'Hull City-bound' coach's farewell ends in red card and anger as fans vent their fury
Sergej Jakirovic's Kayserispor farewell turned sour on Sunday with the Bosnian sent off after reacting to fans who did not take news of his expected move to Hull City well.
If so, it will bring to an end a brief but successful time in Turkey – and Kayserispor were evidently thinking more about the former than the latter.
Jakirovic only joined in January, having been sacked as Dinamo Zagreb coach after making unwanted Champions League history.
Winning the Croatian double put Zagreb in the Champions League qualifiers, where they saw off Azerbaijani opponents Qarabag. But in their first game in the expanded group phase – and his first match as a manager in the competition – they became the first team to concede nine goals in a Champions League group match as they lost 9-2 to Bayern Munich.
From that low, his time in Turkey was a huge success.
Jakirovic inherited a team five points adrift of safety with 17 games to play and led them to 13th, eight points clear of the four-team relegation zone.
Hull chairman/owner Acun Ilcali had said he wanted to appoint a new coach last week but Jakirovic saw out the season with Kayserispor.
It ended badly, in a 2-1 defeat at Samsunspor, who came from behind to win with stoppage-time goals from Soner Ayogdu and Abnor Muja and claim a place in the Europa League play-offs.
But it was when his side were leading through Duckens Nazon's goal that things took a turn for the worse for Jakirovic.
Fans had been voicing their disapproval at his expected departure when, in the 76th minute, he responded to one of numerous items thrown his way – it appeared to be a full plastic water bottle – hitting his back as he stood in the technical area.
He turned around and sarcastically applauded the fans responsible, and was shown a second yellow card for his troubles. Samsunspor went on to score in the fifth and seventh added minutes.
The 48-year-old is now expected to become Hull's third coach since the sacking of Liam Rosenior at the end of 2023-24, and the sixth since Ilicali bought the club in January 2022.
Reports in Turkey claim he will be on a salary of £2m a year.
Like Jakirovic, Ruben Selles saved his team from relegation last season. In his case Hull were bottom of the Championship but the gap to safety was only two points and the eventual margin that kept them up only goal difference.
But Ilicali is driven not only by results, but entertainment as Rosenior found out to his cost after leading the Tigers to seventh.
Ilicali saw Jakirovic's counter-attacking style of play in late April when Kayserispor drew 3-3 at Fenerbahce, where he is vice-president. If anything, having a 9-2 defeat on his record is likely to encourage the Turkish media mogul, who has claimed in the past he would rather his teams lost 4-3 than won 1-0.