Hull City goalkeeping coach Erbil Bozkurt admits the reality of what the Tigers have achieved is only beginning to dawn on him after their impressive Wembley success last month, as attention turns to preparing for life in the Premier League a decade on from their last spell in the top-flight and a mouth-watering opening day clash with Manchester United at the MKM Stadium.
Bozkurt has worked as part of Sergej Jakirovic’s coaching staff for the past year, and was on the touchline at Wembley as City overcame Middlesbrough and 14 minutes of added time, thanks to Oli McBurnie’s 95th-minute winning goal under the arch, which changed the club’s fortunes.
Those celebrations were a long way away from the sighs of relief at Fratton Park last May, when City survived on the final day of a dismal season thanks to Matt Crooks’ goal on the South Coast.
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“It’s a great achievement. I’ve been here at the club for two years now,” he told Hull Live. “You look at last season where we stayed up on goal difference, and then to be where we are now with this group of lads, the staff, and to be going into the Premier League, it’s amazing.
“To be fair, even now, it doesn’t feel real. It feels like a dream. Everything went so quickly. The build-up, obviously, there was a lot of noise around whether we’re playing, Southampton, Middlesbrough, so that wasn’t easy.
“We prepared for Southampton for three or four days, and then, with maybe two-and-a-half days to go, we had to prepare for Middlesbrough. That wasn’t easy, but the lead-up to Wembley was just amazing.
“It goes so quickly, so many coaches and people that I know have said to me, ‘Make the most of it because it will go quickly.’ It did, it went so good. The day before, we went and trained at Barnet. We then had the tour at Wembley, and then the game itself. It just went so, so, so quickly. It still doesn’t feel real to us.”
City became just the fourth side in play-off history to go through the tournament without conceding a goal, and while Ivor Pandur will gain a huge amount of credit, Bozkurt is keen to praise the role of other players, from Oli McBurnie to Semi Ajayi, Charlie Hughes and John Egan.
“I think it’s important that the goalkeepers get credit with the clean sheets, but I’m not the type that wants to put all the credit on the goalkeeper because the defending starts with Oli up front. It’s a team thing. You look at the final, the blocks Charlie Hughes, Johnny Egan, and Semi made, they’re amazing, the headers. Sometimes, in terms of the defensive side of things, it’s just the little things that matter, and then I think defensively in the final we were amazing.”
Seeing Jakirovic on Sky Sports News, lining up with the likes of Mikel Arteta and Arne Slot ahead of the fixtures announcement day on June 19, made the size of the club’s remarkable achievement all the more real for Bozkurt.
“I saw Sky Sports News was on in my house, and I saw the gaffer’s picture come up with some of the other Premier League managers about Premier League fixture announcement and stuff, and it’s only slowly sinking in. It’s a great achievement. To be able to do this with this staff and the players is top, it’s amazing.”
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