Hull City: From Championship Survival to Premier League Aspirations
On a baking spring bank holiday, the city centre belonged to Hull City. Sergej Jakirovic stepped out on to the balcony of Hull City Hall, looked down at 40,000 people in black and amber, and delivered the line that will live for years.
“I only had one task before the season – to stay in the Championship … I failed. We’re going to the Premier League!”
The roar that followed told its own story. Hull had not just gone up; they had torn up the script.
Forty-eight hours earlier at Wembley, Oli McBurnie’s late goal had edged out Middlesbrough 1-0 in the Championship playoff final, sealing one of the most improbable promotions of recent times. This was a club that had clung on to their Championship status in 2024-25 only on goal difference. Twelve months later, they were climbing through the front door of the Premier League.
Jakirovic, an engaging storyteller with a steel edge, had looked like a curious gamble when he arrived last summer. He has turned out to be something closer to an alchemist.
From miracle makers to relegation certainties
Three months on from those wild scenes in Queen Victoria Square, the mood music around Hull has changed. The romance of the rise has given way to cold forecasts. Bookmakers have them down as relegation certainties. Pundits, too.
On a podcast this week, former England pair Carlton Cole and Joe Cole dismissed their chances with a sneer. “Hull are gone, man,” Joe Cole said. “They have spent £70m and I’d be stunned if they stay up. They have come in through the back door, they’ve slipped in.”
The comments hit a nerve with Hull fans and lit up social media. Inside the club, though, there was no panic. Just anger – and resolve.
Jakirovic, preparing for Manchester United’s visit to the MKM Stadium on Saturday lunchtime, was in no mood to shrink.
“I’m buzzing,” the 49-year-old said. “Of course there’s a very big gap between the Championship and Premier League. We’re up against the best teams, players and managers and I’ve seen all the predictions. But it’s a great motivation to prove them wrong because we don’t have anything to lose.
“What we did last season was a very big achievement, but this is football and what happened yesterday doesn’t matter any more. We want to improve and show that we can develop to do even better as a team – and of course we need another miracle to survive. It will be an even bigger achievement than winning promotion if we manage to stay up. We need 40 points, so everything is very clear.”
The message is simple: the fairytale is over. The fight starts now.
“Stupid and disrespectful”
Hull is a city used to being talked down. Jakirovic has given it a new swagger. His team’s surge, the club’s fourth promotion to the Premier League since 2008, has re-energised a fanbase that has endured more than enough turbulence.
So when the Coles wrote them off, the head coach did not let it slide.
“It was stupid and disrespectful towards the club and players because we earned everything on the pitch – nobody gave us anything for free,” he said. “It’s not fair, especially when it’s coming from ex-players who know how hard players work to reach the Premier League.
“If they were in my position they would fight, so it’s easy to say we’ll finish 20th, but can they bet on that? They can put everything on that or they can lose, so we will see. But we’re not here by accident.”
That line – “we’re not here by accident” – sums up the siege mentality that has taken hold. Hull know the outside world expects them to go straight back down. They intend to use it.
Big spending, big questions
Off the pitch, Hull have not behaved like a club simply happy to make up the numbers. Acun Ilicali, the high-profile chairman who has publicly backed Jakirovic to stay in charge even if they go down, has sanctioned a bold rebuild.
Eleven new signings have arrived so far, the club’s transfer record has been broken twice, and more are on the way. Some of those recruits are already in the treatment room. The scale and spread of the business has led some observers to label the strategy “scattergun”.
Jakirovic rejects that idea, but he is realistic about what comes next.
“We’re expecting three or four more players,” he said. “We’ve signed some good players with potential, but I’m also aware that they need more time to adapt and build chemistry with the team.
“Mr Chairman and I have had a very good connection since our first meeting and we do everything together. In all decisions, we are always speaking and trying to improve our team in many ways.”
The spending will grab headlines. The real test will be whether this hastily assembled squad can harden quickly enough to survive a division that punishes slow learners.
War, perspective and a Premier League stage
If Hull need someone to keep his head while everyone else is losing theirs, they have found him. Jakirovic’s calm comes from somewhere far beyond football.
Born in Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, then part of Yugoslavia, he grew up in Metkovic in Croatia and came of age during the 1990s Balkan wars. His childhood meant running from fighter planes, diving for shelter, living with fear as a daily companion. It forged a resilience that no relegation battle can shake.
His playing days took him through Slovakia, Slovenia and Bulgaria, a defender carving out a living across central and eastern Europe. His coaching career has been just as restless: Hull are his eighth club in nine years.
Yet here he is, about to lead a newly promoted side into a Premier League season, and he looks utterly at ease.
“I always sleep like a baby because this is just sport at the end of the day,” he said, smiling. “I have to be fresh on Saturday; I also need to show my potential and prove that I can handle this stage. And I don’t have any doubt because I’ve showed already that I’m capable of doing some great things.”
The miracle worker now needs another miracle. Forty points, a league full of giants, and a city walking a little taller behind him. The question is no longer how Hull got here.
It’s how long they can stay.
