Need to know
The Tigers continue to step up plans for their glorious return to the Premier League
Acun Ilicali in conversation with Hull City fans(Image: Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Hull City owner Acun Ilicali has delivered his latest Q&A inside the MKM Stadium following the club’s promotion to the Premier League last month.
Work is well underway at City to prepare the club on and off the pitch for their first foray back into the top flight for the first time in a decade.
Ilicali covered a host of topics, including his pride at promotion, transfers, stadium developments, Financial Fair Play and plenty more.
Here’s a round-up…
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*On Wembley
“I’ve never heard such a beautiful sound when Yu got the ball, and all the fans shouted his name.”
*On transfers this summer
“We will spend on transfers. We will make around 10 transfers. We will also sign players and loan them out to other clubs. The project is not signing (Robert) Lewandowski. The project is to make this team work with a higher value. We have to find some important talents with big potential and bring them to our team.
“They are heroes (Jared Dublin, Martin Hodge and Mustapha Yokes). We need an immediate assistant for Jared (Dublin), or he will die. We have somebody in our minds who can help him. Somebody said to me, ‘if you promote, your life will completely change,’ and this is true, our life has completely changed. There is so much interest in us now. You can understand how big the league is now.
“Maybe we will have an office in London now. We need to improve, improve, improve, but that is what I like. I am so happy to say that now we are in a different level, and we did it together.”
*Building a new training facility
“My dream is to find a good land, and the council is supporting us. They know that this club is the pride of this city. We will ask for their support. We will make a good facility for the academy, and the second step is to move the training ground there next year, that is the plan.”
*Could the MKM Stadium capacity be increased?
“It was one of my dreams in the beginning. At the moment, if we stay in the league one more year, it will be the time. Unfortunately, we were not sold out all season more than two or three times, I think. If we stay for more than one year, there are some interesting things we can do (with the Chris Chilton Stand) because of the way it was constructed.”
*On Financial Fair Play and the need for City to sell players before the end of June
“We have overspent and we have to sell some players before July 1. I don’t say that it will be very easy or very hard. Now we are a Premier League team, the values (of players) has raised up which is a good advantage. We have some players that know they will not be able to play with us.
“Now we will work on that and solve this problem. It’s a new task, and we will manage it. I’m not afraid. We have managed harder things. For us, this is more manageable.”
*On Toby Collyer coming back next season
“We love him, he loves us. I can not promise anything at the moment. He’s such a good player and a player with potential. For individual names, I can not talk with certainty because these need meetings, and he’s a Manchester United player. Of course, our relations with Manchester United are fantastic; even if they’re our opponent, we love them. Let’s see what happens. I can not say whether it will be done or not. From the first day I bought the club, I said I would make mistakes. I am not a magician, but I learn from my mistakes. I make mistakes, take the lesson, and go further.
“One of my mistakes in the first years was going for names, now I am more keen to sign potential. For every position, we will have two players because there are so many injuries.
“We had the best squad depth. Kyle Joseph took the role when McBurnie was not around. Gelhardt, Koumas, and Yu made a difference, gave us more energy and comfort. We should have very, very good players, competitive squad. If he has the passion and quality of McBurnie, then it’s a special occasion. Some names are so big, but they don’t perform good, I wouldn’t take them to our club.
*The Tigers owner also confirmed he will meet Ehab Allam to discuss the terms of the repayment the former owner is owed following promotion to the Premier League.
*Confirms a lounge like BoxPark will be created under the North Stand for fans to spend time before and after the game. There will be a Turkish song played before the game, and remains keen to see a bespoke song for Hull City created.
“Will tickets be made available for the friendlies in Slovenia and Turkey this summer?
“For sure, there will be tickets made available, and very probably we will organise a tour. It’s not 100 per cent, but these are projects. On the tour, there will be tickets. There will also be one training, like we did last year, and it was fantastic. We were together, and we enjoyed it.
*On being written off again
“They’ve given us a 25 per cent chance to stay in the league, and I like it.”
*What’s the dream now?
“I said one thing when I bought the club: I wanted improvement. From the first minute, we are improving, and now we are in the Premier League. First year, stay in the league, and we will fight for it. There are two options: we can stay in the league, or we can be relegated. If we are relegated, we have to be so good that we have to go directly to promotion. We will fight against them.
“If we go down and we do everything correctly, we will go directly for immediate promotion and then come back stronger. Leeds United is a good example. The next target and dream is to be Brighton, Brentford, and the next dream is to be Leicester. This is the ceiling. Why not go as far as we can? We don’t have the credit to make mistakes, I know that. We are fully focused. In the last year, I have given everything to this club.
“Now we are in the Premier League, can you understand how much I am motivated? How much I was motivated last year with your love, even though we were suffering, now we have had the success, I am in the clouds. We will give more and more. Even the fixtures are important; they can change everything.
“My dream is to stay in the league and do everything we can for it. If we stay in the league next year, they will not be able to get rid of us. Trust me, we will be very dangerous. This next year, we need all of your support.”
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