Acun Ilicali risks losing Hull City fans' respect with constant sackings and defence of controversial coaching target

Fan-friendly in the extreme with free holidays to Turkey for supporters, cut-price tickets, transparency and a commitment to entertaining football, he could do no wrong when he bought Hull in January 2022, his energy a refreshing antidote to stagnation under the Allam family.

But the mood is starting to turn.

Ilicali's weekend interview with the BBC got him stuck in mud not just trying to defend football calls, but deciding to interview a managerial candidate convicted of racism.

Football's moral compasses are set by your location in the league. The more on-field success, the more you are forgiven for off it. It is not right, but it is the way it is.

Hull are draining Ilicali's footballing credit even quicker than his bank balance. His willingness to explain himself in his second language was laudable, his answers far less so.

No major footballing decision happens at Hull without Ilicali’s approval but the millions of pounds he has generously poured in have taken Hull from seventh in the Championship last May to avoiding relegation on goal difference. The recruitment he has been so hands-on with has been one problem, his hiring and firing of coaches another.

Hours after the interview, Liam Rosenior – who he sacked after finishing seventh 12 months ago – came within a 99th-minute penalty of guiding Strasbourg into Europe.

Ilicali sacked Tim Walter in November, then Ruben Selles last week. Hull are becoming known as the Watford of the North.

So when he spoke to the BBC, he was always likely to be even more on the defensive than his back four during Walter's disastrous time.

"I wish we were the new Watford because they went to the Premier League," he countered.

But that was five coaches ago.

He needs to get his next appointment – which he hopes to make by the middle of next week – right. He cannot afford someone weighed down by heavy baggage, yet has, or is going to interview, Emre Belozoglu. Ilicali confirmed there are five candidates, confusingly saying Emre was one, but "not in the front line".

The former Turkey captain played for Newcastle United from 2005-2008. He was always courteous and engaging to this reporter then but his reputation has a nasty stain.

On June 17, 2014, a Turkish court handed him a two-and-a-half-month suspended prison sentence for allegedly calling Trabzonspor's Didier Zokora a racial slur, on the pitch, something he denied.

At Newcastle he was accused of racially abusing Everton's Joseph Yobo, Tim Howard and Joleon Lescott, Bolton Wanderers El-Hadji Diouf and Watford's Alhassan Bangura. None of the charges were proved.

Ilcali made it much, much worse by claiming: "In Turkey there is no racism. There is never any insult to any player on the pitch from the fans, no black player has ever said they are racist to me in Turkey." If only Kevin Campbell, who left Trabzonspor in 1999 after the president labelled him a "cannibal" were still here to respond.

More recently, Turkey’s Merih Demiral got a two-game ban for a racist "wolf salute" sparking a diplomatic incident at Euro 2024. Jose Mourinho has been banned for four matches for accusing Galaratsaray's bench of “jumping like monkeys”. Bursaspor were ordered to play behind closed doors for nine matches in 2023 after fans shouted racist slogans, threw sharp objects and bullet casings onto the field.

There are more but you get the point. Ilicali is in denial. His defence of Emre was even less comfortable.

"He was not convicted of being a racist, he was convicted of a racist slur," he argued. "That is different. If you don't mean it, it's not racism.

"Racism is the biggest sin in the world but his best friends at Fenerbahce were black players. He took (ex-Cameroon player) Pierre Webo as an assistant for almost four years."

Perhaps he was unaware how disrespected that defence is in England, but it is a steep hill to die on for a coach who led 2020 champions Basaksehir into the Conference League in 2021-22, his first year in the job, but was relegated at Ankaragucu.

The footballing chat was not much better. Ilicali rightly defended himself by pointing to the injuries which ravaged Hull’s season but there was no such leeway for Selles.

"Our target was never to stay in the league," he insisted. "My target is the top half and the play-offs.

"He's going to be a big coach but if we don't have the full trust of (each other) I don't think it can last."

Bottom when Selles came in December, Hull's Championship form since was 14th, a point off top half. It does not seem a sackable offence until you consider seventh was.

Maybe Ilicali needs saving from himself. "If the fans are very against, why should I make them unhappy?" he reasonded when asked about Emre. If they are, they need to speak up now.