Sergej Jakirovic’s Tigers can etch their names into Hull City folklore this weekend
Hull City boss Sergej Jakirovic has been a bresh of fresh air in the Championship this season (Image: Adam Davy/PA Wire)
For a decade, Hull City fans have been forced to watch their Yorkshire rivals go up to the Premier League, enjoy FA Cup finals and enjoy big moments, whilst suffering the embarrassment of a humiliating relegation to League One. Almost forgotten by many.
In the years since, City have been treading water in the Championship aside from a flirtation with the play-offs under Liam Rosenior, before it crumbled and they were left with a season of struggle which almost ended in another humiliating drop into English football’s backwaters.
Now, the Tigers are just one game away from the Premier League, having enjoyed a remarkable season under their hugely impressive manager, Sergej Jakirovic, the steely Croatian who has captured the hearts, minds and imaginations of everybody at the club, and across the fan base. Only now are others outside of East Yorkshire starting to appreciate what a gem the Tigers have got, and have enjoyed over the past few months.
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While it’s not quite a rags-to-riches story, the fact that City have gone from staying up courtesy of goal difference on the final day of last season, then being hit by transfer restrictions, and being written off by almost everybody in the country, is remarkable.
Nobody gave City a chance of getting into the play-offs, let alone the play-off final. Before a ball was kicked at Coventry City on a blisteringly hot August afternoon, the Tigers were discarded.
Jakirovic was a nobody, his squad was put together by frees and cast-offs. Everybody’s tip for relegation, Jakirovic has gone about his work quietly. He’s organised his side, he’s brought the best out of each and every one of them, whilst dealing with a crippling injury list throughout the campaign
His team, with a mix of youth, experience and a sprinkling of stardust, led brilliantly by the hometown skipper Lewie Coyle, included Irishman John Egan, the wonderfully charismatic Matt Crooks, and, of course, the talismanic striker Oli McBurnie, who almost became the poster boy of City’s summer recruitment drive.
Few understood why McBurnie left the Canary Islands to move to the East Riding. When he walks out in front of 85,000 people at Wembley Stadium, number nine on his back, those questions will have been answered.
McBurnie believed when others didn’t. When others questioned why the striker had chosen Hull City after last season, he got on with the job, firing goal after goal, assist after assist and a string of performances befitting of being the talisman.
City deserve to be where they are. But for a dodgy run in April, the Tigers have been in and around the play-offs all season. At one point in March, after their deserved victory at Wrexham, they were nine points clear of seventh. This wasn’t the smash and grab some portrayed it to be.
Yes, the final day was dramatic, but they are where they are on merit. Over two legs in the semi-final, they did not concede a goal against Millwall, and in the second half at The Den, City purred. Their football was sublime, clinical and effective. Few expected they could do that, but they did. and they can again.
Middlesbrough will provide a stern test. In the MKM Stadium meeting in early December, Kim Hellberg’s men were 4-0 up by half-time and eventually won 4-1. Three weeks later, Jakirovic adapted and won 1-0 at the Riverside Stadium.
What happens over 90-plus minutes at Wembley Stadium, on the biggest of occasions, on a swelteringly hot afternoon, will come out in the wash.
Whatever the outcome, Sergej Jakirovic, his staff and players have given Hull City fans a reason to believe, to be proud of their club that has returned to the big stage, and captured the hearts and minds of a nation.
Owner Acun Ilicali has endured no shortage of ups and downs in his four-year tenure; it’s been anything but dull, and not always easy. There has been no shortage of bumps along the way. Come Saturday tea-time, he could go down in history as the owner who returned Hull City to the Premier League in the greatest way imaginable.
And for Sergej Jakirovic, vindication that his refreshingly simple, affable, straightforward, and simplistic approach to getting the best out of his players has worked wonders.
Irrespective of the outcome over the course of Saturday afternoon, Hull is a city with its footballing pride restored, and for that, Jakirovic will go down as one of the special ones.
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