One year of Liam Rosenior as Hull City coach: How a clear philosophy, strong personal skills and a good relationship with Acun Ilicali has seen manager-in-waiting revitalise Tigers

At the end of September's international break Ilicali's first managerial appointment, Shota Arveladze, had become his first managerial sacking. Hull flirted openly with Pedro Martins but the Portuguese got cold feet and jilted them.

Caretaker Andy Dawson dutifully oversaw back-to-back wins at Blackpool and Rotherham United but his tenure stretched to seven games less because of success – every other game apart from troubled Wigan Athletic’s visit was lost – more how difficult Ilicali was finding it to land the right man.

But on November 3, 2022 Liam Rosenior was tempted back to a club which has always held a place in his heart, not only because he played for its most successful team, but also because it was the team and city of his late grandmother, Cath Mills.

To celebrate a coach being in his job for a year seems patronising but since Rosenior's arrival 45 of England’s 92 league clubs – including Huddersfield Town, Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley, Bradford City and Doncaster Rovers – have changed manager, some more than once.

Twelve months on, Hull have certainly not cracked it, but they began the weekend only outside the Championship play-off places on goal difference. They have a clear way of playing and supporters lured back by Ilicali's cut-price tickets have enjoyed it enough to hang around. Transfers feel more the product of grown-up thinking, less like a late-night game of Football Manager. Players, signed or inherited, are visibly improving.

Hull draw too many games yet take risks playing out from the back not to the liking of all those in the stands but the graph is definitely heading in the right direction. Rosenior is more responsible than anyone.

If the Tigers have been revitalised so has their 39-year-old coach – always well thought-of within football but harshly sacked 12 games into his caretaker-management of Derby County in September 2022 to make way for Paul Warne.

"When any coach or manager loses his job, honestly, you say it and you mean it, it means everything," he reflected recently.

"You put 24 hours a day into it, it's your obsession, your passion, and all of a sudden it gets taken away from you.

"It hurts when people don't think you're good enough to do the job and all of a sudden you go from doing something you absolutely love every day to sitting at home.

"It took me a long time to get over."

It would have hurt Rosenior more than most because even when he was a player, it was management he dreamt about. He likes to tell people he has been coaching for 25 years in preparation for this and whilst many in his profession are unafraid to gild the lily of their backstories, those who played with him back it up.

Glenn Murray was at Barnsley’s Oakwell last week to launch the 2023-24 Utilita Kids and Girls Cup designed to attract and keep girls in football with the chance to represent their Football League club and for a lucky few, play at Wembley before next season's play-off finals.

Breaking away to speak to The Yorkshire Post, Murray's memories of his former Brighton and Hove Albion team-mate were of a coach-in-waiting.

“From the day I met him was always going to be a coach," he says. "He's a student of the game, always learning, always asking questions.

"Liam's very driven, he knows what he wants to do and how he wants to do it but you also have to be adaptable to the players you've got and I think he has.

"To be eighth in the Championship table just shows what an absolutely exceptional job he's doing and I never doubted him in the slightest.

"In the time I spent with him he was always trying to learn from Chris Hughton, always picking his brains. He always had his opinion of how the game should be played and that's really important for managers – to listen to opinions but have that clear blueprint.

"He's a people person and a good talker in front of the press, he's the ideal modern-day manager."

Backing that up is Rosenior’s clear "philosophy" around passing and pressing, down to buying Ryan Allsop to have a goalkeeper more comfortable with the ball at his feet.

"I was very impressed, as was the chairman, with his game philosophy, how detail-orientated he was," said vice-chairman Tan Kesler at Rosenior's first press conference. "His philosophy was the key point for me and the chairman. I could feel Liam's ideas, I could touch them."

The relationship with Ilicali goes way beyond coach-chairman, Rosenior using his boss as a sounding board on personal matters and being flown to Qatar as his guest at last year's World Cup final.

"When I first met him his passion just impressed me but it's also knowledge," said Kesler, Ilicali's man on the ground. "That made me feel so comfortable."

Rosenior felt the same.

"As soon as we had the first conversation about the way I want to play football, the principles – not just footballing principles but values for people – we were all completely on the same page," he recalled. "As a young manager it's very important to find people who respect the way you work."

Talk of “values for people” is not bluster.

"There's been games where I thought he's going to come in and shout and he hasn't and games where he's come in and shouted when I didn't think he should but he's very good," says defender Cyrus Christie.

"He's interested in you off the field and if you have any problems he sees you as a human being. Lads want to go above and beyond for him."

Murray believes Hull were the right club at the right time for Rosenior.

"I thought he got treated harshly at Derby but that only fuels the fire," argues the former striker. "Now he's at a football club that is much more secure and he's got them moving in the right direction.

"At Derby there was so much going on behind the scenes it was almost a crash course and it will serve him well.

"When the job came up it was one you couldn't turn down at a big football club like Hull. I think it was pretty much a blank canvas.

"He's put together a group of players who are pulling in one direction. They've got as good a chance as anyone of making the play-offs"

If Rosenior struck it lucky returning to Hull, one year on the Tigers might well be thinking the same thing.