Hull City v Birmingham City: Fresher Tigers have 30 to 40 per cent more to give, says Tan Kesler

If Kesler's assessment is right it is great news for the Tigers, who go into Tuesday's game at home to Birmingham City in sixth spot, but without much room for manoeuvre with Norwich City only a draw and Preston North End a win away.

Hull host leaders Leicester City on Saturday, then have three weeks off before Good Friday, when they kick off the final nine-game stretch at home to Stoke City.

After consecutive draws against play-off rivals West Bromwich Albion and Preston, it is important to try to plump up a bit of a cushion against Birmingham as they close in on their goal.

Positions three to six will go into the end-of-season play-offs, where anything could happen as the teams battle it out for a place in next term's Premier League. Reaching the play-offs was always Ilicali's target for 2023-24, and he has invested heavily to try to make it happen.

But Kesler admitted when the team lost at home to Swansea City, in the second match after an ambitious transfer window which saw former Championship promotion winners Ryan Giles, Anass Zouroury, Fabio Carvalho and Billy Sharp, plus Turkish star Abdulkadir Omur recruited, he was worried.

"I’ve had moments where I felt like, 'Are we staying in it or just fading?' and other moments where I felt like, 'We're right in it,” he admitted.

"I'm the guy on the ground to look at the bigger picture and create more realistic pictures for the chairman.

"When we lost to Swansea I didn't know how to look at the bigger picture because it was a kick-back in my opinion.

"Throughout the whole transfer window, Liam (Rosenior, the coach) said, 'Tell me, are we going to be signing Zouroury? Are we going to be signing Fabio? Are we going to be okay or should we just get the (next) next available and train them towards the way we play?'

"I said, 'No, wait, we're going to be signing good players and surrounded with the right type of weapons in the forward end, we'll give you that opportunity.'

"He stuck by me and the chairman.

"In the Swansea game it wasn't working out because the boys needed some time to play together. We lost and I said to Liam, 'Tell me, are we going to be okay?' That was the time I couldn't predict the future.

"He said, 'Just bear with me. We're in a very good state, it's just not nurtured yet – it's about to.'

"From that moment we won three games in a row and I think everybody would agree we were underdogs in some of those games.

"Now it's another state for us. I'm trying to stay grounded but I can also see some good things in the future. I'm more positive with that.

"And the boys still have 30 per cent, 40 per cent more to perform. I know their potential because we've recruited them for their potential.

"We're going to get there and hopefully towards the end of the season they're going to unleash that because fatigue, injuries, momentum and the focus on the play-offs will affect other teams.

"We're fresh, everybody's ready to go grab it."

Where some modern chairmen undoubtedly see owning football clubs as a business venture, football-mad Turkish media personality Ilicali approaches it as a fan.

Kesler admits it makes staying grounded and looking at the bigger picture harder.

"For the chairman it's not easy because he's someone that always looks at the positive side of life and prefers to stay on the positive side," said Kesler. "It's very hard for him to stay grounded because every game is like a final, every game gives him a feeling that we're either in the run or away from the run.

"Every day during the transfer window it was, 'What if we don't sign him? What if we can't?'

"It's very hard to keep him grounded and to keep myself grounded at the same time and also keep our fans grounded because everybody has the hype and the expectation.

"But I can clearly say we have a special thing going on between every bit of this football club.

"It's been going on ever since we took over but when you start climbing up (the table), I can see the fans are more excited, more hopeful and more supportive. The chairman is more excited, more motivated, more compassionate. He wants to do everything to get promoted.

"I'm not saying we're different to any other Championship clubs but Liam mentions all the time there's something special in the air, he says this after his previous times as a football player."

Aaron Connolly will miss the game to play instead for the under-21 with Rosenior hinting at changes to freshen the side.