England

Mark Bateman

After a poor start to the Premier League season, Hull City manager Phil Brown was staring into the managerial abyss.

At one point last month rumours were so widespread that it was even reported in the national media that the 50-year-old had been sacked.

Changes did eventually arrive at the club but they came, perhaps unexpectedly, at boardroom level. Chairman Paul Duffen departed the club after two and a half years, during which time he had helped guide the Tigers to the Premier League for the first time in the club’s 105-year history.

His successor was, ironically, his predecessor Adam Pearson, who returned to the KC Stadium after leaving his post at Championship side Derby County.

Pearson immediately offered his backing to the under fire Brown and over the next few games the club seemed to turn a corner and almost doubled their points tally.

Wins against Stoke City and Everton at the KC Stadium, as well as a point against fellow relegation candidates West Ham has seen the club claw away from the relegation zone.

The Stoke game was rumoured to be the last chance saloon for Brown, but his team came through for him and have shown more confidence and more of the same spirit which saw them rise to the top of the Premier League table upon their promotion last season.

But is Phil Brown out of the woods yet? The answer is almost surely yes, but only for the time being.

The last three games have given the former Bolton Wanderers assistant some much needed breathing space and more importantly a platform to build on going into the festive fixture list.

It would not serve Hull’s best interests to change managers going into the New Year, although if they did the new boss would have the transfer window to make any squad changes he deemed necessary.

However, with the Premier League side apparently reporting large debts, it is said that Pearson has told Brown he must sell before he can buy. This would surely be the same for any new manager who came into the club, so replacing Brown instantly seems less attractive.

The former Derby County boss also has much in his favour. Pearson was the man who appointed him manager of the club in the first place and he also kept Hull in the Premier League last season. But all that will count for nothing if the Tigers ultimately do get relegated at the end of the campaign and it is then that the board of directors may favour going in a new direction.

Phil Brown is not the best manager in the Premier League or in English football for that matter. He frequently makes tactical choices that simply baffle his own supporters, not to mention various pundits; he constantly bemoans his team’s luck and is heard, quite frequently, voicing his displeasure at the ineptness, as he sees it, of referees.

Hull are loyal to Brown as he was the man who got them into the top flight and kept them there.

But in the modern game the boardroom at the KC Stadium are well aware that a club can’t afford to be sentimental. Should Hull find themselves in a position where they feel a change of manager would secure their spot in next season’s Premier League, then make no mistake, the man with the tan will be shown the door.

  Latest Features:

• - Bohemians Blaze Trail in Ireland Yet Again
• - Is Planet Football Beginning to Level Out?
• - Premier League Still Foreign Investment Haven