Marked for Kostantis Tzolakis
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Sep 2026
Hull City throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Middlesbrough the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Hull City will enjoy reviewing.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Hull City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Rico Lewis, 21, steals the show — 7.93
Marked 7.93 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Tim Iroegbunam pops up at the right end — 7.67
7.67, 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Paddy McNair reports back to Hull City with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Match12 Sep 2026
3‑4 to Middlesbrough, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 3‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yu Hirakawa, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
Hull City say no — this time
The offer from Brentford for Charlie Hughes was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market24 Aug 2026
Semi Ajayi hands in a written request
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Hull City can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jamie Pardington arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jamie Pardington has, at Hull City, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match22 Aug 2026
2‑3 to Queens Park Rangers, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Benjamin Grant left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$23.4M settles it between the clubs for Bertrand Traoré
Sunderland have accepted the money. What Hull City do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
An offer of $52.1M for Rico Lewis
Hull City have gone to Manchester City with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market10 Aug 2026
Hull City say no — this time
The offer from Burnley for Oli McBurnie was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Lewie Coyle had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $32.7M — a club that wants Bertrand Traoré enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Hull City had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Arsenal, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oli McBurnie and Hull City agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Sunderland this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market3 Aug 2026
Hidemasa Morita 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hidemasa Morita and Hull City agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Hidemasa Morita and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
17 new faces, and Hull City are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Oli McBurnie knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Oli McBurnie trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Joe Gelhardt's contract
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market3 Aug 2026
Semi Ajayi is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hull City has been clear about where Semi Ajayi stands, which is more than many ever get.