Back to the North-East, and should Pardew have time called on his days at Newcastle United, Steve Bruce would be one of the favourites to take on what is a thankless role. For now, though, Hull City’s Geordie boss has work to do to prevent his managerial star waning.
On Saturday night’s Match of the Day programme, a table was shown to illustrate Newcastle’s pitiful record since the Geordie’s 4-1 win at Hull on March 2nd – a result that was cast into the shadows by Pardew’s head-butting of Tigers midfielder David Meyler. Instructively, the Premier League club with the next lowest points return from that date onwards is Hull.
Winning just two of their final ten Premier League games last season – six points that were actually needed to ensure survival – could perhaps be put down to the team’s run to the FA Cup final. Progress to that Wembley occasion was another impressive mark on Bruce’s CV. Afforded the chance to return to the game in 2012 by Hull, (Bruce was concerned that he would forever be tarnished by a difficult end to his Sunderland tenure; remarkably unfair given that he led the Black Cats to 13th and 10th place Premier League finishes in his two full seasons in charge at the Stadium of Light) the 53 year-old instantly took the Humberside club into the top-flight – ending their three-year absence from the elite.
It was an accomplishment that mirrored Bruce’s work at Birmingham City when, in 2002, he ended the Midlanders’ 16-year top-tier exile. When the Blues were relegated in 2006, the former Manchester United defender led them back up at the first time of asking.
Clearly then, Bruce has the pedigree to address the failings creeping in at his present employers, chief of which is an inability to capitalise on winning positions. Hull’s blowing of a two goal advantage at Newcastle came at the end of a week in which they had already twice surrendered a lead against West Ham United.
There were always likely to be teething problems at the KC Stadium this season, with Bruce having overseen a raft of changes to his playing squad since their dramatic cup final defeat to Arsenal in May (another occasion on which a two goal lead fatally slipped away).
Big money has been spent to lure Jake Livermore (tying the midfielder to a permanent deal after last season’s loan), Michael Dawson, Robert Snodgrass, Tom Ince, Harry Maguire, Andrew Robertson, Abel Hernandez and Mohamed Diame to the KC Stadium. Enigmatic duo Gaston Ramirez and Hatem Ben Arfa, meanwhile, have arrived on season-long deals.
It isn’t only the personnel under Bruce that has changed. Gone for the encounters with West Ham and Newcastle was the previously favoured three-man back-line, with Tom Huddlestone now sitting at the base of a midfield diamond – and in front of a conventional back-four.
That shift in tactics will require some adjustment. The majority of Bruce’s new signings have, individually, bedded in snugly– Diame and Hernandez made goal-scoring debuts against West Ham, a game in which Dawson excelled – but, collectively, a period of transition is to be expected.
Much will depend on 24 year-old £10m man Hernandez, whose 14 goals for Palermo in Italy’s Serie B last season represented, by far, the most prolific campaign of his fledgling career. Equally vital, if his employment deep in Hull’s midfield is to become a long-term arrangement will be Huddlestone’s ability to complement his terrific passing range with a keen defensive awareness.
Since Bruce took over at Hull City, the club have been constantly evolving for the better. It is to the manager and his team’s great credit that they are not content to stand still. Nevertheless, if they don’t quickly establish a steely resolve – especially with Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool featuring among their next four opponents – Hull’s new boys might discover that they have signed up for a most unexpected battle to avoid the drop.
All that, without mentioning that, on the same weekend, Frank Lampard scored for Manchester City against Chelsea, Stewart Downing ran the show as a free-flowing West Ham overran Liverpool, and West Brom deservedly grabbed a first victory at Tottenham’s White Hart Lane since 1984.
When England limped away from Brazil in June without winning a World Cup finals match, many observers lamented that the national team’s ills would inevitably be hastily forgotten amid the continuously unfolding drama of a fresh Premier League season. How right they were.
Paul McNamara has just published ‘The More We Win, The Better We Will Be‘, a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a non-league football club that offers the unusual opportunity of viewing an entire football season at one club from multiple viewpoints. To follow Paul on Twitter and grab a discount code, please follow this link.