Marked for David Shaw
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jul 2028
The fee is $6.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Notts County drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market17 Jul 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Hull City heard it as anything else.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Tim Iroegbunam 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.
Market17 Jul 2028
The phone has started ringing about Ibrahim Fullah again, and this time the name on the line is Sydney FC. Hull City are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Hull City asked and Manchester City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jul 2028
The formation has left Tom Atcheson behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Hull City will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Hull City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. George Akinniranye is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market17 Jul 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hull City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
Abdülkadir Ömür asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Feb 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Hull City agree another 5 years.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Hull City
Tim Iroegbunam and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match19 Feb 2028
Queens Park Rangers left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Loan watch21 Feb 2028
28 appearances at Foggia and the goals keep coming. Hull City are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Loan watch21 Feb 2028
The goals keep arriving from Kieran Dowell’s exile
8 goals in 35 games at Walsall — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hull City updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market21 Feb 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mason Burstow has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Hull City.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Dec 2027
13 matches without a win for Hull City
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Hull City are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
A defender's goal wins it for Hull City — 7.64
1 for Eliot Matazo, marked 7.64, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Buba Sanneh pops up at the right end — 7.29
7.29, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
David Shaw: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hull City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market6 Dec 2027
Tim Iroegbunam wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Hull City hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Hidemasa Morita and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Dec 2027
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Match30 Nov 2027
A point taken on 92 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hull City people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market30 Aug 2027
The chase for Exequiel Palacios ended with $21.1M changing hands and Ipswich Town out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market30 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Hull City have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Hidemasa Morita 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.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Hull City asked and Arsenal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Too much change too quickly at Hull City
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.