At present it’s almost impossible for news and sports programme presenters and pundits to mention Hull City without touching on the internal disruption due to the proposed name change from Hull City AFC, the club has been known as since 1904 and Assem Allam’s new brand of Hull Tigers proposed for the 2015 / 16 season.
Allam has cast some defamatory remarks at some supporters in the national press and a group of supporters have been actively demonstrating against his decisions during Hull City’s matches, both of which actions are fast bringing the situation to a head.
There will be only one loser and that is Hull City Football Club.
The hardest part of the season is all but upon us with a tough and concentrated Christmas programme which sees City take on Stoke, West Brom, Man Utd & Fulham over 14 days in what must be considered a period where the survivors and failures of teams wishing to play in the premiership next season are decided.
The behind the scenes wrangling that is creeping into the public spotlight in the form of match day distractions is difficult for manager Steve Bruce who is doing all he can to galvanise the squad with the task in hand and to get the players to focus on doing their job efficiently and it must be said that the working staff are being let down by both Allam and the protestors timing and actions.
The threat by Dr. Allam to walk away from the club if his name change is met with large scale opposition is hardly conducive for Steve Bruce to offer confidence to players he wishes to sign in the January transfer window and any future long term players looking to move to the KC next season will have their warning lights severely flashing, flagging Hull City as a club in meltdown and where there is disharmony there is ultimate failure.
It’s time to stop this debarcle now and put it aside for the end of the season. The dissenting fans have made their thoughts quite clear but let’s look at Dr. Allam’s situation. He’s a businessman and a very successful one at that. He took the club over in 2010 with the best of intentions and wishes to do the best for the club as a local community sport as well as his business. He is also new to the world of international sports exposure were every innocent action and flippant remark can end up on the front and back pages of every tabloid and for everyone to dissect and scrutinise and Dr. Allam is as naïve to this new position as any other owner would be taking his side into the premiership for the first time.
All things considered, Dr. Allam has said some irresponsible and defamatory statements through the newspapers lately and I’m sure every word was with the best intentions aimed at the Hull City supporter who just wants to turn up every weekend and watch the Tigers play some of the best teams in the world in the best league in the world.
Unfortunately, Dr. Allam has greatly misjudged the feeling of a large proportion of new and long term City supporters who don’t buy into the fact that everything is for sale and has a marketing value, namely Hull City’s 109 year title Hull City Associated Football Club.
So here we have an impasse. It’s Dr. Allam’s club but the supporters have a right to want to maintain history and its traditional and original name. After all, Hull has just been named the next UK’s City of Culture and this proposed change could not have been announced at a more embarrassing, inconvenient and contradictory time.
First things first. All parties need to stop or at least put on hold all negative actions that detract Steve Bruce from doing his job with a bunch of lads that arguably make up the best squad we have ever seen in black and amber shirts.
All the negative press has taken the spotlight away from the great achievements we have made in a short time. This season is the first time ever, Hull City have had automatic promotion. We have beaten, and beaten well, Liverpool for the first time in our history and we’ve done this because of Steve Bruce who is the highest profile manager we have ever had at this club who has played in every theatre that football can offer and who we are in very real danger of losing to a more stable club if we can’t put the politics and petty squabbling aside for 5 months.
This is a learning curve for everyone at this club. Owner, fans, playing staff, everyone. We should all be in this together and relationships need to improve dramatically so that owners and customers (because as fans, that is what we are) can work together in moving Hull City forward.
The fact is that the name change issue will not be resolved by the next match or next month so any further distraction to the players and manager are an active and wilful prevention of City being at their best so my advice for the sake and survival of Hull City is to put it all aside for now.
10th position in the league and with everything to play for isn’t worth sacrificing just so an owner or fan pressure group can prove a point.
Keep calm and play football.