And It’s Bye, No Silva Lining For Hull City

Hull City have suffered the ignominy of relegation back down to the EFL Championship at the first time of asking as a season of poor preparation, managerial changes and off the pitch struggles proved to be all to the detriment of the club in regards to their hopes of Premier League survival.

After the sacking of Mike Phelan in January, Hull had to roll the dice to make sure the whole season was not a lost cause. It was at that point that they made the announcement of former Olympiakos manager Marco Silva as the new incumbent of the Hull managerial hotseat.

It must be said that it was an appointment out of left field and one that certainly drew the ire of messers Merson and Thompson on an edition of Sky Sports hit show ‘Soccer Saturday’ their xenophobic comments about why Hull had not appointed an English manager showed the two of them as slightly out of touch with the reaction bordering on the embarrassing.

And Silva was very close to making Merson and Thompson eat their words as a transformation was taking place with the squad that he inherited from the departing Phelan at the start of this year, Hull always had a threadbare squad but a few transfer window additions just gave them a fresh impetus in their battle to beat the drop.

Silva’s meticulous methods worked quickly and the Hull that limped towards the Christmas period was now a different beast, it was almost night and day as to how the two variants of this Hull side were playing each weekend and the outlook looked a lot brighter all of a sudden.

That should not be too much of a criticism of the outgoing manger as he could only work with what he was given as a failure to add to the ranks last Summer meant after the initial burst of life in the top flight they soon found the going tough with a string of heavy defeats racked up in the last few games of the Mike Phelan era.

Marco Silva though quickly galvanised a squad low on confidence and results especially at home were to soon follow as Hull first climbed off the bottom of the table and then more importantly out of the bottom three, it seemed with a handful of games to go that the roll of the dice back in January was really going to pay dividends.

But like all investments the value can go up as well as down and that is exactly what happened in Hull at just the wrong time, it must be said that it was more the players letting down the manager then Silva getting it wrong as two huge defeats consigned the Tigers to the second tier for next season.

The defeat to Sunderland when at this point survival was still in their own hands would have been an absolute hammer blow and one that they never recovered from. Sunderland being already relegated was nothing short of a free hit for Hull and one that they failed to take.

It was a defeat that obviously lingered and you could see the hangover at Selhurst Park a week after when Crystal Palace consigned them to the drop, a 4-0 defeat was a crushing blow when they had Premier League safety in their control just a few weeks prior.

Yesterday’s 7-1 defeat to Tottenham would have been a poor send off to their stint in the top flight, they perhaps should not be judged too harshly as Mauricio Pochettino’s men have been rampant over the past few weeks but this is not the way they would have wanted to bow out.

And it is not necessarily that defeat in isolation that will make Marco Silva’s mind up as to whether he stays or goes from the club but it would certainly not have helped the case for convincing him to stay in charge and mastermind trying to get promoted at the first time of asking.

When Newcastle were relegated and played Tottenham on the final day of last season the home fans sang for Rafa Benitez to stay for the duration of the game and Hull deployed a similar approach in a bid to pull on his heart strings, there is no question just how high a regard they have for Silva.

But unfortunately for him he also seems to be in high regard for clubs not just here but on the continent also, with Watford showing Walter Mazzarri the exit door last week he would be a very solid fit for the Vicarage Road outfit but you get the feeling he could probably aim a bit higher what with his stock being as high as it is right now.

That means the Hull board are going to have to prepare one hell of a sales pitch and hope like Newcastle did last season they manage to convince their man to stay in charge for a Championship tilt. The difference though is that Newcastle put their money where the mouth is and backed Benitez.

Is that something that Hull could or would do? If they did it would certainly not be on the same scale at Newcastle and that could be an issue that is a tick in the negative column for Silva. Hull where slow to do business last Summer, if they can keep hold of their current boss then it might be better than any potential player signature.

If Hull do not manage to keep hold of him they will undoubtedly kick themselves as relegation has arguably seen one of Europe’s top managerial prospects walk away when he could have really laid down foundations here, the question now is just how much will this relegation end up setting Hull back.