After avoiding relegation on goal difference last season, Hull sacked now Sheffield United manager Ruben Selles. Do you think that was the correct decision?
It was a very harsh decision in my own opinion, but it was a pretty split opinion across the fanbase as a whole I think.
We had a very poor squad due to long-term injuries to key players such as Liam Millar, Mohammed Belloumi, Eliot Matazo and Louie Barry, so we were left with very few goal scorers for Ruben to work with.
The facts are that we were bottom 3 when he took over and finished with mid-table form since his appointment, so at face value he did well. The last 8 games were dire and opportunities to secure safety with games to spare were spurned with hesitant tactics, but he deserved another go. Good luck to him.
Sergej has a pretty decent record across 300+ games in management, boasting an impressive 55% win ratio across different countries and leagues, including winning silverware with Dinamo Zagreb.
His appointment was met with optimism despite the circumstances surrounding Sellés’ sacking, as he is coming off the back of saving Kayserispor from relegation despite having a transfer embargo and looking nailed on to be relegated.
He speaks honestly and well in interviews, looks as though he has a style of play that encourages lots of entries into the box, players committing forwards and creating chances, which is something we’ve been sorely lacking for a couple of years.
He’s had to take his foot off the pedal financially as the EFL slapped up with a transfer embargo, which was then changed to a fee restriction until January 2027.
The club have appealed this decision but we expect it to be reduced rather than overturned. Red flags were raised when there was a late payment to player wages towards the back end of last season, which the club attributed the delay to “administrative errors” and issues with international fund transfers.
Then Aston Villa alerted the EFL to a late payment of £1.5m regarding the loan of Louie Barry last January, which resulted in the embargo, but was lifted when the club paid the fee.
Other clubs are supposedly owed money as well as local and national businesses, meaning the EFL are watching us like a hawk and we can only sign free agents and loanees. The owner insists there’s nothing wrong, however, which is quite obviously a blatant lie.
It’s been a frustrating window for obvious reasons. We signed the young Reda Laalaoui who might not even be allowed to register because of the fee restriction, Semi Ajayi on a free and Dillon Phillips from Rotherham as a backup GK.
We’ve resigned to the fact that we need to allow players to leave in order to lower the wage bill and free up some funds, as well as create some cash flow in order to appease the EFL, so more signings will have to be ratified by the EFL, making it difficult to recruit players that will actually improve us.
It seems like we’re on the verge of signing Oli McBurnie and John Lundstram on a free, which would be two very good signings, but it remains to be seen if we’d actually be allowed to sign them.
This has to be a season where we just hope to survive and suffer whatever financial management plan we end up on with the EFL.
The owner needs to learn from past mistakes and reduce the huge player turnover that we see every season, and give a manager more than a season to build a squad before axing him.
We have players to return from injury that will be like new signings, but we need goalscorers desperately as we were one of the lowest scorers in the division last season, and have less goalscorers now than we did then. It’s going to be a long season.
Yeah, definitely. Burstow showed glimpses of promise last season but was lumped out wide for nearly all of his appearances, struggling to make a real impact out of position.
With rumours of strikers incoming, and the fact we already have Kyle Joseph, it makes sense to let Mason get some regular football at a top-end League One club in his natural position to get some form and confidence.
He encourages a high-energy, high-press system, looking to get the ball forwards quickly and into the box with overlapping full backs.
If we can bring a striker who’s strong in the air in, the likes of Ryan Giles and Cody Drameh should have a good season in terms of assists.
We’ve been combative and organised. The manager is a rare bright light in what has been a very worrying few weeks. If we manage to get the players he needs, I’m confident we’re in safe hands.
