‘The excitement’s genuine, but City need more firepower if they’re to set Championship alight’

ALL TO PLAY FOR: Hull City celebrate Ozan’s strike in the final pre-season friendly against FC Nantes. Pictures courtesy of Hull City

By Sam Hawcroft

It’s been a while since there was such a genuine air of expectation ahead of a Hull City season.

After a bit of a stuttering start to the Acun Ilicali era, which saw Shota Arveladze binned less than two months into his first season proper, Liam Rosenior took over the reins in November and quickly steadied the ship.

The Tigers finished 15th with a much-improved defensive record, and the feeling among many fans was that this young, stylish and articulate former City defender was laying solid foundations on which to mount a serious challenge for the top six.

The question is, can we do it in 2023/24?

City went undefeated in their series of solid but largely unspectacular pre-season friendlies – but, in case you need reminding, friendlies are rarely, if ever, a portent of how things are set to pan out when the competition gets going in earnest.

Friendlies are like Eurovision semi-finals – of interest to die-hard fans and great practice for the performers, but merely serve to dilute the anticipation of the main event for everyone else.

If we do take anything at all from these matches, it’s that the Tigers have looked hard to beat, but, barring that bizarre (but admittedly entertaining) encounter at Galatasaray – when we came from 3-0 down to beat the Turkish Süper Lig champions 4-3 – goals have been a bit thin on the ground.

We lacked firepower last season – and it’s fair to question where this is going to come from this time around. As with the Galatasaray match, hatfuls against Wigan and Sunderland were the exception, rather than the rule.

Much expectation rests on the shoulders of 20-year-old Manchester City loanee Liam Delap, who was the Tigers’ first signing of the summer window, while Aaron Connolly (whose loan stint earlier this year was brief but promising) is back but likely a tad rusty, having not played since he was injured at Stoke in February.

Also incoming is exciting-looking winger Jason Lokilo, once of Crystal Palace, latterly of Sparta Rotterdam (fee undisclosed), and left-back Rúben Vinagre (on a season-long loan from Sporting Lisbon). It’s hoped that Rosenior will land a couple more players before the campaign gets under way at Norwich on Saturday.

‘NEEDS TIME DELIVER WHAT HE’S SURELY CAPABLE OF’: Liam Rosenior

Those who won’t feature in his plans include Ryan Woods and Benjamin Tetteh (the latter was, as Rosenior told Hull Live, “in tears” over his departure despite requesting a move to France). Also divested of the black and amber were Callum Elder and the ultimately underwhelming Dimitrios Pelkas, and there were no flowers for Tobias Figueiredo, either.

It’s a bit of a worry that last season’s top scorer, Óscar Estupiñán, remains a doubt for the trip to Norwich, having missed the last two friendlies with an ankle problem, while Allahyar Sayyadmanesh also sat those matches out, but it’s to be hoped that these are but minor niggles and not a harbinger of a new injury crisis akin to the one that beset Rosenior last season.

So, there’ll be a few new faces come Saturday, but most will be familiar. Rosenior’s pre-season approach has been to bolster what was not a bad team in the first place, rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater – but it does still look a little light on out-and-out attacking options, especially given the concerns over Óscar.

If the friendly against Nantes is anything to go by though, floppy-haired wunderkind Harry Vaughan will be causing havoc down the left wing again, while the impressive Cyrus Christie could make a welcome return at right-back. Other near-certainties for the starting 11 are Jacob Greaves, Alfie Jones, Regan Slater and Jean Michael Seri, while Vinagre, Lokilo, Adama Traore, Lewie Coyle (who is expected to be fit despite being seen wearing a protective boot at the Nantes match), and Sean McLoughlin are also in the mix, although Ryan Longman’s future may be uncertain after reported interest in his services elsewhere.

Norwich’s tails are up after beating Greek giants Olympiakos 2-0 in a recent friendly at Carrow Road, but it’s worth repeating that friendlies are meaningless. And the outcome of Saturday’s encounter may well be inversely proportional to each team’s respective friendly performances. You heard it here first. (Disclaimer: The Hull Story is not responsible for any gambling losses that may be incurred as a result of this less-than-watertight reasoning.)

Despite the fact that friendlies are meaningless, a lot of City fans on Twitter have been extremely aerated about them, with a small but vocal minority calling for the manager’s head even before a ball is kicked in the Championship. The #hcafc hashtag has at times been a hilarious and maddening bin-fire of opinions – opinions that we know Acun Ilicali reads, because he said so in a pre-season interview on the Tigers’ YouTube channel.

Fortunately, fans on Twitter don’t pick the team, but it’s undeniable that they can, up to a point, influence things at the club. It’s great that Ilicali is listening, after so many years when the previous owners refused to, but he should beware this vocal minority and never fall into the trap of being swayed by social media opinion. (Incidentally, as others have pointed out, Elon Musk’s spectacularly ill-thought-out and arrogant rebranding of Twitter as X is uncannily Allam-like, isn’t it…?)

Football fans aren’t known for their patience, and City fans are surely no better or worse for this than any others – but we live in times of instant gratification fuelled by social media, which doesn’t tend to do nuance or complexity.

Rosenior needs to zone out from this white noise and be given the space and the time to achieve what he is surely capable of. While we’re all hoping for a swift charge into the top six, perhaps we all need to calm down and accept that this may be a longer-term project.

Calm down? Who are we kidding? This is Hull City – we don’t do calm, do we? It would be folly to predict where we’ll finish this season (although sneaking into sixth would be nice), but what is certain that it’ll be a hell of a ride. Strap yourselves in again – and let’s go!