EPL Talk » Phil Brown

Two Wins In A Calendar Year Isn’t Mischief Making

Paul Bestall — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:02:10 +0000

Hull City Chairman Paul Duffen has ridden to the defence of his beleaguered, battered and bruised manager after another capitulation on Saturday saw Hull brushed aside 6-1 at Anfield. 7 games into the season and Hull City have just 4 points, with a solitary win against Bolton and a point gained away at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Since the turn of the year, Hull have now played 24 Premiership games, winning just two, and losing 17.

Now that’s not relegation form, that’s dead and buried form. 11 points from a possible 72 is an astounding return and one that beggars belief. Already this season they’ve conceded more than 4 goals in three different matches and that for me sets alarm bells ringing. I’m completely at a loss as to how Brown can address this dreadful run of form. It’s not the worst Premiership record, as recent history will testify with Derby County’s year of hell probably cemented in the record books for some time to come, but surely someone at Hull City must be worried.

Now, I’m still surprised as to how far Phil Browns star has faded since the Tigers burst on to the Premiership scene last year. People seem to be enjoying Hull getting mauled every week so they get to see Browns saddened face after every match. I’m not one of them, I actually really feel for Brown and the Hull fans. When you’re facing what appears such an insurmountable task, even little hiccups seem like mountains in the black light of football induced depression.

It makes you face every game with a level of pessimism that even the Grim Reaper may think a tad depressing. Going to a match begins to resemble spending two hours on death row, where even the prospect of contracting the black death seems preferable to watching your team get stuffed once again.

Fair play to Hull City’s chairman, he stopped short of giving the dreaded vote of confidence, but even Brown must realise something has to give eventually. I’m certainly not advocating any manager getting sacked, especially one that has taken a club to a level they have never been to before but sometimes you have to hold your hands up, say enough is enough and walk away. The chairman’s statement included one of those comments were you think Hmmmmm.

“Only a few points separate us from the middle of the league, and I am really pleased with the signs I see developing in the squad” Now it’s easy to be churlish about a Chairman when he comes out with a statement like that. Is it damage limitation? Is it spin? Is it delusion? Or is it a manager receiving a level of support that should be applauded.Duffen knows that Hull City are in the Premiership more or less due to Brown’s skills as a manager.

All the additional revenue, coverage and publicity is down to a manager taking an unfancied team in to the Premiership. Moments like this don’t come around very often and after 104 years of trying, you tend to give the man who got you there a little more support than perhaps other club chairman may do. Bigger clubs than Hull City have treated better managers worse than the support Phil Brown is currently getting.

Hull are about to embark on a run of six games that will show everyone exactly where Hull City are in the scheme of things. A run of 4 home games against Wigan Athletic, Portsmouth, Stoke City and West Ham United book ending away games at Fulham and Burnley will offer us an exact dissection of Hull City in the scheme of things. Once that run is over, things may look a whole lot rosier than they currently do at the K.C. Stadium. I just hope Phil Brown doesn’t get the karaoke machine out!

Can Hull City Avoid Second Season Syndrome?

Paul Bestall — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:08:49 +0000

Looking at the predictions that are currently flooding the world of Premiership football, two teams are entrenched in a dogfight for who will finish bottom. No-one, but no-one thinks both Hull City or Burnley will stay up. One if not both of them, in the eyes of everyone think they’re dead and buried before a ball is kicked.

I have to say, I’m more concerned about Hull staying up than Burnley. The run that they embarked upon from the win against Middlesbrough on December 6th was frightening. 9 points from 22 games was relegation form, no doubt about it, but thankfully Newcastle, Boro and West Brom were worse. Yet were Hull that bad? Only 3 teams put more than 2 goals past them during the last 22 games, Arsenal, Liverpool and Middlesbrough and lost 9 games by just one goal.

That cries out that all the Tigers needed was a consistent goalscorer, someone who could nick a goal off a shin, a backside or a deflection. Phil Brown has made no secret of his desire to add to the firepower at his disposal, but saw moves for Michael Owen, Bobby Zamora, Frazier Campbell and Marlon Harewood fail. In the last week though, he seems to have had more luck in his attempts and he’s taken the promising American striker Jozy Altidore on loan and is close to signing former Wigan striker Henri Camara.

Ideally though, looking at the Tigers front line, even with the two additions, looks still weak. Cousin, Fagan, Garcia, Folan and Kendall don’t seem to have the prowess between them to win matches. Why are Hull struggling to bring the required players to the club? The loss of Craig Fagan after Danny Guthrie’s cowardly tackle broke his leg was a big loss. Fagan’s pace can cause most teams problems, but that alone won’t keep them up. Geovanni has the skill and guile, but lacks the consistency. He needs to show more for the cause for longer. The attempts to sign Ross McCormack from Cardiff City seem to have stalled, the clubs a couple of million apart in their valuations. McCormack was immense for the Bluebirds on Saturday and City will be loath to lose him.

Of course in addition to the striker issues, Hull now face the fact that Liverpool have begun to unsettle Michael Turner in their usual way. Once again Benitez has begun to court a player in the media before making a bid, so no doubt Turner’s head will be turned. Most players would be delighted to play for Liverpool, so it would seem a matter of when Turner leaves. That would be a big blow for Brown’s men, but with Benitez claiming that he now has very little to spend, Hull need to try and get the price they want.

Strikers are always a premium in football, but surely it can’t be this hard to recruit one? Perhaps the solution to Browns issue is a quick one hour drive westwards on the M62 to Leeds. Would risking £3-£4 million on Jermaine Beckford at Leeds United be such a risk for the Tigers? 56 goals in less than 100 games for Leeds shouldn’t be sniffed at, regardless that he plays in League One. He doesn’t have to up root to Hull, living within easy distance of the K.C. Stadium and it surprise me that Brown hasn’t gone after him. He scored two on Saturday, both pure predatory goals, something Hull miss.

Sometimes you have to cut your cloth accordingly and sometimes the obvious solution can be staring you in the face and you miss it.To preserve Hull’s Premiership status, Beckford could be a hugely important signing. Worst case scenario, Beckford signs for Hull and they go down. Then they have the perfect striker to score the goals to fire them back to the Premiership. Take a risk Phil, what’s £4 million when a £50 million carrot is waiting for them once again if they stay up.

Who Will Relegation Hit The Hardest?

Christopher Walker — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:54:55 +0000

Who will feel the effect most if they relegated to the Championship?

With West Bromwich Albion’s fate sealed last week we can now prepare ourselves for a dramatic conclusion to the Premier League season on Sunday. The neutral (including yours truly) will relish it and will want to see as many twists and turns as possible. Anyone supporters involved will have struggled to sleep for a week.

We all have our own predictions as to who will go down and what the sequence of results to will be. What I wondered is what effect will relegation have on the clubs involved.

West Bromwich Albion – 31 points (already relegated)

Even the most biased of Baggies supporters could not have been surprised about the clubs fate this season. However there seems relatively little for the Hawthorns club to worry about. Brom perenially spend within their limits upon promotion and Tony Mowbray has followed similiar traits. Signings that broke the £1 Million mark included: Scott Carson (£3.5 million), Marek Cech (£1.4 million) ,Luke moore (£3 million), Zuiverloon (3.2 million) , Valero (4.7 million), Aboulaye Meitie (£2 million) and Roman bednar at £2.3 million.

Not taking into account players that left that Hawthorns, the Throstles have forked out around £20 million. No doubt a few of the above will leave to recoup some of this. It is also likely that some contracts will include a drop in wages upon relegation ,West Brom should be relatively comfortble providing they spend their parachute monies wisely next season and offload a few big-earners.

Middlesbrough – 32 points

Although ‘Boro are technically £85 million in debt, the vast majority is owed to chairman Steve Gibson – which is the equivalent of owing your Dad 200 quid. Conisdering Gibson’s patience with Gareth Southgate it seems highly unlikey he will let the club suffer. However should ‘Boro suffer the drop (and it seems likely they will) they will have to get wheeling and dealing quickly. One of the first names out of the door will be Alfonso Alves, who was signed for a fee rumoured to be £12.7 million and one shudders to think what kind of wages the Brazillian is on at the Riverside. After breaking his foot against in the relegation six-pointer against Newcastle and a poor goals return for the club, ‘Boro may have to brace themselves for a big financial loss. The other big name out of the door, and the one Middlesbrough will miss most from an on-field perspective is Stewart Downing. A host of clubs will have relished the prospect of Boro’s demise in order to sign Downing and it is thought that Spurs will lead the chase after keeping tabs on the winger for considerable time. Boro will be hoping for auction fever from rival clubs in order to raise as much cash as possible. It will come as no surprise that Tuncay and David Wheater will also raise the eyebrow for a host of clubs, with Robert Huth also likely to be the subject of some interest.

Should Middlesborough fail to survive, the winds of change are likely to blow through this cold part of the country including the possibility of a new manager. With numerous players likely to leave and taking into account the squads lack of experience, ’Boro may well have to be happy with a season of stability next season rather than a promotion charge.

Newcastle – 34 Points

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. There may have been talks of a conspiracy theory in regard to the strength of Manchester United’s team selection at Hull. But based on perfomances alone, Newcastle are where they deserve to be. If Newcastle are relegated we will witness a real exodus from St James Park, which in turn demonstrates the extent of the problems the Magpies will face. The list of players likely to leave include: Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, Obamfemi Martins, Damien Duff, Alan Smith, Nicky Butt, Jose Enrique, Geremi, Gutierrez and possibly Steven Taylor. If things continue in the trational ways of the Tyneside soap-opera then you wouldn’t rule out yet further changes at either boardroom or management level. Chairman Mike Ashley has been ostracised from the club before and if he cannot either persuade Shearer to take the job permanently and/or the Toon don’t get off to a flyer in the championship he knows showing his face in the Sir John Hall stand would be a tad unwise.

Newcastle will have to do their best to wheel and deal as early as possible in order to get the new players to gel as a unit early in the forthcoming season. The first thing they need to do is oust Joe Kinnear from his role, he isn’t physically fit to do job, and if the club are indeed relegated the job starts the minute the final whistle is sounded on Sunday. Although sacking managers isn’t a sign of stability, do any of us genuinely think that Kinnear would stay in the job until the end of next season – fit or not? With expectations and pressure form the fans likley to be huge and the club not in the best of health financially, relegation would hit United very, very hard.

Hull City - 35 Points

And to think the start Hull City had. The Tigers are clawing on for dear life in the Premier League and require one last roar this Sunday to ensure survival. Hull are likely to face a considerably weakened Manchester United team on Sunday which may give them half a chance of stealing a point. Whether any of that will come to fruition is another matter. Should Hull find themselves with an instant return to the Championship you would feel that financially the club will not suffer to the degree some of their rivals will. City were desperately unlucky to lose Jimmy Bullard so quickly after his £5 million move from Fulham and could find him leaving the club sooner rather than later at a cut-price fee. Bernard Mendy and Andy Dawson will also have attracted some attention, Giovvani’s early season exploits may tempt a rival club into a gamble. Hull however – are sound financially, have a good boardroom and a good manager in Phil Brown. Providing they can keep the nucleus of the squad together City should be stable and will look to try and bounce back at the first attempt.

Sunderland – 36 Points

The fans and players alike pleaded for the board to give Ricky Sbragia the managers job on a permanent basis, the phrase ‘be careful what you wish for’ now springs to mind. Should Sunderland fail to beat Chelsea in Guus Hiddink’s last league game in charge, the Mackems may need another black cat in the dressing room for luck. The club would appear financially sound given the money they have spent in the last few seasons however I would still expect a few to leave. Sunderland shouldn’t really be in this trouble given what they have spent over the last couple of seasons. If the club are confined to the Championship, it is likely they will look to offload the wages of Steed Malbranque and Craig Gordon. I cannot see Kenwyne Jones staying at the Stadium of Light, particularly with Tottenham knocking on Niall Quinn’s door. Kieran Richardson and Anton Ferdinand will attract offers and no doubt the pair pick up a fair size wage packet each too. This being said, Ellis short is now linked to a buy out of the club followed by a change of manager and a £200 million transfer kitty – if Sunderland stay up and we are to beleive the tabloids.

The Relegation Rumble: Hull City

tyduffy — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:26:57 +0000

This is the second in a series of relegation assessments. For a similar look at Bolton Wanderers. Check here.

Hull City surprised everyone at the start of the season, winning six of their first nine, knocking off an over-confident Arsenal. The club lost composure. Phil Brown lost his sweet goatee, and perhaps his sanity. Hull won just two of their next 21 games, drifting from a solid European challenge to treading above the relegation zone. They currently set in thirteenth place, a mere four points over the drop.

Form: Hull have done nothing recently to suggest a resurgence. They have won just one of their last eight, and lost four. Shoring up their defense slightly may inject a bit of optimism, though, as the most generous side in the league (52 goals allowed), a 5-0 defeat seems perpetually possible. Hull may stay, but probably not because of a massive fortune turn.

Schedule: Hull’s schedule has difficult tests, though there are points available. The Tigers host both Liverpool and Manchester United, but have softer ties against Portsmouth and Stoke City. Hull also travel to fellow strugglers Middlesbrough and Sunderland. They also play Bolton and Aston Villa. A couple good results, particularly at the expense of clubs such as Middlesbrough and Sunderland could do a great deal to keep them up.

Injuries: Injuries have hurt Sunderland in midfield. George Boateng and Jimmy Bullard are the exact type of experienced, steady midfielders Hull needs to keep the ship upright. Unfortunately both are crocked. Boateng may be back by the end of April, but January-signing Bullard is out for the season. It’s difficult to replicate that type of presence.

Prognosis: Hull City should stay up. They have had an atrocious run of form. If they replicate that in the last eight matches, that would put them on 39 points, giving them a good chance at staying in the Premier League. Their first start and subsequent fall affect perceptions, but being in the position to stay up is an incredible feat, given their squad and pre-season expectations.

When Did It Go Wrong For Hull City?

Scott Bennett — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:35:42 +0000

In light of the news of Phil Brown “attacking” Geovanni, many football fans are wondering, when did it go wrong for Hull?

As the season started, fans and pundits alike were raving about the breath of fresh air he brought to the Premiership. Bucking the trend for promoted sides, his team attacked and results followed. Play the big boys? No problem. His side played fearlessly and took some significant scalps along the way. Sure, there was a big loss or two in the mix, but the positive results outweighed the negative. Hull City FC, and Phil Brown in particular, were the darlings of English football.

In interviews, Brown was a media star. The Hull manager was always willing to work with various press outlets and in a world where packaged clichés and “no comment” are the norm, his affable nature and straight answers were a revelation. Brown was, hands down, the nicest man in top-flight football. Everyone became a Phil Brown fan overnight.

The selfish git had us all fooled.

Without a doubt, the most noteworthy moment in this year’s Premiership was Brown’s infamous halftime rant at his players, forcing them to sit in front of the travelling fans while he tore into them. As it happened, Brown’s stock rose higher and higher with football fans who felt it was about time some high paid, out-of-touch players took a proper tongue-lashing and weren’t shamelessly protected by the boss. But while Brown’s “fan credibility” rose, his self-serving antics lost the respect of his players, and the results since have gone from bad to worse.

A club like Hull survives on character. It is essential that everyone is working for the greater good. Even with all players pulling in the same direction, there is no guarantee of success for a little club like Hull. Nevertheless, the sense of camaraderie and willingness to sacrifice the self for the collective good earned them 30 points in the first 18 games. Included in those points were a heady win against Arsenal at the Emirates, a few more kicks in the ribs of a down and out Spurs side at White Hart Lane, a good win against West Ham, and a comprehensive thumping of fellow promoted side West Bromwich Albion. Not included in the 30 points was a spirited comeback against Manchester United that left the once and future Champions shaking their heads, thankful the game isn’t 95 minutes long. As it stands, it took until last week for the rest of the league to score as many goals against the Red Devils as Hull scored, at Old Trafford no less, on November 1.

When Phil Brown sat his players down on the pitch and gave them the headmaster ritual, he was distancing himself from the carnage of a 4-0 first half. He was putting himself before the players. He was betraying the trust of his men to look good in front of the club’s fans. He was setting a precedent that public displays from Hull City was acceptable, and Geovanni took the bait. He was throwing away the rest of the season for Hull City FC.

Regardless of how much you make, and how pampered your lifestyle, nobody appreciates embarrassment. It is a poor motivator; for some it destroys confidence, for others, it builds resentment. Nobody “rises to the challenge” as Brown had claimed he anticipated.

Don’t be mistaken; players definitely get the hairdryer treatment from their managers. Truth be told, they get it more often than fans realise, and most times they are deserving recipients of a paint-peeling lecture. All the greats had uncompromising standards and accepted nothing less. But they did the dirty work behind closed doors.

Take a look at the tactics of some of the modern model managers to see a blueprint for successful man management. Arsene Wenger’s eyesight is incredibly selective, never ever seeing anything the least bit controversial performed by a player in red. He never speaks poorly of his players, even after enduring the ordeals of Tony Adams, Paul Merson, and the very public histrionics of Ashley Cole. Especially with his current crop of not-ready-for-prime-time-players, at no time has the stoic Frenchman thrown them under the bus.

Watch an interview with Sir Alex Ferguson, and he’s more likely to tell the reporters “Yous are f*****g idiots” than agree that one of his players was off form. He stands by his players through the tough times – think of Cantona’s Kung-Fu kick, Keane’s Haaland stomp and Ferdinand’s drugs test misadventure – because enduring misery together is vital to earning success. Don’t think for a second that those players got off as lightly behind closed doors as they did in Fergie’s interviews, but the bottom line is this: you can’t ask players to run through walls for you unless you prove to them you’re worth it.

Conversely, the first time things were not going to plan at Hull (a poor first half no less), Phil Brown lost the plot and publically humiliated his players. He claimed he was looking for a lift – a way to get a bug in their ears and remind them about the fans who spent a cold, miserable Boxing Day travelling to Manchester to watch a poor performance. In fact, he was letting each and every one of those fans know that it wasn’t his fault and they could hang the blame at the feet of the players, not him.

If this was about “making a statement” what was the point? At 4-0, the game was a foregone conclusion. As far as making an impression goes, Brown certainly left one on his players. So much so that they’ve managed to gain all of one point in the nine matches since the infamous rant. In the process, the club have tumbled down the standings and are now a hot tip for relegation.

When wondering where it all went wrong for Hull City, look no further than Phil Brown’s self-serving Boxing Day rant. That’s when Hull got knocked out of the Premiership.