Another one, specially for HT, this time from FourFourTwo... Unforgettable week for Hull City Written by @DavidHGoodman This time last week the league was all that mattered for Hull City fans. A crucial game against Swansea awaited and thoughts of Wembley were pushed to the back of the mind. Three points later, City are now a couple of points away from safety and virtually guaranteed to be playing in the Premier League next season. So, thoughts turn to Wembley and an FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United on Sunday, though it is on the back of a memorable week. Name change In between the Swansea game and the build up to the semi-final has been the little matter of keeping our beloved name intact. Assem Allam’s ridiculous ballot had the questions phrased in such a way as to make a vote against Hull Tigers, a vote against the chairman. Despite the implicit blackmail, fans failed to give the owner the majority he expected. Most supporters gave the ballot the contempt it deserved and refused to vote. Those who did vote in favour of Hull Tigers amounted to about 17% of season ticket holders, hardly the “silent majority” that Allam had claimed supported his proposal. Two days later the FA had their say, denying Allam the opportunity of changing the name, for next season at least, though any hopes he would give in appear fanciful. It has been an unedifying episode in the club’s recent history. Perhaps the best ever season on the field, ruined for some by the owner’s abuse of those supporters who question his desire to rid the club of its 110-year-old name. The only people to emerge with credit in this whole tawdry affair are City Till We Die, the campaign group set up to oppose the name change who, in the face of extreme provocation – “fans can die when they want” being just one of Allam’s famous comments – have behaved with dignity and responsibility throughout. In 10, 20 years time, when we look back on this time in the club’s history, we will recall with pride, the actions of fans who took it upon themselves to respectfully disagree with Assem Allam and who explained why the tradition and history of the club should be respected, not trashed. So, it’s been a landmark week and that’s before City fans head down south to Wembley and Hull City AFC’s FA Cup semi-final date, only the second time City have been at this stage in 110 years and only the club’s second ever visit to Wembley. As for the game, any City fan will know better than to see a clear route to the final. Sheffield United may be two leagues below the Tigers (that’s our nickname and we love it, just not as part of our name by the way) but the Blades are in good form and, if Nigel Clough had been in charge at the start of the season, would almost certainly be among the promotion places. The team United don’t have promotion hopes remaining so have been able to concentrate on Wembley and they will be dangerous opponents on Sunday. City also have the disadvantage of two cup-tied strikers in Jelavic and Long, so will have a new forward line for the cup with Yannick Sagbo, Sone Aluko and Matty Fryatt probably competing for two places. The rest of the team won’t be too far off the first choice starting 11 with the addition of Tom Huddleston who missed the victory overSwansea, but should be fit for Wembley. He, Jake Livermore and David Meyler will have the job of controlling the midfield with Ahmed Elmohamady getting crosses in from wide. That may mean that George Boyd, scorer of the goal that beat Swansea, misses out. That would be harsh as he had a fine game last Saturday; it could be that he plays just behind a main striker and therefore could be competing with Sone Aluko for a start. Whatever team Steve Bruce decides upon, Hull City stand on the brink of history, 90 minutes away from a first ever FA Cup final. In a season defined as much for off-field disputes as on-field achievements, it would be fitting if the players, who have done the club proud, had the final word on Sunday.
That would be a good article if he'd left the name change bollocks out. Quite typical to use 17% disparagingly for the in favour, but fails to mention that despite a vigorous campaign by CTWD, less than 17% voted No. Fairly typical and lazy journalism over this matter. Is he a member of CTWD? I do heartedly endorse his last comment though; Amen to that.
I understand why you look at the figures in that way, but the poll was organized by the Allams for fans to show their support for the family. Ehab even told Burnsey that it was not about the name change. The poll results did not give the Allams the support they wanted, nor did the results give CTWD the numbers they wanted, but as the poll and the questions were organized by the Allams, it failed in its objective and the article is correct. If CTWD organized a similar poll, asking for popular support and it returned the same results, then CTWD would have failed.
Erm...like someone is going to write an article about what a big week it's been for Hull City, without mentioned the fact they managed to retain their name.
That is utter nonsense. It doesn't matter who organises a poll, it matters which sides are involved with a specific view and how well that view is supported in the final count. CTWD have run a vociferous campaign and urged their supporters to not ignore the poll, and to vote no, and less than 17% of the total votes received were no. Neither side particularly came out of it well, and this should be included in any articles on it that profess to be unbiased. Both sides failed, neither managed to engage the massive silent majority. I would view that as more of a problem for CTWD because to be seen to be speaking for the majority of fans, they need to be seen to be supported. The Allams could view it as 9k don't care one way or the other, but they're not against us, I don't see how CTWD can view it that way. I am not saying that is right or wrong, and in fact I'm going to fall back to my view that a poll was always a waste of time. Unless you can get a massive amount of the people who's views you want to hear to vote, its just all open to interpretation. Sadly, apathy does rule, not just at our club but in general society and I think that's a huge shame. Mr #proudtobenotohulltigers there is clearly not unbiased, hence why he, even as a professional journalist, or especially depending on your view on journo's quite simply ignores what he finds uncomfortable.
Yes Happy - as you state, the Allams' 'ballot' was a load of bollocks. It was bound to be, considering the swivelling way they've gone about the whole name-change 'plan'. The vote that matters is the FA vote. And that vote registered a very good 'NO'. However, any journo writing about City/FA Cup/ FA vote, is almost obligated to mention the Allams' nonsense, if only to set a context and a contrast.
What have the Roman's ever done for us? Brought the best manager we have had to the club. Given him the funds to get us back in the premiership - and to the brink of OUR FIRST EVER CUP FINAL. To achieve this against a background of an army of ingrate underachievers insulting you is nothing short of heroic.
The poll was organized by the Allams, the questions were posed by the Allams, they specifically requested that "the silent majority" showed their support for them by voting for option A. The silent majority stayed silent. Their request failed. It really doesn't get any simpler. The poll was not conducted to show support for or against CTWD. If they wanted to know whether there was popular support for CTWD they could have included it on the ballot form.
What have the fans ever done for the club? Put up with countless rubbish managers over decades. Given money year after year in the hope of one day seeing us in the premiership. Thrown money into blankets to support the players - all for the dream of a FIRST EVER CUP FINAL. To go through all this, and be on the brink of success against a background of ingrate owners insulting you is nothing short of heroic.
Erm they did, that was the "No to Hull Tigers" option. That was the option that CTWD urged to vote for. We're going in circles here Muff...s'making me dizzy.
They were also told that was a vote against the owner, you can't be surprised that quite a lot of people didn't want to say they didn't support the owner? If the ballot said Yes To Hull Tigers/No To Hull Tigers in a free vote, you know perfectly well it would have been a landslide. So did AA, that's why he had to make it a vote of confidence in him, rather than a name change vote(Ehab even went on local radio to say it wasn't a name change vote at all, it was a vote of confidence in the Allam family).
