In some ways, it seems like a lifetime ago that Hull City celebrated on the Fratton Park pitch under the blazing sun, after securing their Championship survival. Ruben Selles is taking calls from his family, having eventually steered the club away from relegation on the final day of the season, courtesy of goal difference.
For City, it was almost the season from hell. It was never meant to be like that, but managerial changes, late and muddled recruitment and injuries to star players meant it was, but they survived.
In others, that stressful final day feels like yesterday. It was a gruesome end to the season, with desperate defeats to Luton Town and Derby County at home suggesting League One would be their destination.
Mercifully, that wasn’t the case. City scraped by via the skin of their teeth, and then another summer of upheaval followed. Doubts had already been raised behind the scenes about Selles’ suitability to lead the team into the Championship. A decision was made to dispense of the Spaniard’s services, in favour of going in a different direction.
Given how Selles’ career has developed since then, with fairly poor spells at Sheffield United and Real Zaragoza, perhaps Acun Ilicali was right to make that call.
Despite flirting with Emre Belözoğlu and seeing Milan Muslic push hard for the job, amongst others, including Michael Beale, Sergej Jakirovic got the call, and the owner’s decision to push the boat out, metaphorically and financially, to bring the Croatian to East Yorkshire, has been one of his best decisions.
From the moment his big frame and personality arrived in June, City’s dressing room has bought into his methods. Those methods are more traditional. Less talking, but more impact when he does speak. A good amount of analysis without it being overbearing and blowing the minds of players, like under Tim Walter and Selles.
Just days into his tenure, the call that no manager wants. It confirmed that the club had been slapped with a three-window fee restriction by the EFL. Jakirovic thought he was getting Louie Barry for £3.5m from Aston Villa. He also thought he was getting Lewis Koumas, Toby Collyer and Owen Beck, amongst others. Matija Frigan was lined up, too. Their transfer plans had to be ripped up whilst preparing for an appeal.
Despite that huge and very embarrassing setback, Ilicali, along with sporting director Jared Dublin, head of recruitment Martin Hodge and the rest of the staff, set about trying to pull off deals within the framework set out by the EFL. Key to everything was Oli McBurnie. Dublin, whilst on a summer cruise, had held talks with McBurnie and felt the club were close to a deal, before news of the EFL’s punishment was known.
Even after being slapped on the wrist and thrown onto the naughty step, McBurnie became the focal point. The club knew that if they could tempt McBurnie above Sheffield United, Swansea City, Wrexham and a return to Las Palmas, it would show how serious they were, and help them attract other new recruits. Ilicali and Dublin enlisted the help of John Egan and Matt Crooks to persuade the 29-year-old to come.
Eventually, later than planned, they got the deal done, and it’s proved to be easily the best piece of transfer business by anyone in the Championship for some time. McBurnie’s first meeting with Jakirovic saw the boss demand 15 goals. Those have been delivered, as has a huge array of impressive performances. He’s been their talisman, and the fans have loved having him about. Little did we know, 17 goals later, what a stunning piece of business it would prove to be.
City pushed for Joe Gelhardt, and were able to get him back from Leeds United, as well as Darko Gyabi. They pulled off eye-catching deals elsewhere, which, given their restrictions, were mightily impressive. As key as the new recruits were, Jakirovic brought the existing group together.
He brought Ryan Giles back in from the wilderness and helped him regain the form that saw him regarded as one of the Championship’s finest attack-minded full-backs. He found a spark in Kyle Joseph, he raised the levels of Cody Drameh, Lewie Coyle and Regan Slater.
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Slater started the season as his fifth-choice midfielder and ended it as his number one. Described by his manager as City’s ‘MVP’ – most valuable player. He gave Gelhardt the freedom to have the best season of his career, and others in the dressing room have played their part. John Egan’s another. Behind Semi Ajayi and Charlie Hughes in the pecking order, Egan has been immense. So good has he been that he was brought back into the Republic of Ireland setup after a lengthy absence. Loanee Amir Hadziahmetovic arrived on loan and ended his Bosnian international exile during his stay with City. Injury may have hampered his World Cup hopes, but those dreams are not over yet.
Of course, there have been low moments. Being 4-0 down at half-time against Middlesbrough was one of those, as was the 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday on Boxing Day. Those low moments have been few and far between. Early in the season, City, notoriously poor at the MKM Stadium, claimed big home wins over Southampton, Leicester City and Sheffield United. They won away at Norwich City for the first time in years, and then completed a famous double.
After that humbling against Boro in early December, they responded by winning at the Riverside Stadium a few weeks later. They ended Birmingham City’s long unbeaten home record in the league.
Unfortunately, given the restrictions City were operating under, quite a few of their players arrived without full pre-seasons under their belt, and others were returning from long absences, like Liam Millar and Mo Belloumi. Throughout the campaign, almost all of their players have faced lengthy spells out. From memory, only Ivor Pandur and John Egan haven’t suffered. It’s meant that Jakirovic has never once been able to name a fully fit squad, let alone what we’d consider his strongest team.
City have continually been robbed of their best players, whether it be Giles, Ajayi, Charlie Hughes, John Lundstram, Amir, Gelhardt, McBurnie, Millar, Belloumi, Matt Crooks and of course, Eliot Matazo. Toby Collyer arrived in January, got injured, came back and gave one of the most impressive displays of the season against Coventry and then hasn’t been since. While not an excuse, Jakirovic has done his job against a backdrop of difficulty. Still able to get results.
So many have been plagued by injury, but on they would go. Matt Crooks and Charlie Hughes, both requiring surgery, but both playing through the pain barrier for the manager and for the football club.
LISTEN: The final day 1904 Club podcast special with Jakirovic, McBurnie and Coyle
At times, they’ve ridden their luck; they’ve not been at their best. At their best, however, they purred. In the home win over Leicester, they were front-footed and exhilarating. City have found a way of playing, and it’s been successful, and it was when it mattered, when character and big hearts were required.
This season, City were even able to win an FA Cup tie. I mean, that’s not something that had ever happened during Ilicali’s tenure, and it set up a quirky tie with Chelsea and Liam Rosenior, though his tenure came to an abrupt end in the weeks that followed.
It’s been a rollercoaster of a season at the MKM Stadium, but it’s one that has restored pride both inside and outside the football club. They’ve challenged, and at the start of the season, few would have predicted that. The way the final day played out was a fitting end to a campaign that was gripping to the last.
Going into the final day, City needed help, and they duly got it from Middlesbrough. As Kim Hellberg said to Sergej Jakirovic at the EFL Awards in London, I’ll see you in the play-offs. That might yet be at Wembley with both kept apart in the semi-final.
Ultimately, though, it came down to doing their own job, and in Oli McBurnie, they have a big player for the big occasion. The noise when his winning goal against in-form Norwich City was only dwarfed by that of Ivor Pandur rising to claim a 96th-minute corner, after a moment of two of sheer panic inside the Tigers’ box, which then brought with it three blows on Josh Smith’s whistle. Again, a fitting end to the regular campaign.
This has been a special season, and it’s not done yet. City will tackle Millwall, themselves going into the play-offs on the back of one of the best campaigns in their own history. Both managers, staff and players have had fantastic seasons, and they should be proud. City, 12 months on from the stress and palpable relief of Fratton Park, deserved the moment in the sunshine to take acclaim from the supporters on the MKM Stadium pitch.
What happens over the next 10 days will be decided in the fullness of time, but for now, this special football club, the beating heart of its community, can take joy in the fact that they have secured a place in the play-offs and are now just three games from a return to the Premier League.
Jakirovic, his staff and this group of players have achieved something few expected, and they should be proud. There remains a job to do both at home and in South London. They have, however, made their fans and their families proud, and that alone is worth an awful lot.
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