The Man U game you quote was the one when Les Thompson put Bryan Robson into the Kempton with his first tackle in the first minute? Might not have been Thommo either. Good crowd there that night, over 3,000? Kirk was a local lad.
Give it a while longer and it'll be 30,000, that said I'm fairly sure it was over 6,000. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
Just bumped into Walter on Marina Nice bloke Let on and shook his hand Him and his two assistants with him and he’s walking a chocolate Labrador wish the bloke well it didn’t work out
Did you ask him what he made of last night's performance. * *The emoji's probably superfluous but I put it there 'cos I know Syd likes them.
Did he say much about his time as coach? I still don’t think he’s necessarily a bad coach. Just different. His alleged attitude with the players is a bit iffy but I guess it’s just a personality thing. He’s not the only coach in football to have that style of distant man-management.
Didn’t really know where to put this… Ruben Selles is a man in a hurry. His days begin at 6am and end late, the drive to and from his temporary digs to Hull City's Cottingham training ground cloaked in darkness. Early mornings are "analysis, analysis, analysis" before he and his staff get to the real business of delivering punchy training sessions to his players on his aggressive, front-foot attacking philosophy. With Hull rock bottom of the Championship, there is a thudding sense of urgency about his work. Despite last week's loss at Coventry City that laid bare the size of the challenge since leaving Reading, he is enthused by what lies ahead. "This group of players has given me everything from day one," he tells The i Paper. "Even with the Coventry game [a 2-1 defeat], they still fought. Ninety per cent of my experiences have been positive." One look at his CV suggests Selles deserves this opportunity. He has taken the road less travelled to managing in the Championship, starting as an U-11s coach in Valencia who used to sneak into Rafa Benitez's training sessions and take copious notes. From there he travelled to Russia, Azerbaijan, Greece and Denmark, before being headhunted by Southampton's data gurus to join Ralph Hassenhüttl's staff after being identified as one of Europe's most promising young coaches. After a brief stint as interim manager, he moved to Reading in 2023, keeping the team in League One despite a points deduction and leading them into promotion contention this season in spite of damaging off-field issues. A case in point: in Berkshire, he and club executives forfeited wages for fortnight in solidarity with non-playing staff who had not been paid. "I'm here because of that experience," he says. "I learned a lot, it made me a better coach and person. Those experiences were very painful but you learn to cope with different levels of stress and how to get the very best not only from yourself but also the very best from everyone. "It was a difficult decision, emotionally, to leave. I was there one and a half years - but it feels like five years because of the experiences we had together." Headhunted by Hull this month, there is no escaping the fact he has taken over a side in a mess. Botched summer recruitment overseen by Tim Walter - whose brand of "heart attack" football has left the Tigers flatlining in the relegation zone - has also raised questions about the vision of Turkish owner Acun llicali, who has got through four managers in a little over two years. However, Selles says the pair "spoke the same language". He dismisses concerns about the managerial turnover, suggesting "a year in the job is about the average in the Championship”. "We got on well, we sat and talked and agreed on lots of things. If we can build the proper foundation then the ambitions for the club are there. But everything is focused on getting out of the relegation zone." Selles' diagnosis of the Hull squad is not that it lacks quality or ability. Instead he senses a hesitancy that is unhealthy, which is why he has been hammering home to his new players - in a twist on the famous Al Pacino pre-game team talk in American football film Any Given Sunday' - that they have to start "fighting for the inches". "Things aren't just going to happen," he adds. "We need to make them happen. We need to compete for every inch and compete in every situation we’re in. "We need to create a habit of competitiveness and then, through that, the results will arrive. We need to make things happen. In the position we're in, nobody is going to give us anything." It is a message that he believes everyone connected to the club needs to heed. He includes staff and supporters in his rallying cry. “From the fans' perspective, needing to just give that extra 10 minutes of being extra loud, from the club giving that extra support to the players, from us giving that extra quality that the situation demands. "We need to go for higher standards - that counts for everyone.” Hull's due diligence identified a coach whose sharp, engaging work on the training ground has energised his players. But they are also getting a manager screeching through an 180-degree turn from what Walter turned out to be: obsessed with build-up, with little end product. "We want to have a team that want to be very vertical, very aggressive and attacking," Selles says of his philosophy. "The word is vertical. We want to have this breaking lines' mentality where we can put our opponent on the back foot and arrive into the final third organised, but as quick a possible. Then we want to be very aggressive defensively. "The Watford game [a 1-1 draw 10 days ago] was an example of what we want. We just need to improve on those moments but we should be a team that are very difficult to play against but can create chances in a relatively quick way. "We need to transform the quality [we have] into competitiveness, that is the key." Hull intend to add to that "quality" next month but he plays down talk of an overhaul similar to 12 months ago, when the Tigers rolled the promotion dice by recruiting, among others, Fabio Carvalho on loan from Liverpool in an attempt to secure a top-six finish. "We have the opportunity to strengthen the team in January, if we think we can strengthen it, but when we talk about what we have in the team, our attitude is that the players we have are the best players in the world," he says. "Our focus is that we're in contact with [sporting director] Jared Dublin and the recruitment department to try and strengthen the team and see what key positions we have. "But in our experience those players need to be a very, very specific profile. It should be two or three who really help us to make an impact in the team." A daunting festive programme kicks off against Swansea City today before they play three of the teams in the top six over Christmas. It is a baptism of fire for Selles, but he is undaunted. "We just need one good performance, three points and then comes the relief," he says. "But we need to work hard for it, things don't just happen."
I like the way he talks. He comes across as someone who is prepared to work very hard and bring people together. Walter started off very affable and likeable - but he always also came across as a bit arrogant and 'we'll do it my way and you will enjoy it'. Selles speaks differently - he talks like he's prepared to be flexible but he still knows what he wants on the pitch. I hope it works out.
You can never be too sure, and he certainly wouldn't be the first manager to come here with a big reputation and fail, but I was impressed with the sound of him before we'd kicked a ball under his management. Clearly it's very early days yet, but for me that's been entirely vindicated so far. I have high hopes of surviving reasonably comfortably this season now, then pushing on next. Though if he is that good then his comment about Championship managers averaging about a season is a bit of a worry. For today though a steadied ship and some positivity is very welcome!
It's a promising start, no doubt about it. We've scored first and taken the lead in all three games; compare that to Walter where the standing joke was that we couldn't even take the lead never mind actually win a game. However we've also conceded an equaliser within 10 minutes in all three games. That is a habit that needs addressing. So much of yesterday showed improvement. A significantly better shape which we kept for 90 minutes. Our pressing was targeted and effective, as well as being much more intelligently applied than under Walter. We got good games out of players who have not performed at the expected level so far this season. And there's a couple of players (Burstow for example) who have actually improved since Selles has arrived. Early days, no doubt, but if we keep up the attitude and intensity we'll be ok.
It amazes me how many fans think employees of their club should be tied to it forever. Reading are in League 1 and Selles went without pay sometimes to help the team through. OF COURSE it was always going to be a stepping stone. Just like we are if he’s successful here. But if he does a good job here in the mean time I’m happy.
