The Tigers are firmly in the thick of the promotion chase with their manager nominated for Manager of the Month for the second time
Hull City have been one of the Championship’s surprise packages this season (Image: Alex Dodd – CameraSport via Getty Images)
Sergej Jakirovic has been hailed as the Championship’s Manager of the Season so far, according to one former promotion-winning captain.
The Croatian, who took his first job in England back in the summer when he replaced Ruben Selles at Hull City, has guided the Tigers firmly into the thick of the promotion race, and that’s caught the eye of ex-Reading skipper Jobi McAnuff.
Prior to the postponement of their meeting with Watford last Sunday, the Tigers were fifth in the league and just two points off the automatic promotion places going into the second half of the season and made it into the FA Cup fourth round for the first time in six years, where they’ll face Liam Rosenior and Chelsea.
Having been tipped for relegation at the start of the season, after their struggles last term, coupled with a transfer fee ban imposed on them by the EFL, City have turned into one of the Championship’s great entertainers, and McAnuff has been suitably impressed with the job Jakirovic has done so far.
“Maybe an alternative one, and one that I certainly wasn’t familiar with, come the start of this season,” McAnuff said on Sky Sports, after listing Jakirovic as his manager of the season thus far ahead of Coventry City chief Frank Lampard.
“I actually really worried for Hull City, given the restrictions they had in the transfer market, but they’ve been really clever there, made some really good signings,” he continued.
“Obviously, Oli McBurnie’s been fantastic. Semi Ajayi, real good Championship pedigree, and then for him (Jakirovic) to come in and really bring the best out of it (the squad) and mould them into a really good team – offensively they’ve been fantastic, second most goals scored defensively, not so good.
“They have conceded a lot. I actually did the Middlesbrough one (1-0 win on December 29), they were brilliant defensively, so if they can keep that up in the second half of the season, there’s no reason why they can’t maintain that promotion push.”
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