Marked for Thomas Bailey
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 May 2029
Oli McBurnie was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad14 May 2029
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad14 May 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 Apr 2029
Hull City cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market16 Apr 2029
Only the photograph left for Conor Townsend
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Conor Townsend will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hull City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Apr 2029
A season average of 7.32 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Oli McBurnie was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Marked 9.40 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Marked 9.39 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match14 Apr 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdülkadir Ömür. 2‑0 against Rotherham United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
A performance of 8.75 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Mar 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Hull City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Mar 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match17 Mar 2029
The wait goes on for Hull City
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market19 Mar 2029
Conor Townsend has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hull City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Ivor Pandur was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Liam Millar
9 goals and a season average of 7.50 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad19 Mar 2029
The medical room confirms 84 days on the sidelines for Thomas Bailey, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
A performance of 8.43 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Feb 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hull City can pretend not to have heard.
Market19 Feb 2029
Only the photograph left for Conor Townsend
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Conor Townsend will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hull City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Oli McBurnie was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Feb 2029
115 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
A performance of 9.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
One of those days for Abu Kamara
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.92, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Feb 2029
12 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
A performance of 8.51 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Aug 2028
Oli McBurnie in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hull City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Aug 2028
The manager makes an example of Ivor Pandur
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Marked 8.88 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Marked 8.75 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.66, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
Hull City board go back on their word
Something was promised, a deadline passed, and it did not arrive. Trust inside a football club is built over years and spent in an afternoon.
Match19 Aug 2028
A 3‑3 draw with Huddersfield Town leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad21 Aug 2028
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Ivor Pandur knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Market21 Aug 2028
He is 16, and nobody at Hull City signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.