Hull City (a); The Preview

Andy – Last season’s struggles appear to have stripped away all expectation of you troubling the promotion pack, what’s happened since you fell through the Premier League trapdoor?

Dan Collier – Since we were relegated from the Premier League from the 2017 season we’ve lost the following the players:

• Eldin Jakupovic – GK
• Andrew Robertson – DF
• Harry McGuire – DF
• Curtis Davies – DF
• Ahmed Elmohamady – DF
• Tom Huddleston – MF
• Sam Clucas – MF
• Ryan Mason – Retired

Plus three loanees from Chelsea.

That was pretty much the entire team, so with limited signings that summer it was always going to be a struggle.

The lack of investment has killed our club. Incoming money from the above was lb45 million. Inbound transfers made same summer was only lb19 million.

The owners are obviously an ongoing bone of contention, what’s the latest? Any sign of a benevolent local TV chef coming to rescue you?

TV chef?

The lovely Delia…

Oh I see.

The club is up for sale, it has been for numerous years however an offer has been accepted and due diligence has been completed according to reports this week. The sale is suppose to be before the year is out.

Has the identity of the potential buyer been made public?

All that has been published is a consortium from the Middle East at this stage.

If you took over the club tomorrow, what three things would you sort first?

First – Nigel Adkins would go.

Second – I would invest in the squad

Third – I’d set-up some communication with fans on how to move the club forward collectively.

Adkins is out the door, who do you want in?

Of those managers available, Steve Bruce would be my number one choice. Then Slavisa Jokanovic, Alan Pardew. Even Carlos Carvalhal or Jaap Stam.

An eclectic list. On to the squad and with an eye on Tuesday, where can we get at you?

Our weakness is our full backs, both sides. But the squad should have confidence with 3 games unbeaten prior to facing Forest on Saturday (they lost 2-0).

In a tight league those mini runs can really help. We’ve talked a lot about what’s wrong, but what’s going right?

The limited squad we do have is finally starting to gel, however one injury can throw that out the window with the small squad we have

Who are the stars?

Frazer Campbell, Daniel Batty and Jackson Irvine at the moment.

Good stuff. On to us, what if anything, have you made to our ascent to the summit?

You’re doing well, however do you have a squad to keep going?

It’s been under the radar in a weird way, what I mean is not like Leeds or Sheff Utd, when they’re top, my god you know about it.

It’s been a surprise for us but now we’re there confidence is climbing. The thing with our squad is that we actually have lots of players out at the moment.

Captain Grant Hanley has been missing since early September. Kenny McLean, who was our most exciting summer signing on paper has been out since August. Fellow summer signing and championship star last season Ben Marshall can’t get a game and Portugal international Nelson Oliveira can’t get closer to the squad, so we’re certainly not threadbare.

Let’s do a super specific prediction for Tuesday. I’ll go for a 2-0 away win, with Zimmermann opening the scoring with a looping header after staying up after a corner gets half cleared, then Emi Beundia to wrap things up with a glorious free-kick late on.

I’m going for a scrappy 1-0 to Hull City, Martin to score.

We make games ugly and scrappy to suit our players, got to stop anyone playing football.