It's been a season of disarray for Hull City with the former Premier League outfit rooted to the bottom of the Championship table. The Tigers have won only three of their opening twenty matches, but could the appointment of Reading manager Ruben Selles turn things around?
After a 7th-place finish in the 2023/2024 season, a drop-off was expected coming into this season at MKM Stadium after a turbulent Summer. A shock decision to part ways with Liam Rosenior raised a lot of eyebrows, with Hull finishing just three points off the play-off spots.
Following Rosenior's departure, several key players followed their manager, who has since joined Strasbourg in France, out the door. The biggest of these Summer losses were defender Jacob Greaves and winger Jaden Philogene.
Both players earned moves to the Premier League after Hull missed out, with Greaves joining newly-promoted Ipswich and Philogene swapping the Championship for the Champions League with Aston Villa.
These sales earned Hull £30 million, but replacing quality players is never easy, especially given the reliance they had on loan deals.
Fabio Carvalho, Liam Delap, Anass Zaroury and Tyler Morton all returned to their parent clubs after spending the season on loan at the MKM Stadium.
Replacing Rosenior then was arguably a doomed task before the job even began. Nevertheless, 49-year-old German coach Tim Walter took the chance and was appointed ahead of the 2024/2025 campaign.
The German coach had plenty of experience in his home country with the likes of Stuttgart and Hamburger, enjoying win rates of above 50% at both clubs. Some in Hull believed this to be a risky appointment given that Walter was brand new to English football.
A First Round exit in the Carabao Cup to Yorkshire-rivals Sheffield Wednesday didn't exactly make Walters the most popular figure in the world. Things looked up slightly between the end of September and start of October though with a three-match winning run for the Tigers.
During the run, Hull beat relegation rivals Cardiff City 4 - 1 at the MKM Stadium and managed impressive 3 - 1 away wins against QPR and Stoke.
Little did Walter and the rest of his staff know that this was to be it in terms of victories.
Hull went on to lose six of their next nine games and after a 2 - 0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, their second derby loss of the season to the Owls, Walter was dismissed.
So what of the new man, Ruben Selles? Well, the Spaniard's managerial career only started in February 2023 when he took over from Nathan Jones at Southampton.
Despite suffering relegation with the Saints, the writing was long on the wall for the South Coast side. In fact, given how poor the Southampton squad was that season, it was seen as something of an achievement that Selles managed to pick up ten points from the 16 league games he oversaw.
Having parted ways with the Saints after their relegation to the Championship, Selles moved down another step to League One side Reading, who were in all sorts of turmoil.
Ownership and financial issues have handed the Berkshire side some hefty points deductions, making survival in the Championship or promotion from League One virtually impossible until this season.
Despite these hardships, Selles guided Reading to a 17th-place finish in the third tier; it was seen as something of a success to simply remain in League One given the off-the-pitch situation at the Select Car Leasing Stadium.
The success of this season under Selles was far less debatable. The Spaniard guided Reading into the top six before his departure, an unbelievable achievement for a club that has suffered as much as the Royals in the past few years. He walked out on a high too, drawing 1 - 1 with league leaders Wycombe Wanderers.
There have been links between several clubs and the former Reading manager, but it was Hull City who managed to temp him to leave the League One Side. In a way, this is a free hit for Selles, with Hull rooted to the bottom of the Championship.
The main focus for Selles will be making the Tigers a greater threat in front of goal, with his new side scoring a measly 19 goals so far this season. There have only been three Championship games this season in which Hull have scored more than once.
This perhaps offers a clue as to why Selles was the choice for Hull after Walter's departure, as Reading scored an impressive 30 goals in their matches under the Spaniard this season.
In the Hull attack are 32-year-old Joao Pedro (not that Joao Pedro) as well as Chris Bedia; these two are Hull's joint top scorers with three goals each this season. This is a big concern for Hull, especially given that he hit double-digits for Serie A side Cagliari between 2019 and 2022.
It hasn't started as smoothly as Selles would've liked at Hull, with just one point from his opening two games coming from a 1 - 1 draw with play-off hopefuls Watford, spurning the chance to win after an 88th-minute equaliser.
Selles then had a huge task on hand to keep Hull in the Championship but with working in the most difficult circumstances at Reading, there's proof that he can turn it around.
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