Let’s Not Let Personality Get In The Way of Recognition

Such is the nature of the Premier League, fourteenth place would appear to be a relatively comfortable one. It is the position currently occupied by Hull City who, after collecting four points out of a possible six against Chelsea and Manchester City, hope to push on and move further up the table. If only it was that simple. Hull have three consecutive away games coming up and when they do return to the KC Stadium, Arsenal will be the visitors. Nevertheless, there is a sense of optimism: Hull may only be three points above the dreaded drop zone, but this is more than expected. Pundits far and wide tipped City for relegation this season, believing they would replicate the latter half of last season’s form.

The progress has been steady. Only one win in seven at the beginning of the campaign indicated that perhaps the pundits would be right. A 4-0 home defeat to Everton, albeit in the Carling Cup, sparked persistent chants of ‘Browny sort it out’; this was the first time the fans began to turn. A 6-1 loss at Liverpool ensued, and newspaper reports suggested chairman Paul Duffen had awarded Brown six weeks to save his job. However, it was Duffen whose position ceased first as Adam Pearson returned to the club, intent, if the rumours are to be believed, on making a change in the managerial department. A desperately unlucky defeat to Burnley followed, and the pressure on Brown intensified. When Stoke City took a 1-0 lead at the KC Stadium, he looked doomed. However, Hull managed to turn the game around and record a 2-1 win, a result which was followed with a 3-3 draw with West Ham and a 3-2 victory over Everton. The calls for Brown’s head subsided and, despite it being their first win in twelve, the recent 2-1 defeat of Manchester City has provided hope that Hull City can again survive in the Premier League. The club, who were on the brink of non-league football in 1999, has risen so inexplicably and if either Duffen or Pearson had chosen to extirpate themselves of Brown’s services, they would be showing a deep lack of gratitude. It is vital for clubs to sustain a sense of perspective: without Phil Brown, Hull City would probably still be languishing in the lower reaches of the Championship.

You can only get so far when discussing Brown’s managerial ability before it is impossible to proceed without referring to that infamous half-time team talk in a game against Manchester City. What was unusual about the event was the fact that it took place on the playing surface. In a sport which is dominated by money and the media, the dressing room remains the only place yet to sell its soul to baiting television channels: with cameras positioned all over stadiums for live matches, this enclosure remains sacred ground. It is a place where Sir Alex Ferguson’s hairdryer is plugged in and turned up high, whilst stories of Roy Keane karate kicking a tactics table are unsurprising, especially considering the venue where the alleged event transpired. Thus, the dressing room is supposed to be the one place where the manager and his team can be alone – away from the opposition, away from predatory journalists and away from the supporters. By breaking this convention with a public admonishment, Phil Brown made a mistake. His players, despite being 4-0 down, had performed heroically in the majority of the opening eighteen games of the season and did not deserve to be undermined or belittled by their boss. Hitherto, Brown has stubbornly defended his actions, pointing to the fact that, with the game ending 5-1, his team had drawn the second half. Brown conveniently ignored the fact that Manchester City had started to relax, secure in the knowledge that it would take a massive effort from Hull to overturn their four goal lead. Critics blamed Brown’s half-time decision for his side’s subsequent collapse, when they only won one of their remaining nineteen matches and plummeted down the league. Notwithstanding the information above, no such facts will be recorded in the history books. In the 2008/09 Premier League season, Hull City finished in seventeenth place and avoided relegation. This is all that matters and the fact that it was in their debut Premier League season, ten seasons after propping up the Football League, makes it even more of a marvellous achievement.

A goal celebration, choreographed by the Hull players, was performed in November after Jimmy Bullard’s equalising goal at Eastlands. Bullard, assuming the role of Phil Brown, wagged his finger at the bewildered players circled around him, emulating Brown’s ‘spirit-destroying’ antics. If the players had indeed lost faith in their manager during those fifteen minutes, it would be preposterous for them to poke fun at the event less than a year after it took place. The fantastic display showed the unity between Brown and his playing staff, whilst it also dispelled the popular belief that Brown damaged the vital relationship between a manager and his players on that Boxing Day afternoon.

Had Hull’s season of two clear halves been reversed, Brown would be hailed as a genius. If the Tigers had picked up just eight points from their opening twenty matches, but had stayed up after accumulating twenty-seven points from their remaining games, there would be no talk of ‘six weeks to save his job’. Similarly, if Hull had managed to develop some level of consistency and generated their thirty-five points at a steady rate throughout, Brown and his side would have received far more plaudits than they did. Instead, Hull’s limp over the finish line overshadowed the magnificent early season form, which included brilliant away wins at Arsenal and Tottenham. Hull were considered to be fortunate – some went as far to say that they only survived because of Newcastle United’s incompetence. Surely, this ridiculous notion applies every season then? Perhaps the ‘great escapes’ from Fulham, Portsmouth and West Bromwich Albion were not so; instead of dispersing credit to these sides, it would be more accurate for us to define their survival by studying the mistakes made by Reading, Birmingham City and Norwich City. Hull City remained in the league because they collected more points than three other teams. For this, coupled with the fact that they were many bookmakers’ favourites for the drop, they deserve praise.

American lawyer and politician Frederick L. Collins one said: “There are two types of people. Those who come into a room and say ‘Well, here I am!’ And those who say ‘Ah, there you are‘”. There is no doubting that Phil Brown belongs to the former. Regardless, in an era where press conferences are often dull and soporific affairs, it is refreshing to watch Brown, a manager who does not solely use interviews to exhibit his assemblage of footballing clichés. His personality does irritate some: as one broadcaster remarked last term, the fifty year old does not need to be asked by the fans to ‘give us a wave’, as he tends to come out of the tunnel already waving. However, he proves that characters do still exist in the game. A lot of people are too quick to dismiss Brown as a foolish, media-savvy attention seeker, and people appear to enjoy ridiculing him much more than other managers, namely for his earpiece and the application of chemicals to produce a perma-tanned face. His hearty rendition of The Beach Boys’ Sloop John B after Hull’s survival was chastised by many onlookers and deemed to be embarrassing and pathetic. It is a sad situation when a manager is viewed in this way after celebrating success with his own fans; would we really rather have twenty mechanical robots as Premier League managers who, instead of rejoicing after such an accomplishment, merely walk down the tunnel and talk to Geoff Shreeves about the lads ‘working their socks off’? More importantly, such criticisms of Brown overshadow his ability to manage a football club – something hehas been very successful at doing at Hull. Leading the club to the Premiership was one thing, but keeping them there erodes the doubt. Phil Brown has done a terrific job.

These three upcoming matches against Blackburn Rovers, West Ham United and Everton are vitally important for the Tigers. If they can continue their reputable recent form, they may be able to further pull away from eighteenth place. Alternatively, the three games could prove disastrous and Hull could be in a far worse position than fourteenth. Their fans, who are now well used to topsy-turvy seasons, might even have mentally prepared themselves for disappointment. One thing’s for sure though. Even if Hull City find themselves trailing by a four goal deficit after forty-five minutes tonight, Phil Brown will conduct his team talk in the sanctuary of Ewood Park’s away dressing room. Harsh words may be distributed, foul language may be exchanged and tea cups may be thrown, but it will all take place inside those four walls. Who knows, they might even win the second half.

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