After the sacking of Ruben Selles on May 15th 2025 and keeping Hull City afloat in the Championship by it's fingernails on goal difference, the search has been on for Acun's 6th manager of his tenure that started in January 2022 with his £30 million pound acquisition of The Tigers. The first was existing incumbent Grant McCann who was an expected release just 7 days later to make way for the new Turkish owner's preferred choice in the shape of Georgian, Shota Arveladze.

Shota didn't work out as planned and was ushered out the door 8 months and 30 games later with just 9 wins and a short season that only accumulated to 1.1 points per game. Then came manager number 3 and to date, the best manager we've had under Acun in the form of Liam Rosenior after a short caretaking period from Andy Dawson and hit the ground running losing just 1 game in his first 8 and good enough to secure him the 23/24 season having lifted the club from 21st place under Shota to a respectable 15th place on the last day of the season which saw us draw with Luton away 0-0.

We all know the Story of how that 23/24 season ended. A huge injury loss of loanee Liam Delap, our most effective goal scorer stalled Rosie's push into the top 6 but despite 14 goals from Philogene and 10 from Tufan we were just edged out of the play offs finishing a very confident 7th. BUT, to many fans amazement Rosenior was unceremoniously sacked the same weekend with the owner's reason being that the football was not the style that Mr. Illicali wanted. The debates of whether he should or shouldn't have been sacked still rage on to this day but the fact that he maintained a 1.4 points per game is the best we've seen to date.

Onto manager number 4. The late appointment of big German, Tim Walter praised by Acun for his 1.8 point ratio from Hamburg SV in the Bundesliga who brought us "Walterball". Tim's explanation about his style was "I'm different". In actual fact he wasn't. He was as clueless as Arveladze and so far Acun's worst appointment to date with just 0.8 points per game and lasting just 108 days, 18 games with just 3 wins. It was dismal.

Another season with 2 managers (24/25) ensued and in walks Spaniard and Acun's 5th manager under his tenure, Ruben Selles who was plucked from under the nose of L1 Reading after a good spell with them. However, the jump to the Championship proved to be a leap too far as Ruben lost pretty much every other game and only 9 wins in 28 games with a point per game ratio of 1.2 and to be fair had a difficult job of breaking free from the Walter mentality. As it was, and once again we just scraped survival thanks to other results going in our favour on the last day of the season at Portsmouth and it all came down to not points, but goal difference. 14 goals to be precise and it was Luton that felt the axe of relegation fall who were on the same 49 points with a GD of -24 to our -10.

Personally I would have given Selles a full season and chance to show his true worth but after 143 days Acun had once again seen enough and Ruben, sadly got his marching orders.

For 3 weeks or so the black smoke of indecision has been wafting from the chimney of the MKM's Sistine Chapel below as the brain team now consisting of Acun Illicali (Owner), Jared Dublin (Sporting Director), Martin Hodge (Head of Recruitment), Beri Pardo (Head of Performance Strategy), Ebru Atasav Tahranci (Board Member), Cem Avaroglu (Board Member) and Mustafa Tarik (Board Member) discussed and deliberated over manager number 6. Many have been touted such as Cleverly, Miron Muslic, Mark Robins, Steven Schumacher to name but a few but an agreement has been reached as new white silver lined smoke belched out the chimney of decision that signalled a new coming of a saviour.

The former Kayserispor boss Sergej Jakirović is the choice for Hull City's 4th overseas manager under Acun Illicali and 3rd without any English football management experience that is now announced to join the Tigers. The 48 year old Bosnian is alleged to have signed a deal with £1 million per year in salary having managed his last game in Turkey against Samsunspor that resulted in an unceremonious farewell from Turkish Football for Sergi having been 1-0 up but losing 2 - 1 courtesy of 2 late goals in the 95th and 98th minute by Samsunspor and sparked up a dramatic finale seeing our new boss receiving a red card from the official and a bombardment of water bottles hurled at him from the opposing "Red Lightening" fans.

We could be forgiven in thinking that Sergej, a former centre back / defensive midfield player has had more clubs than Tiger Woods totalling 20 between 1995 and 2016 plus 5 international caps in his playing days before naturally progressing into management in 2017 holding 8 posts including his newest as head coach at Hull City so he certainly been around the circuit and must have a long contact list of associates which may be of added use to Hull City in widening it's knowledge base, especially abroad in the longer term?

The omission of any EFL management experience has understandably caused disgruntlement amongst many City fans having seen the same type of situation with Arveladze and Walter and it's widely conceived that Acun, although loved by the majority of the Tiger Nation is woefully inept at managerial decisions and especially the one surrounding the sacking of fans' favourite Liam Rosenior so we are wondering, is it third time lucky for a manager that has had zero minutes in the EFL as Head Coach or otherwise? After all a broken clock is right twice a day and given the recent history, it would suggest that Acun will have had to be extra careful in his consideration and appointment of Sergej on a 2 year deal with a club option of a further year who, it's been mooted will have a £60M war chest according to some sources.

So here we are, Acun and his brain team have thrown the dice, the back room staff are assembled, the search for our campaign troops is well underway, the rail seating to the North an North East stands has been fitted, the pitch is being nurtured and the pre season training programme drawn up.

It's a case now for the fans to sit back, get the popcorn out and watch the 46 game season and hopefully a cup run or two with fingers crossed and that we can be blessed with far fewer injuries than we are usually cursed with.

One thing for sure in my mind is that however we perform on the field it won't be the manager that get's it if it turns sour. It will be Acun. If the £1M salary is true then most would jump in both feet and bite his hand off at that so any blame or fails will lay squarely at Acun's door in my opinion. But that also goes for praise and plaudits should this be the appointment we've been waiting for. Make or Break for the The Tiger's owner? We'll see.

At this point it's a warm welcome for Sergej Jakirović and hope that Acun gets to see his dream of exciting, attacking football along with the rest of us during the 25/26 season and beyond. UTT.