Steve Bruce: I’d lose cash if Hull went down but failure would cost me
|
Version 0 of 1. The morning rush hour is building and the traffic on the dual carriageway running into Hull has slowed to a crawl but with the adjacent Humber estuary glistening in the April sunshine there are no hooting horns, flashing lights or rude hand gestures. Everyone seems too busy enjoying the moment on a good-to-be-alive day and a tanned, jovial Steve Bruce is no different. All easy, Geordie affability, the 54-year-old cuts a reassuring figure as he endeavours to extricate his Hull City side from perilous relegation waters but even he accepts survival could be touch and go. Along with most players, Bruce will lose about 50% of his wages should Hull, currently kept out of the Premier League’s bottom three only by goal difference, return to the Championship. “If we’re not in this league, it’s only fair we won’t get the salaries it demands,” he says. “But it’s the failure, not being able to keep us here, which would affect me most.” It is all so very different from this time last year, when Hull were en route to Wembley and an FA Cup final defeat against Arsenal. Then, Bruce was many people’s manager of the year and the continuing desire of the Allam family, the club’s owners, to change the team’s name seemed the only cloud on the horizon. Twelve months on that issue remains unresolved but barely exercises once highly charged local emotions. With Hull not having won since February and travelling to Crystal Palace on Saturday in the wake of three straight defeats there are bigger things to worry about. Although four of the six outstanding games are at the KC Stadium they involve visits from Liverpool – on Tuesday – Arsenal, Burnley and Manchester United. After Palace, the sole away trip is to Tottenham. “When you look at our fixtures, we’re under no illusions,” says Bruce, who signed a three-year contract extension last month. “But having four home games could be key.” After being, rather cruelly, photographed looking a little tubby during a short holiday in Barbados during the international break, Hull’s manager vowed to diet but refused to apologise for that brief absence from the training ground. His logic is that the escape has left him recharged and better equipped to confront the “six cup finals” ahead. Ahmed Elmohamady certainly has no complaints. “It’s not about training now,” says the right wing-back. “It’s about mentality. The manager’s experienced. He knows how to deal with this situation. He’s said we don’t deserve to be in this position. He makes everyone confident and happy. He’s always thinking positive, he’s never down. He gives us confidence – and, in our position, confidence is the most important thing.” Bruce’s critics argue that Hull’s net spend in the past two years has been around £50m and they should be doing better after elevating the wage bill to a £43.3m club record high. The former Sunderland and Wigan manager counters by pointing to the wider context in which Hull’s player remuneration costs are still the third lowest in the Premier League. “We were promoted under two years ago so we always knew we were going to be up against it,” he says. “But if we do get relegated, the club has a really stringent financial policy in place so it doesn’t fall into drastic debt. We’ll make sure it doesn’t go through the horrendous times it experienced before the current owners took over. Without the Allams bailing Hull out this club might not be here now. “If you get relegated it’s always a major overhaul and you have to start on your journey again but I wouldn’t envisage people losing the jobs behind the scenes. It’s vitally important to ensure that doesn’t happen. Their wages are insignificant compared to a player’s. I’d rather let a player go and keep 12 staff. There will be casualties but as long as I’m in charge we won’t let people – who are the fabric of the club – go.” Any such “casualties” may rue last summer’s rather mixed £37m spending spree with Abel Hernández, a Uruguayan striker and Hull’s record £10m signing from Palermo, scoring only four goals in 23 appearances. Significantly Mo Diamé, an influential midfield addition from West Ham, has spent five months sidelined by knee trouble while another knee injury is responsible for last season’s star attacking signing Nikica Jelavic missing half the campaign. “My analyst tells me we’ve picked up most of our points when Jelavic has played,” added Bruce. With some of last season’s best performers including Tom Huddlestone and Curtis Davies losing form and the squad arguably taking time to adapt to Mike Phelan’s arrival as first-team coach following the highly rated Steve Agnew’s poaching by Middlesbrough, fortune has frowned on a club to be found playing near the foot of the Football League at a crumbling Boothferry Park as recently as 2002. One of Hull’s biggest problems is that the junior set-up is still to catch up with the first team. Although the highly regarded Tony Pennock was recruited from Swansea as academy manager he still presides over a Category Three facility and it will take time to start producing youngsters of first-team calibre. As Bruce strides out to take training, the skies above the Humber Bridge are starting to cloud over but his mood remains sunny. “I’ve seen the strides we’ve made behind the scenes,” he says. “All the great work we’re doing and I’m determined to keep us up.” |