Liam Rosenior keen to recreate family portrait with joyous Hull City scene

But Rosenior does not want his time at Hull City to be defined by whether or not they win promotion this season, just by the ongoing progress at a club he says has rediscovered its identity.

A week spent in luxurious surroundings at the expense of owner/chairman Acun Ilicali can only have provided more motivation to Rosenior to grant his wish of taking the club into the Premier League. Spending time at their mid-season training camp in the company of 100 fans Ilicali brought out to Antalya too can only have rammed home the individuals Rosenior's players are working for.

But Rosenior says his motivation will always come most from within, and fulfilling a request from his children will be his inspiration in whatever remains of this season.

The hope is that it still has 12 games to go, but for that to be the case, Hull will probably have to pick up more points in the next nine than Norwich City do in their remaining eight whilst holding the likes of FA Cup semi-finalists Coventry City and Preston North End at bay.

Then they will have to defeat one of the fallers from this season's Championship title race in a two-legged play-off semi-final before winning a one-off game at Wembley on the May bank holiday weekend.

Only then will Rosenior, inset, be able to recreate the photograph he had taken 11 years ago.

"I have a picture at home from when we got promoted (in 2012-13) and my kids are on the pitch with me. Leia was five, Izzy was three, AJ was one and they're saying to me, 'Daddy, I want the same picture again,'" smiles Rosenior. "It's mad.

"Now I'm working with Jacob Greaves and Brandon Fleming. In that period I was at Hull's centre of excellence, training them on a cold Tuesday night.

"I remember coming to Hull with Derby and there were 8,000 people in the stadium. It was heart-breaking for me to visit. This is not Hull City.

"We've got Hull City back and we need to use that for the rest of the season and have that underdog spirit because we are an underdog city.

"What sums up the club is the colours (black and amber stripes). We are a unique football club in a unique area so we have to do things in a unique way.

"All I want now is sell-outs away from home, sell-outs at home, to be the loudest stadium in the Championship."

Rosenior played for the Tigers between 2010 and 2015, a period which also saw them reach the FA Cup final and play in the play-off round of the Europa League, but saw a disconneact between club and fans after Assem Allam's failed attempt to rebrand the club as "Hull Tigers".

It was only when Ilicali bought the club in January 2022, bringing in former player Rosenior as manager that November, that it really started to reconnect with its fanbase.

"I am one of the luckiest managers in the world, I think, that my first permanent job is under Acun and Tan (Kesler, vice-chairman)," says Rosenior. "Of course I want to pay him back and see the fans celebrate."