Absolutely this. Our squad is one cobbled from readily available talent on a budget. The basis of it was poor and without balance, put together by a long term manager with funds to spend. All-in-all a clusterfuck of Hull City proportions. Survival in the PL was always a dream, nothing more, but dreams can come true in football, if those of others fall foul. That's where we are, reliant on others not playing to potential, even though they do have goalscorers.
Mike Ashley would surely approve of the Ehaw management style. We don't offer zero hours contracts to our managers and players but we're heading that way with all these half season loans and 6 months contracts to Marco Silva and his team. That on the back of the Mike Phelan "You're not a manager, you're a head coach" nonsense and his one year contract. It's good that the Allams have such close connections to Hull University (cash for library naming rights) because the Business School will be able to use Hull City as a classic case study of how NOT to run a business. - Shrinking the customer base at a time of unprecedented local demand - marginalising the oldest core customers and potential new ones economically - tampering with a successful trademark/brand and making toxic to many customers - failing to attract targeted customers in export markets ( including India-chortle) - allowing a local competitor (Hull) to significantly increase market share - losing goodwill with all major stakeholders (media, local council, local community and fanbase) - failing to communicate any kind of coherent strategy or provide leadership - failing to communicate at all
Summary ? That's just a start. I left out all the stuff about the expensive failing turnstile system, the broken relationship with the landlords which has led to the chaotic maintenance of the stadium (visibly rusting, peeling paint etc), the gated approaches to the stadium (**** the public). The Kingpower had unmanned turnstiles and the surrounds were spotless. There seems to be a race to the bottom for maintaining the KCOM, both sides trying to embarrass the other.
That's a good reminder - did the SMC get planning permission for their anti-ISIS gate on the railway walkway bridge?
Dunno what the currents status is of that. You can still get through from Park St bridge to the ground, but you cannot do a circuit of the ground any more. You have to walk round to the open gate opp. the Main Entance just by where the Allams used to park their cars, if you want to continue through to Walton St So it's not terrorist-proof or even local pikey-proof, it's just an expensive inconvenience for all those people who use it to get from Walton to town avoiding the busy roads of Anlaby Rd and Spring Bank. The existing iron fences are easily climbed by local youths never mind Al Qaeda, Islamic State.
There are 3 stakeholders: City, the Council and the SMC. There are millions of pounds coming into the club's coffers every month. Why is it so difficult to work together? Between them it's a **** up. You see better maintained allotments.
I was really impressed with the Leicester yesterday.... the girl singing was good too, involving the kids with the flags, the thanks for travelling 120 miles posting, stewarding 'we are here to help you'... 'you're up toward the back on the left Sir'...a pity we cannot make such simple things happen. The escort away save loads of time too. Seven P's rule Escab. PRIOR PREPARATION and PLANNING, PREVENTS PISS POOR PERFORMANCE.
They own the stadium, it's their (flagship) facility. Are you saying they happily turn a blind eye to the disrepair, rust etc as they don't have to allocate funds to cover it? As in "It's nowt to do with us"
The fall out with the Council was pathetic, what followed as a consequence was even more pathetic, but none of that changes the fact that the Council are not responsible for maintaining the KCOM Stadium, nor will they be remotely interested in taking on that responsibility.
Yes they did fund the project . However , now because of the arguements on both sides the council seem quite happy to cut off their nose to spite their face and seem happy for the Allams to let the stadium fall into disrepair and then point the finger when it gets really bad . The stadium seems to be lacking in good maintenance except in maybe the main stand reception and some hospitality areas .
You're dead right Citygirl. I work in the stadium quite often and behind the scenes it's in a pretty sorry state. Suspended ceilings are damaged and stained, woodwork in some of the suites and corridors is damaged and the carpets are really poor. Under the main concourses there are cracks and piles of rubble and numerous storerooms full of general ****. Above the seating arena there's all sorts of rubbish and dead birds.
It's all about "if", but if we stay up and if we keep Silva I have faith in his abilities and those of his coaches to bring in better players than we've been used to. When you consider how difficult it must have been for him to attract players to come here in January and then look at who he signed it's impressive: Evandro looks class. N'Diaye is a step up on Livermore Ranocchia is quality Niasse is performing better than any of our other strikers, Grosicki (unfit and with no experience in England) is improving every game and looking dangerous Elabdellaoui is still adjusting but he's already better than Elmo and Markovic who currently blows boiling hot or freezing cold is a challenge that's well worth persevering with. Add to that just missing out on Yannis Salibur who (yes on youtube) looks another class player and you can see the man has an eye for a good footballer. His toughest task will be to find the holy grail - a 15 goal striker for less than £20million, but if anyone can do that I think Silva is our best chance.
I am unsure on whether we have gone backwards or just missed out on a great opportunity. Silva has signed some good players, but trying to make them into a team mid season is hard. We have tried to replace the spine of our team in January on a limited budget whilst also selling our top scorer and set piece specialist. That is a hard task for anyone. I think if Silva had a summer to sort this team out we would be in a better position. I think our planning going into transfer windows is poor and if we had spent say 20-25m in summer on the correct players we would be in a really good position. I doubt we will stay up but I wouldn't lay the blame on Silva if we go down.
I'm a glass half-full man so I'll take that. I just wish he, Silva, had come in earlier. He's had to rebuild the team, repair damage confidence in the players he inherited, and get them all playing in a (very) different style to that employed by Phelan. I don't think we're going to stay up but I'd be happy if he is still our manager next season, come what may.
