where boos are more likely. But when the away supporters turn, the impact is more visceral because they do so en masse. That is why I arrived in Hull at 11am on a Sunday. I heard Hull City supporters turn several days earlier and I knew what it might mean. Let the rubbernecking commence.
This soap opera became supercharged a fortnight ago when Tim Walter, Hull City’s German manager only appointed in the summer, criticised the club’s own supporters after a 1-1 home draw against bottom-of-the-league Portsmouth. Walter effectively bemoaned that Hull’s fans weren’t more like Portsmouth’s, failing to appreciate that home vs away difference in the process.
Fans can occasionally stomach that stuff from a beloved manager who has earned trust over half a decade; less so the struggling new guy.
Last Tuesday, Hull travelled to Oxford United, another team then below them in the table. They missed chances and should probably have won the game with some ease, but lost 1-0. It happens, and without Walter’s previous comments, it would likely have been allowed to pass without mutiny. The Championship’s relentlessness affords such a luxury.
But Walter had invited that mutiny. During the second half, the booing from the away end was intense. Three chants ran out, each of them delightfully cutting when issued in a Humberside accent: “Are we loud enough for you?” (passive aggressive question); “Walterball is f__king s__t” (aggressive description); “F__k off Tim Walter, your football is s__t (aggressive order). All the while, Walter had no choice but to stand and take it.
At full-time, I immediately dashed down the stairs and outside. The Kassam Stadium is a three-sided affair thus allowing a bystander to peek inside, rather like glancing in from the street on Christmas Eve and seeing families excitedly preparing for the festivities in their lounges.
I got to watch from a side angle as the away end read out their communal riot act as they traipsed down the steps. They were shouting into the ether; Walter had shaken hands with the referee and headed straight down the tunnel. This only enraged them further.
Before Sunday’s game against West Brom, Walter was given a chance to diffuse the situation and, well, sort of made it worse while trying to make it better: “It’s not about crying from the stands or writing situations on social media. I am open for them, we can talk to each other.” I’d have led with the second sentence first, Tim. And then probably not used the first one at all.
West Brom’s opening goal was swiftly followed by a second. Boos replaced the light applause, fiercely repeated at half-time and full-time, despite a thwarted comeback. Walter could reasonably plead bad luck again, given the chances squandered, but misfortune is an uncomfortable defence to rely upon for long. West Brom had scored twice in their previous seven games. Their fans boinged as the home stands quickly emptied, trudging back through West Park.
“Sacked in the morning” – that customary soundtrack that haunts the dreams of every manager under pressure – was noticeable from the home end after 1-0 became 2-0. You can see the point. Hull City are level on points with the bottom three having won three of their 16 matches under Walter. Two of the three beaten opponents are currently 22nd and 23rd in the Championship.
Some of this is about expectation. Hull are indeed 19th, but did sign 17 new players in the summer on permanent or temporary deals. The Championship has a recent history of teams starting slowly and surging. Two years ago, Luton were 13th in December and went up against Coventry, who were 15th in February. Last season, Norwich made the play-offs having been 17th in November.
Hull City 1-2 West Brom (Sunday 10 November)
- Game no.: 36/92
- Miles: 172
- Cumulative miles: 5,953
- Total goals seen: 107
- The one thing I’ll remember in May: At half-time, a promotion video played that included someone saying: “I’ve been a Hull City fan since I was a boy, 55 years, and this is one of most exciting times I can remember.” Cue home supporters passing choice comment.
So supporters might have a little more faith if they did not feel so misled. Walter was described as a coach of “heart attack football” by a German journalist after his appointment. That is appropriate, but only because watching this Hull team take ludicrous risks in their own third of the pitch to then go stale in the final third is enough to give anyone an aneurism. Outside of the three league wins in 11 days in September, Hull have scored six goals in 12 matches. Is this the attacking endeavour promised?
“I am open like a book because I know that what I do, nobody else in the world does it,” said Walter in an interview with this newspaper in July, big talk that had little chance of being matched by action. If there was reason to give Walter a chance to prove his worth over an extended period, he threw that away by promising the moon on a stick.
We must also look higher up the Hull City food chain. Walter is only here because another manager left and he didn’t do so voluntarily. In May, Hull owner Acun Ilicali sacked Liam Rosenior three days after the end of the regular Championship season.
Rosenior was not perfect. This was his first full-time managerial role and Hull drew too many home games in the spring. The likely loss of Jacob Greaves, Ozan Tufan and Jaden Philogene plus Fabio Carvalho’s loan ending this summer made 2023-24 the clearest opportunity for promotion and Hull eventually failed to make the play-offs.
But if you sack a young coach who finishes seventh in the league, you send the message that seventh wasn’t acceptable and every supporter hears it. As Hull City journalist Barry Cooper wrote at the time: “The club is in a good place, but what cannot happen is that all the building blocks put in place over the last 18 months have been in vain, the ethos and the culture cannot be ripped up otherwise City will find itself further away from the Premier League than they were when Rosenior arrived.”
Bingo. So when the replacement you pick is 10 points outside the top six after 15 games and is only goal difference away from being in the bottom three, you should expect pertinent – and potentially angry – questions from those who didn’t want Rosenior sacked. You promoted impatience; you cannot escape it now. This is on your watch.
Ilicali is evidently ambitious and passionate, a man who has detailed how he fell in love with English football and who has repeatedly paid for 500 supporters to go on holiday to Turkey. There is no doubt that he wants the best for Hull City and has said that he is prepared to spend money on the club rather than treating it like a business. Anyone following in the footsteps of Assem Allam was going to be welcomed.
Ilicali is also now entering a crucial period of his ownership because any extended honeymoon ended with the sacking of Rosenior; this now means business. Interestingly, he appeared on the White and Jordan podcast last month and decried Erik ten Hag’s tenure at Manchester United.
“He’s a good coach, yet sometimes the chemistry isn’t quite right in football,” Ilicali said. “I always envision the future and make decisions early. I think it would have been better for both parties to part ways before now.”
Now comes the test of that principle, with Hull hovering above trouble. Ilicali has insisted that Walter will come good, but if something isn’t working then doubling down on a mistake through grim perseverance helps nobody. Campaigning for any sacking is dirty work – and that’s the intention here – but Ilicali has stated his rules of engagement. Do as I say but not as I do?
Whatever direction Ilicali chooses to go in, and whether Walter is relieved of his duties soon or eventually to go and work on the football that nobody can copy, there is a lesson in here for every manager. Criticising your own supporters is a fool’s errand and comparing them unfavourably to fans of another club is a gross faux pas. The money, time and effort that goes into watching football is enormous; it buys you the right to express your emotions.
Now those fans sit back and wait. If the progression under the last manager made life harder for this one, the circus under Allam gave Ilicali the lowest bar imaginable when ingratiating himself with his new tribe. For the first time during his three-year tenure, Hull City supporters are beginning to question the plan.
Daniel Storey has set himself the goal of visiting all 92 grounds across the Premier League and EFL this season. You can follow his progress via our interactive map and find every article (so far) here
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