Hull City

On the face of it, you would have thought my club, Hull City, would at least be a consideration for players.

But no. You would have thought it was. Hull is in the best league in the world, it has enough resources to offer substantial contracts (the Jimmy Bullard contract is testament to that) and a solid and loyal fan base.

However it seemed in the last transfer window (and now in this one) that players were reluctant to make the move to East Yorkshire.

As a Hull fan this doesn't sit well with me but as a fan of a smaller club (not one with the riches of Chelsea or Liverpool) that Hull just isn't a fantastic prospect.

The Location

This is a important factor to consider. Hull, since the 1960s, has had a negative connotation. At lot of factors contributed to this but mainly it was the destruction of social infra-structure after the heavy shelling during World War 2.

Whatever caused the negative view it happened and now Hull City AFC find it very hard to attract the talent it needs to survive because it is affiliated with the city.

Now this factor might not apply to foreigner players because of their unfamiliarity with the city. However, certainly for British players, this is certainly an influence.

"Small Club" Status

This may seem surprising since Hull is the 10th largest city in England. But yes, Hull is considered one of the underdogs in its league. This is one reason for this, the club's near meteoric rise to the Premier League.

Back-to-back promotions to the Championship and then a surprisingly quick promotion to the EPL means that Hull has had a very short time to adapt to the league it now finds itself in.

In many ways a slow rise is better than a fast one because of the fact that a club can establish itself in a league, find a place in the Top 10 and sign players that could take them to the next level. In this way, clubs are much much more prepared for surviving the post promotion season.

My point here is Hull, because of the fact that it is a relative newcomer to the top flight, are still considered a risky transfer move. This is because the prospect of a relegation.

EPL Record

Last season, Hull's finish was great. They stayed up. But the way they went about staying up was ignominious to say the least. If the season's record had been reversed - instead of a good run then a very bad run but the other way around then Hull City would have seemed like footballing masterminds.

But no. The fact that Hull clung on by the skin of its teeth implies to a prospective player that something went very wrong at the club.

Therefore an assumption might be made that Hull will have a dismal season next year...and be avoided because of that.

Overall

In conclusion, these three main factors combine to create a situation in which a player will more often than not choose the "other" club.

This can be seen right now with Fortune picking Celtic over Hull when AS Nancy chairman said Hull was the favourite, and Frazier Campbell mulling over a move to Sunderland.

In the 17th part of my "Three Transfers" series, I take a look at Hull City, a team that started the season so well that a wretched run towards the end of the season still managed to keep them up.

Of course, Newcastle and Middlesbrough playing like they wanted to go down helped Hull's cause, but what is important now is that Hull City have another season in the top flight to look forward to.

However, I think it has to be said that the current team, if left unstrengthened, will be around or inside the relegation spots again for most of next season. As such, I think it is crucial that the Tigers strengthen for next season, and my suggestions for Phil Brown to mull over are as follows:

STRIKER

Hull City were one of the lowest scorers last season, managing only 39 goals for the entire campaign.

That Marlon King, who only spent half a season there, is the second-highest scorer with five goals, and Michael Turner, a defender, is the third-highest scorer with four goals, shows that the quality of the strikers probably leave much to be desired. Even with Fraizer Campbell's impending arrival at the club, at least one more striker is still needed.

As such, Phil Brown's interest in Michael Owen is completely understandable. However, with Owen expressing his reluctance to join Hull, perhaps other targets should be the focus for Brown.

I would suggest that Brown should try to sign Benjani Mwaruwari. With Roque Santa Cruz recently becoming the 176th striker on Manchester City's books, Benjani will surely find playing time really limited.

That he will not get much time on the pitch isn't an indication of his lack of quality though, it just so happens that there is talent like Robinho, Bellamy, Jo, Santa Cruz and Caicedo ahead of him in the pecking order.

As such, Hull would do well to sign Benjani, who is a decent goalscorer, but perhaps more importantly, he is a hardworking striker who never gives up a lost cause. This is a valuable mindset to have for any player playing for a relegation-threatened club, as the last thing you want is a team that gives up easily.

His strength and pace would also bring much more to the team than the likes of Daniel Cousin and Caleb Folan, who were clearly not good enough for the Premiership.

As mentioned above, considering that Benjani is probably surplus to requirements at the City of Manchester Stadium, Hull should be able to pick him up for a reasonable price, and Phil Brown should try to ensure it happens.

Alternatively, Phil Brown could go for Marlon Harewood.

Just like Benjani, Harewood is also not likely to see much first-team action next season, with John Carew, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Emile Heskey and sometimes even youngster Nathan Delfouneso preferred to him.

Harewood would be a good signing and definitely a first-teamer for Hull City though, as he has proven himself in the Premiership before, and even in his limited appearances for Villa, he has shown that he still has quality in him.

Strong and athletic, he will be a handful for most defences, and would definitely be a good signing for Hull City.

Just as in Benjani's case, a reasonable offer should do it for Martin O'Neill, as he is clearly deemed surplus to requirements.

CENTRAL MIDFIELDER

Hull's struggles last season were also in part down to the lack of ability to retain possession, especially in the central midfield area.

Sure, Jimmy Bullard will be back from injury, and I think he will be an integral part of Hull's team next season, but they definitely need at least one more midfielder in there, especially as George Boateng and Ian Ashbee are not getting any younger. In fact, Bullard himself isn't exactly Mr Indestructible.

Central midfielders in the Premier League (who would realistically want to play for a relegation-threatened team) do not come much better than Kevin Nolan.

A good goalscoring midfielder who never shies away from a challenge, Nolan is a seasoned campaigner in the English top flight, and would be a valuable addition to most Premier League teams.

His form might have suffered a little after his move to Newcastle, but to be fair, almost the entire team underperformed, which ultimately resulted in their relegation.

And it is their relegation which should open the door for a move to sign him, as Newcastle need to sell to keep afloat, and if Hull are serious about retaining their Premier League status, they should have no problem affording the transfer fee.

Phil Brown and Kevin Nolan have also worked together before at Bolton, so that might make the move a little easier to complete.

If Nolan rejects Hull, then Phil Brown should perhaps set his sights on Tom Huddlestone.

The former England U21 international has a superb passing range, and would be a great addition to Hull City.

The current Hull City team looks short of ideas when going forward, and if they had Huddlestone, they would certainly have a little more inspiration in their play.

He also has a good long shot on him, which could be important if Hull cannot find a way past packed defences.

With Harry Redknapp clearing out half the Tottenham squad, Hull might have a chance of getting their claws on a cultured, classy midfielder, and I think Phil Brown should try to get him if the price is right.

LEFT-BACK

While Andy Dawson might be a fan's favourite, having been voted Hull's player of the year in 2007, I feel that he is not good enough to play at the Premiership level.

Dawson is also not someone you would place money on in a sprint challenge, and with him being on the wrong side of 30, this problem will be heavily exploited by pacy wingers next season.

He is also the only specialist left-back at the club, which is obviously not ideal. As such, it would be wise for Phil Brown to try and sign someone to replace or provide back-up for Dawson.

I think Phil Brown should pull out all the stops to try and bring in Emanuel Pogatetz from Middlesbrough.

A player who "never gives less than 300%", as described by his former manager Steve McClaren, Pogatetz is one of the hardest of the "hard men" when it comes to the left-back position.

The Austrian captain might not be the best going forward, but he is very solid at the back, and will not let right-wingers pass him easily.

With Middlesbrough recently being relegated, Hull could take advantage of their situation and sign one of Boro's top players at a reasonable price.

If Hull cannot muster enough funds to finance the move for Pogatetz, Brown could look at bringing in Kieran Gibbs on loan from Arsenal.

While obviously not even half as solid as Pogatetz, Gibbs possesses excellent pace, which gets him out of trouble and makes up for his relative lack of defensive awareness.

Also, the above-mentioned pace will be very useful for Hull on the counter-attack, and should he be signed, I can see him being as exciting as Bernard Mendy on the opposite flank.

I think Arsenal would not mind letting Gibbs go on loan for a season, as Armand Traore is back from his spell at Portsmouth, and will take over as cover for Gael Clichy.

So that's it, those are my suggested signings for Hull City next season. If Brown manages to get these players, I'm sure Hull will not struggle as much next season.

This article and more can also be found at thetipsters, a website set up by my friend Roland and I.

Well, it's been almost a month since the last agonising day of the season.

A day that saw the mighty Tigers live to fight another Premiership day. A day that saw the Tiger nation go through great highs and lows as scores filtered into the stadium over radios and mobile phones.

Since the end of May, the players and staff have been on their vacations, and some such as Dean Windass, Ryan France, John Welsh, and Michael Bridges have been released.

Some of the club's juniors also have been released: James Bennett, Joe Lamplough, Matt Plummer, and Tom Woodhead.

Who will be their replacements? Who will be the next generation of Tigers stars and our Saturday afternoon heroes?

This is a breakdown of the current crop of rumours and speculation of future signings.

Signed

The club have made one signing in Steven Mouyokolo from Boulogne, France. He is a young centre back, and is arguably one of France's emerging talents. We actually signed him in January but agreed to let him stay with Boulogne so that he could help them get into the French top division.

Agreed a fee

The first player and the point of much discussion for Hull City fans is one Fraizer Campbell of Manchester United. Campbell, who was a sensation when he played on loan to the club in the 2007-08 promotion season, is rumoured to have accepted a 6 million pound offer.

Campbell's signature isn't a done deal; he still has to come to personal terms. He is currently at the U21 Tournament with England, so if he plays well that could increase his wage demands or get another club upping the bid to Manchester United for him.

Speculation

Kevin Davies from Bolton; he plays for Phil Brown's old club and is a personal friend of Brown.

Victor Anichebe from Everton—Anichebe was looked at during last season's January transfer window, but Everton wouldn't release him. He fell out with David Moyes over it and hasn't played for them much since.

Dean Whitehead, who we tried to sign last season from Sunderland. Club Chairman Paul Duffen has scotched this rumour.

Paul McShane of Sunderland; he had a successful loan spell with us up to January before being recalled by Sunderland just to deprive us of his services. We will have to battle Ipswich for his services if we do want him, but as with Whitehead, Duffen claims we have no interest in signing him.

Manucho, who was on loan to us from Manchester United last season. It is felt that the price would have to be right. Both Stoke and Wolverhampton are said to be sniffing around Manucho.

Kevin Nolan from relegated Newcastle, another friend of Brown's from his old days and looking to get away from the Magpies before the start of their Championship campaign.

Amadou Alassane from Le Havre in France; he's a good goal scorer from the French second division, but would the step up be too much?

Liam Miller released by QPR; a strange rumour, probably put around by his agent. A player that can't make it in the Championship, so why would he make it in the Premiership?

Marcin Wasilewski from Anderlecht, Belgium; a Belgian international right back would be a good acquisition for the club at around 2 million pounds.

Chris Brunt, one of the few shining lights from West Brom's relegated team, scored quite a few goals last season.

Robert Huth from Middlesbrough—not too sure about him as we now have Michael Turner, Kamil Zayette, Mouyokolo, Kevin Kilbane, and Anthony Gardner (if fit) to play centre back. He would be a good signing for the club as it shows intent.

Radoslav Kovac from Spartak Moscow, a central midfielder with Champions League experience, would be a very good signing. It will be difficult luring him over other clubs in the Premiership. 

Landry N'Guemo from Nancy in France a central midfielder with bags of European football experience.

Of the rumour and speculation it's hard to see who if any of the players listed will be in amber and black for the new season. However, Duffen has proven that his linguistic abilities (he speaks fluent French) are a useful trait in negotiations with the French clubs last year.

At first glance it looks like Hull have got a pretty bad set of fixtures. Headline fixtures such as Chelsea at Stamford Bridge to kick off the season and finishing up with Liverpool at home seem like bad new.

But if we dig a little deeper we can see that Hull have actually got a pretty good season.

After Chelsea and then Spurs there's a run of four teams including Birmingham and Wolves that they have a very good chance of getting results against.

Really the fixtures play out very much like this throughout the season. We seem to have a couple of hard games and then a stretch of games where we have teams that we are able to compete against.

The last fixture is certain to cause a few worries for any loyal fan. Who can forget the last day nerves at the KC when Hull went down 1-0 by a Manchester United youth team and not knowing whether they stayed up or went down. Nobody want that experience again even though the elation was all the more sweeter when we found out that Hull had stayed in the Premier League.

Having said all that about the last day it was with some consternation that I noticed Hull had another big four club—in the dread guise of Liverpool. But looking a bit deeper into the fixtures and it doesn't seem too bad at all. Running up to the last game Hull have a run of six games which are easily winnable.

Playing well in these games means that the last game of the season actually doesn't really matter that much. Now I know that Hull fans only have to think back to the traumatic last quarter to the season where the big plunge really started and the fixtures looked pretty much like they did for the upcoming season. Winnable games followed by the big four finish.

But with the upcoming season Hull will be a stronger, wiser, fitter side (in theory) and such a plummet would seem less likely.

Overall I think Hull have a pretty nice fixture list. Sure Chelsea away looks tough to kick off the campaign but the big four teams are quite spread out over the season and not grouped together in a "month of death."

Of course nobody knows how the transfer market and the next season will play out and some team might turn out to be a huge disappointment or an incredible revelation (Sunderland could go either way.) But on Hull should be pretty thankful for the lottery that is the EPL fixtures.

Any Hull City fan, and even some who aren't, knows that Phil Brown is interested in Frazier Campbell - to the tune of £6,000,000. But there has been some reluctance on the side of the Manchester United youngster to commit to Hull, even verbally. At first I thought this was because he wanted to concentrate on his international duties. That's fair enough.

But a rumor has hit the Internet recently saying that he is also considering a move to newly relegated Championship Newcastle United. Although I don't know the validity of the rumor, it seems to be quite widespread. Thus, in this article I am going to write about the pros and cons of choosing Newcastle as a club over Hull.

I would like to point out that these pros and cons depend on your perspective and are therefore subjective.

Newcastle

First of all Campbell would be in his comfort zone. He already knows he can play at that level - he scored 15 goals for Hull in the 2007-2008  season. There would be no pressure to step up his game. At Hull the price tag would weigh on his head and it is interesting to note that he has not yet proved himself at the Premier League level.

Staying at a comfortable level would also mean he has another year developing his talent before considering the Premier League again. At Hull he would be at a relatively small team whereas at Newcastle it would be vise versa. With the security of being in one of the big teams of a division he can develop his talent more.

Another factor to consider is the presence of Alan Shearer. If Shearer does get the manager job then apparently Campbell is high on his target list. Shearer was a well-respected player in his day, and maybe Campbell couldn't resist working under a soccer legend.

At the end of the day Campbell would only want to go to Newcastle to stay in his comfort zone, and not to try and stretch himself, but instead, develop his talent to try at the Premier League next season.

Hull

There is one thing to think about when choosing between each club. The divisions they are in. It’s evident that Newcastle is the bigger club and it is also evident that they have more fans, not to mention they have a bigger stadium. But at the end of the day Hull City AFC is a Premier League club and that makes it the more attractive.

Every football considers the Premier League the best in the world. Thus, obviously this is where they would want to play (if they were good enough.) So Campbell might think that the best place to develop his talent is against the best Defenders and the best Goalkeepers in the world. Where else to hone your skills?

Another very good reason is international football. Campbell will want to make an impression on the England coaches and the only place that he will have to best exposure will be at Hull. The national team set up would only seriously track players in the Premier League because that is closest to the standard on international football. Playing for your national team is the pinnacle of what you can achieve and Campbell will want to do as much as he can to get to that level.

Campbell also enjoyed a great season at Hull and enjoyed his football at the KC Stadium. His success in a previous season and his notoriety with the coaching staff at Hull might convince him that Hull is the best option. While he was at the KC he was a fan favorite, so of course they would welcome him back with open arms.

Conclusion

To conclude I would side with going to Hull, mainly because of the fact they are a Premier League club and he is familiar with the set up there. I do believe that he enjoyed his season at Hull and you have got to factor in Manchester United as a club. I don't believe Newcastle would match Hull's offer.

Anyways, I am a Hull fan so of course I am going to be biased. If you think of any more reasons for Newcastle you can comment on the article and I will try and add them in if I can.

Thanks for reading.

Speculation is rife in the Tiger Nation about who or what will be the new club sponsor for the up and coming 2009-10 Premiership season.

Current sponsors Kingston Communication (of Hull) have been wonderful club sponsors, holding the naming rights to the KC Stadium (Kingston Communication Stadium) as well as having the company name on the club's away shirt and their product Karoo on the home shirt for the past two seasons.

However, with the recession hitting many in their wallets (sponsors included) homegrown sponsorship in the Premiership is not seen as the best way to maximize the club's brand. It is with this in mind that Paul Duffen, our club Chairman, has been looking further afield to bring in bigger sponsors with a wider reach and larger investment into the club for our second season in the Premiership.

There have been a variety of rumors on the Internet as to who that new sponsor might be, from Smith and Nephew, a multi-national company with roots in the City of Hull, to Internet betting Web site 888, and even Carlsberg the international brewing company.

It’s my gut feeling that it will be Asia Pacific Brewing of Singapore and their product Tiger Beer displayed on the Club's new shirt as the sponsors when Duffen and Phil Brown, the club’s manager, unveil the club's two new strips for the new season on July 1.

You may be wondering what my reasoning is.

In previous seasons the release of new shirts has been clouded in secrecy just as this season. However, in the past we have had sneak peeks at the club’s new design—perhaps not a full look at the new design, but at least a taste of what's to come.

This hasn't happened yet, however, because of the new sponsorship deal. This may be in part because of the precariously late date of definite survival in the Premiership, the last day of the season no less. Would a multi-national company want to be the shirt sponsor to a Championship club?

In the aftermath of survival Sunday, both Duffen and Brown were on their way to Singapore to speak to the Queen's High Commissioner and to talk about prospective business opportunities which could provide links to the Far East for the Club.

Since then the Club has been invited to take part in the Barclay's Asia Trophy in Beijing along with the Totttenham Hotspurs, the West Ham United, and the Beijing Guoan. The competition is an early season tournament to showcase the Premier League in the Far East. This will coincide with the upcoming football season and the Chinese Year of the Tiger for 2010.

Duffen has said on Radio Humberside, Hull's regional radio station, "It's a globally dominant business...a multi-national company.

"It's a fantastic brand and will be best in class in terms of this brand relationship in the Premier League."

If Tiger Beer and the Asia Pacific Brewing Company becomes the new Hull City sponsor for the new season I for one would be delighted. It would tie together two great Tigers in the Chinese Year of the Tiger. A perfect marriage that will hopefully stop my Tigers from being an endangered species, and make Hull City a Premier League force in the years to come.

Or, I could be totally wrong.

I recently read an article entitled "Phil Brown Is The Worst Kind Of Manager", and although it was very well written and also well argued, I disagree with certain aspects of the article.

The article focused on the now infamous half time on pitch team talk in the middle of the disastrous Manchester City game.

Really I can't think you can blame this on Hull's awful second half of the season. I don't think that incident affected the entire season at all, it was mere coincidence at the most. Just because one thing happened and then another thing happened doesn't mean one caused the other.

First of all I do think it was justified for the simple reason that Hull had a shocking first half. They didn't get into the game, they didn't try, they didn't defend, pass, attack or do anything. It was a genuinely pathetic performance.

What Brown did was emphasise just how important good Premier League performances are, not just to him but to the Hull City faithful who had just sat through 45 minutes of complete rubbish.

To suggest that that single event is responsible for a half a season of bad results is ridiculous, I'm sure most of the players knew that their performance wasn't the best they could have played. The article I mentioned in the beginning suggest that the players didn't play for the manager for the rest of the season.

This doesn't hold up for two reasons.

Firstly (as previously mentioned) the players knew they put in a terrible performance as a team and they probably deserved the public dressing down. But also they would know that they weren't just playing for the manager but playing for the Hull fans who put in so much passion into their club.

If Hull fans had booed the team during the talk then the team could feel disgruntled towards them. But instead the players knew that they still had the confidence of the fans and that they were playing for them just as much as they were for the manager.

People have said would Ferguson have done it? Or Benitez? Or Wenger? The answer is no. But then Phil Brown is just a different kind of manager to these great managers. He displays a public passion for his team, but this can also spill over into the scene we all witnessed at half time away to Manchester City.

A final point. Phil Brown in recent months has come across as arrogant and full of himself in the press. Apart from the fact that the press can make a person look bad from the most innocent of quotes is obvious. what some people seem to be missing is Brown's inexperience to managing a Premier League club.

He was unused to the media glare that goes with the job and made mistakes which got overblown. All I'm saying is that people should give him a break; old pros like Wenger might be able to say "I didn't see it" to every incident but a relatively inexperience Brown cannot keep his emotions in check.

People might say that he had experience when he was Sam Alladyce's right-hand man at Bolton, but the media's attention is never on the assistant, only the man in charge.

As to the sing at the end of the Manchester United home game all I can say to that is the man had just kept Hull City in the Premier League and i think he was entitled to enjoy himself a little. The true stars are the players to be sure but without a manager they would have no direction, no vision.

They probably were glad to have a cool down in the changing rooms and let's be honest - Brown didn't not let them out at all. They had their moment as well.

This is the third and final article that I am going to write about Hull City's preparations for next season. It will deal with a major problem that has plagued the football club over the latter half of the season. Their complete inability in score in vital games.

The Forwards

For the first half of the season they had decent forwards who on the whole put in reliable performances and managed to score enough goals to maintain a credible threat for other teams. However, the January hit and disaster struck. Their forwards went from potent force to a laughing stock—they just became incapable of scoring regularly.

There is one man to look to for this dramatic change. Marlon King. He did have his problems off the pitch,(allegedly) assaulting a women in a nightclub being the worst, and he was a disruptive force in the dressing room but the fact is he was our main source of goals and when he left our attack lost something.

Matters didn't help during the transfer window as Hull didn't find a replacement for him at all. Frazier Campbell might have been a possibility (and still is now) but in the end they gambled on the raw Manucho. This didn't pay off as in the end he only scored two goals and although he improved he still didn't look good enough.

Moving on Daniel Cousin should be considered to be kept on as with the right support from a partner he can score. However, there are rumours that he and Geovanni do not get on, and if it was a choice between him and Geovanni, I would personally go for the Brazilian.

Hull probably need to sign two strikers with definite goalscoring ability because really our striker position has fallen apart.

Like every Hull fan I would say that we should bring in Frazier Campbell as his pace up front is what has been lacking sometimes, plus he has the ability to finish and he would play passionately for the club as I'm sure he enjoyed his time at Hull (though you can never really tell).

Somebody to balance Campbell to balance the forward line. A large target man who can hold up the ball and play it on to Campbell who also is good at heading.

Since in my last article about the midfield I didn't mention Nick Barmby I will now. He is a phenomenal player who still has the intelligence to read and control the game, and although his legs have given up to a point, the contract extension he has received is entirely justified, as he can play for at least a half and since he is a local lad he will give his all for the shirt.

This concludes my look at Hull's team and the next article I will write will be about broader Premier League topics that will probably interest more people than me and Carolina Tiger!

This article is going to continue looking at what Hull City needs to do to establish themselves in the Premier League next season. As this is only my second article here please leave comments on how i could improve my writing.

Midfield

Midfield where the problems really started for Hull in my opinion.

Geovanni really has looked like the only bright spark, and even he disappeared over the course of the season. But bringing in experienced Premier League midfielders would free up Geovanni from always playing defensively to taking on the creative playmaker role that he excelled in earlier in the season.

This is of course assuming Geovanni stays with us.

Really somebody who could do this for us is Jimmy Bullard, who is set to come back for next season. With his undoubted talent he can run and organise the midfield and direct the ball to create chances and take the pressure off the defense.

Next the left and right midfielders definitely need looking at.

Too many times this season a weak left or right side would cost us vital points. Craig Fagan can do a decent job at left mid and some of his crosses this season have been great. Kevin Kilbane can also put in a decent ball but he has been a bit hit and miss in terms of performance. In all Fagan is very good at running defenses down and harassing opponents; he can become a decent left mid.

Right midfield is a little trickier to sort out. Mendy can put on a great performance, but also often looks like he doesn't care. You only have to look at his short display against Liverpool at Anfield in right mid before he was moved to see his potential.

Mendy however, is best at coming off the bench as an impact player and so another right mid should be signed with a bit of pace and a decent cross. The crossing ability is particularly important because we seem to do better when we try to get the ball into the box.

The next article will be about the forwards which need a complete overhaul as their complete lack of goalscoring during the last half of the season has been a real problem.

Before I talk about how I think Hull should tackle the Premier League next season, I want to talk about our first season in the best league in the world.

There has been a lot of criticism of Phil Brown in the media, some of it justified some of it not, but at the end of the day the team he managed was better than three other teams over the whole season and that alone means Hull deserve to stay up.

Anyway, I think if Phil Brown makes a few good buys during the summer and the team can be re-energized after a dreadful ending to the season then Hull can push onto mid-table security and beyond.

Watching Hull this season was at times exciting and dreadful, sometimes at the same time, but it always seemed to me that about four or five players would bring the team together and make it look like a solid premier league side.

The Defense

The defence over the season has looked pretty solid throughout which seems an odd thing to say since we conceded so many goals. However, I think that we did have a decent defense and here's why. Our midfield. Such a poor display by the men in the middle meant that we didn't move the ball forward, didn't pressurise the opposition, and in consequence the defensive four were put under constant pressure by Premier League quality strikers and under such pressure I think any defence would have a hard time.

Next season we should build the defence around the man who's pictured above, Michael Turner, whose been top quality all season both on the ground and in the air. Next season he should be paired with Gardener who, if he can stay fit, is a very good defender and can lead the defence through experience. However, we have signed a new French defender who can provide cover if needed and, if he's good enough, partner Turner.

The real problem is the full backs who have looked a little stretched this season. Both Ricketts and Dawson have had their first seasons in the Premier League and unlike Turner have found it harder to adapt. So another full back should be signed to provide Premier League experience to these positions. Dawson has played the football over Ricketts which is remarkable since he came from League Two with Hull so I think a right back should be signed, but it doesn't really matter.

I will talk about the midfield and strike-force in another article as these are where most of the problems lie and I will also talk about the tanned one himself Phil Brown and why he does and doesn't deserve some of the criticisms he has been getting.