More than 12 months on from Liam Rosenior’s exit from Hull City, the debate continues to rumble on with Tony Pulis the latest to question his departure.
Acun Ilicali’s decision to dispense with Rosenior at the end of last season after City finished seventh in the Championship has generated plenty of discussion.
That debate has been exacerbated in recent weeks with City battling against relegation to League One, while Rosenior is on the cusp of securing a place in Europe in his first season with French Ligue 1 side Strasbourg.
After beating PSG it looked like Rosenior’s side could qualify for the Champions League, but defeat in their last outing leaves them in a three-way battle along with Nice and Lille to secure either the Europa League or Conference League qualification. Defeat on the final day to a Le Havre side needing victory to stay up could see them miss out altogether, but victory would assure them of some form of European football next season.
Pulis, who managed more than 1,000 games for clubs including Stoke City and the Tigers’ Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday, believes City dodged a bullet in avoiding the drop on the final day of the campaign after Ruben Selles’ side earned a precious point against his former club, Portsmouth.
“I was really surprised Liam Rosenior left. He’s done absolutely fantastically in France. What a season he’s had over there as well. He’s done brilliant,” Pulis told OLBG.
“When clubs are looking for a new manager, he should be one of the ones that they look at. He’s a great kid. I knew him, I knew his dad as well when I was at Bristol City. They’re a good family. He’s very diligent, he’s very organised.
“He’s been a good coach as well, so he’s stepped up from coaching to management and there’s a difference. I don’t know a lot about the Hull City owner. I don’t know much about the team, but they dodged the bullet in avoiding relegation. They should be very, very thankful that they did do that.”
Pulis, meanwhile, believes Ipswich Town have the strongest case for making an immediate return to the Premier League. Town, along with Southampton and Leicester City, have all been relegated straight back to the second tier and will arrive back in the Championship as the three worst teams in Premier League history.
“I think out of the teams going down, Southampton, Leicester and Ipswich, I think Ipswich are most prepared squad-wise to compete in the Championship,” the Welshman added.
“Kieran McKenna is a young manager, and he’s had great success with two promotions. Now he’s just got a relegation against his name, but I think he’ll be a better manager for it.
“Out of the three teams that have gone down at the moment, if you were going to say to me which teams you think would bounce back, I’d most probably say they’ve got the players to do that better at this present moment than Leicester and Southampton.”