Managerial Overconfidence And Rookie Mistakes Leave Hull City On The Precipice

If Hull City carry their woeful form into the last two games of the Premier League season and do end up relegated, history will likely look back on their demise and pinpoint Boxing Day 2008 as the beginning of the end for the Tigers.

For it was on this day that Phil Brown provided one of the unforgettable moments of the 2008/2009 season when, 4-0 down at Manchester City at half time, he dragged his beleaguered players back onto the pitch for a very public dressing down near the centre circle.

At the time public opinion split in two between those who believed it a reasonable action, a piece of radical thinking from an inventive young manager full of fresh ideas, and those who considered it a total disaster, a stupid move offering no benefits at all. It appears now that those from the latter school of thought were correct. When asked why he did such a thing the Hull City boss’ response was simple. ‘It was an unacceptable performance from a Phil Brown side’ he claimed. It has not got much better since.

Between Boxing Day and now, two games from the end of the season, Hull City have played 17 league games and won just 1. A wretched run of form has seen the Tigers amass a mere 7 points from a possible 60 in the last twenty games, a collapse so dramatic it has taken Brown’s men from the top six into the relegation zone. At exactly the wrong time.

With two games remaining there is still time for Hull to escape the drop, but with a trip to the Reebok Stadium to face Brown’s old club Bolton Wanderers and a home game against Manchester United on the final day, Hull’s chances of accumulating the points necessary to climb out of the bottom three appear slimmer than America’s next top model. Newcastle’s (very) mini-revival doesn’t help either.

Whatever the outcome this season Phil Brown is going to have to learn some harsh lessons if he is to continue being thought of as one of England’s up-and-coming managers, because since Boxing Day at Eastlands the Durham-born, earpiece-wearing gaffer has made a string of errors and PR gaffes that seem to highlight an overconfidence, or even arrogance, that might ultimately come back to haunt him.
During his brief career as a Premier League manager Phil Brown has always appeared both media friendly and blessed with a sizeable ego. Often open and readily involved with the media (he appeared on A Question Of Sport the day before a league game back in January), his early relationship with the press went somewhere along the Harry Redknapp route.

Brown’s candidness won him friends in journalistic places and, together with Hull’s unexpectedly good start to the season, gushing praise. He earnt a reputation as being an innovative, forward-thinking coach. Playing the media can be an important aspect of any manager’s job and Phil Brown seemed to handle it, along with all the rest of his duties, pretty well.

PR-oblems

However, since the start of Hull’s dismal run, Brown’s entente cordiale with the press has backfired in various ways. Perhaps it was that same ‘forward-thinking’ tag, washing around in the basin of his own ego, that led Brown to his decision to publicly humiliate his players at Manchester City. It’s intended purpose – a kick up the backside – never materialised, and if recent events are to go by the negative consequences of those actions are still felt at the KC Stadium today.

Last Wednesday, Brown invited his players to a day at the races in Chester. It would be a chance for some team-bonding, an opportunity to take the team’s collective minds off the grim spectre of relegation. However, all but the backroom staff and a few reserve team players declined the offer. Whether one would consider this definitive proof of a manager losing his dressing room or not, it is clear evidence of a captain not in complete control of his ship.

There have been other episodes. Saying he hoped Geovanni failed his drugs test after the home defeat to Blackburn Rovers (the Brazilian had reacted angrily to being substituted) was not the greatest of Brown’s ideas, but that could be construed as being harmlessly flippant. Publicly deriding the Sunderland players’ over-inflated price tags and underachievement just days before a trip to the Stadium of Light however, was taking leave from his senses. It is clearly written in the Manager’s Handbook 101 – do not provide extra motivation to the opposition. In this situation Brown’s mouth got him into trouble. Ricky Sbragia called Brown’s comments ‘annoying’ and pinned them on the dressing room wall for extra motivation. Sunderland won 1-0.

Another bout of overconfidence came after a 3-1 defeat to Middlesbrough at the Riverside. ‘It was their biggest game of the season today’ Brown piped after the game, with an air of superiority bordering smug and a look that seemed to say ‘That’s how big a club we are now.’ What he might have realised before offering such an explanation was that the game was as big for Hull as it was for Boro.

Such examples also support a widely-held view amongst the mainstream media right now that suggest Phil Brown’s public persona has rubbed many of his managerial peers up the wrong way. ‘If you get carried away this league will kick you up the backside’ Tony Pulis commented after Stoke City’s win at the KC Stadium last weekend, a statement
The Guardian described as ’sounding suspiciously like a dig at Brown.’ All this and we haven’t even mentioned the Brown vs Fabregas spitting controversy. It all seems to imply that, since Christmas, Phil Brown has got a little too carried away with Phil Brown.

Of course tactically the Hull boss has made mistakes too. And their predicament cannot entirely be blamed on managerial cockiness or overconfidence. Had Jimmy Bullard’s knees not seized up The Tigers might not even be in this mess. But at the end of the season, whatever happens to Hull, Phil Brown – to my mind a manager of outstanding promise, might want to re-evaluate exactly how he handles the PR side of football a little more closely.

English Premier League, Hull City, Phil Brown, The Media