Grant McCann’s rebuilding job at Hull City is showing real promise

Whilst other clubs, such as Huddersfield Town and Sheffield Wednesday, have had to tread more carefully in this coronavirus-influenced transfer window, and others, like Middlesbrough, have been frustrated by the difficulty in signing players, the Tigers have ploughed ahead with a much-needed overhaul of their squad.

It is backing they could have done with in January, when the windfall from the deadline-day sales of Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki came too late and went largely unspent, but given how much justified criticism the Allam family have taken for the mismanaging of the club, it is only fair to acknowledge when they do things well. And the evidence of early-season is that they have done well.

Given the way his side’s form collapsed in 2020, given how low the low point of July’s 8-0 defeat at Wigan Athletic was, it would have been no surprise had coach Grant McCann paid the price for relegation with a P45.

Instead, the Allams have not only stood by the former Northern Ireland midfielder but given him the chance to seriously reinforce a squad fatally weakened not only by the January sales, but the June departure of captain Eric Lichaj and vice-captain Jackson Irvine when Hull made the pair contract offers they could refuse.

The result has been a 100 per cent start to the new League One season – five goals scored, none conceded.

A club of Hull’s stature and recent history – it is only three years ago they were playing in the Premier League, six years ago they were in Europe on the back of reaching an FA Cup final – should not be slumming it in the third tier, but that is not the same as saying they should necessarily get out of it this season. League One can be a graveyard for big clubs. Sunderland and Ipswich should not be in it either, but their reputations did not allow them to escape the division last season (or, in the Black Cats’ case, the season before). Leeds United and Sheffield United are just two of the big clubs who have got bogged down in the third tier in recent years. Portsmouth and Charlton are winless in the early weeks of the campaign.

Three wins out of three is a good start, and no more for Hull. The automatic promotion McCann targeted from the start is still a very long way off.

But history tells us relegated teams can easily get locked into a destructive downward spiral and it would have been easy to see Hull continue sliding with reasons for optimism this summer.

McCann made a real point of setting a positive tone as soon as last season was put to bed, unafraid to set the bar high for his team, but it needed more than just words.

The signings which followed showed genuine intent and since a rusty opening-day performance at Sunderland was glossed over by a penalty shoot-out victory, the mood has continued on the field. Like negativity, positivity can also snowball.

When the numbers are totted up, Hull will have comfortably made a net profit on transfers this year once the Bowen/Grosicki money, topped up by the sale of Leonardo Lopes Da Silva, is weighed against the signings of players who, even those arriving in January, have been League One standard.

But relegation out of the Championship would have made that necessary regardless. The new salary cap restrictions amplifies that.

Unpopular owners who have been looking to sell the club for years, and who have had to reduce the price now the club has dropped a division, could easily have hidden behind the coronavirus pandemic to restrict the number of additions as the likes of Huddersfield and Wednesday have prudently done.

But rather than simply furnishing McCann with a strong League One team, the arrivals of Greg Docherty, Richie Smallwood, Lewie Coyle, Josh Emmanuel, Festus Arthur, Alfie Jones, Thomas Mayer, and loaness Hakeeb Adelakun and Slater, on top of making Mallik Wilks’s loan from Barnsley permanent in July, he has a strong squad, with plenty of competition for places. A League Cup run and wins have kept those on the fringe reasonably happy.

Opening the doors to the KCOM Stadium immediately after relegation could have been uncomfortable for the owners but Covid-19 have ensured the seats are supposed to be empty. Now the team has built a bit of feel-good, hopefully the fans can be back sooner than expected to give the players their support in what will be a gruelling League One, as always.

Suddenly, though, the task looks a lot less daunting than it was for Hull. There will inevitably be setbacks, but the Tigers look in better shape to get through them than the pussy cats of early 2020.

The transfer-market support for McCann is a window overdue but better late than never.

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James Mitchinson