Hull City owner Acun Ilicali has explained the decision to sack Ruben Selles and acknowledges the club are to interview Emre Belözoğlu alongside as many as four other candidates.
Hull Live exclusively reported that the former Newcastle United player is under consideration, as Ilicali confirmed. Emre is one of two leading candidates for their vacant managerial position, as Ilicali confirmed to Hull Live from his home in Istanbul on Friday evening.
However, during an interview with BBC Radio Humberside released on Saturday, the club’s owner said Emre “is not in the front line” of their candidates. Ilicali added they have five others besides the Antalyaspor head coach in contention.
He acknowledged during the conversation that he has known Emre for 20 years. Ilicali also robustly defended the coach being the subject of a criminal record because of racism.
“Emre is not in the front line of our candidates,” the owner said. “We have four plus one candidates for our manager’s position. There are some from Europe, England, and Emre is one of them.”
Ilicali later added: “He’s one of the candidates; nothing more than that. He is not [in] front, just at the moment we will make interviews.”
Regarding the other candidates, he acknowledged that two are from England and two from Europe, although he initially said two were from Greece before correcting himself. Ilicali also noted that all of them were currently in work, but then clarified that one was not.
Finally, he conceded, hoping the process would end in ten days. However, the owner offered no guarantees.
Speaking about sacking Selles despite keeping Hull in the Championship, he said: “The main reason, if you ask me, our target was never to stay in the league.”
Ilicali added, “We have to be a team, together, and everybody has to trust each other. And if we don’t have the full trust of our future, I don’t think it can last.”