Jim White

A giant leap for Brown

Fri Oct 02 04:48PM

Phil Brown rescued a woman this week. She was alone on the Humber Bridge, looking down into the swirling waters below, contemplating suicide. Brown was up there taking his squad for a bonding walk when he saw her. And he sweet-talked her out of it. Though he didn't have to do much talking. Apparently from the moment she saw Brown and his squad it dawned on her: she realised that, no matter how bad things get in life, there is always someone worse off than you.

It has not been a great start to the season for last year's new kid on the block. Brown arrived in the Premier League in the expectation that he would be hanging around no longer than the autumn leaves. But he confounded expectation by winning an astonishing number of games in those early days of last season. While it took Wigan, for instance, 36 attempts to beat a team in the top four, Brown managed it at the second, beating Arsenal.

He beat Spurs too and by Christmas had steered his team into a European slot. Which was just as well, as from January onwards the only way he could accrue points was on his driving licence. Hull went into spectacular freefall, rescued only by the incompetence of others. To avoid releagtion by scraping together one point from your last possible 12 is less an indication of your own fighting spirit than of the generosity of others.

That woeful run has continued this season. Whereas last year Brown enjoyed a golden autumn, all he is experiencing 12 months on is a horrible fall. And everywhere he goes he must hear the tittering of those who enjoy a touch of Schadenfreude. Because there is no question Phil Brown made the most of his moment in the sunlit uplands. He was living it large, happy to allow others to gift him the credit for Hull's success, happy to be cast as the architect of triumph.

With his hi-tech microphone and his pitchside presence, he is the polar opposite of Portsmouth's Paul Hart, a man so in your face it is as if he comes ready clothed in hi-viz. Busy, noisy, full of tricks, he has made much of his adherence to unconventional man-management. Which, his growing band of critics suggest, is his problem. There are those who suggest his decline began from the moment he conducted his half time team talk at Manchester City on the grass in front of the visiting fans. It was a trick too far, a gimmick that did nothing but expose his players to humiliation. And if there is one thing a footballer does not enjoy it is being exposed.

Over the summer, in an attempt to change his fortunes, Brown brought in a whole roster of new players, seven altogether. But his buying spree suggested that his judgement of a player is not quite as high as his opinion of himself. Some hardly represented progress. Brown sold Michael Turner to Sunderland and replaced him with Ibrahima Sonko. Last weekend, while Turner was scoring for his new club, Sonko was giving a passing impression of a drunk pensioner in his attempts to corrall Fernando Torres.

With Sonko so hapless, it was lucky there was no-one from Dignitas in attendance: they would have proscribed a mercy killing on the spot. That 6-1 defeat at Liverpool suggested a team in disarray, one whose morale was shot. Brown's response was another trick. He took the boys for a bonding walk. Appropriately it was along Britain's longest and most pointless bridge. There are those who might have thought a couple of hours working on the basics of defending might have been more usefully passed. And many of those appear to be in the Hull dressing room.

This weekend Brown's team take on Wigan. The rumours emanating from the Hull boardroom suggest he has to win. Defeat could see him taking his microphone with him down the dole office. The problem is, while teams like Stoke and Burnley continue to demonstrate the value of internal cohesion, Brown's tricks seem to be having the opposite effect on Hull spirit. He faces a tough job: he has to prove that last autumn was not a chimera and that he is no empty vessel.

Those who value a character will hope he can foster the necessary will power from his team for a lengthy scrap. Just like that woman on the Humber Bridge, the Premier League would be a less happy place without his energetic interventions.

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I think he'll turn their fortunes around. They'll be higher than Portsmouth anyway
From gareth.surman on Fri Oct 02 04:58PM
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phil brown you look a real @#$% with that thing in your ear do you think it will make you a better manager
i dont think so top up your tan phil and ditch the mike!!!!
From elliot_baker on Fri Oct 02 05:03PM
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hull have gone. still hope for pompey.
From kneel.t21 on Fri Oct 02 05:07PM
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good on phil saving that poor woman but then again once he told her his problems at hull city she said would you like to trade places lol.
From wesleyhamilton on Fri Oct 02 05:58PM
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he win them promotion to the top tier for the first time in their history? Some gratitude!!
From tfnholt on Fri Oct 02 06:31PM
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Using a suicide story to boost a headline is a c***s trick. What a sad and pitiful excuse for a journalist you are White.
From leec2202 on Fri Oct 02 06:37PM
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It's not a question of gratitude, it's a matter of football reality that the fans (myself included) should criticise the manager after such a long, tortuous run. At the moment, the team look lost and PB looks bereft of ideas. He's had since last December to turn the club's fortunes around and it hasn't happened yet. He's done great things here and accepted the credit gladly, so he must also know that he will carry the can for things going wrong.
From mus62ic on Fri Oct 02 06:55PM
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"no matter how bad things get in life, there is always someone worse off than you." great point.
From ranendra.prada on Fri Oct 02 08:21PM
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hull are going down brown is a muppet feel sorry for the players
From holton211 on Fri Oct 02 08:47PM
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hull are going down brown is a muppet feel sorry for the players
From holton211 on Fri Oct 02 08:47PM
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hull are going down brown is a muppet feel sorry for the players
From holton211 on Fri Oct 02 08:47PM
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White, you are a complete fudgepacker. Using a possible suicide victim to make a pun. Get serious and go to proper journalism school.
From goonerforlyfesmate on Fri Oct 02 09:28PM
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What sort of person brags about saving somebody's life during a press conference.no class mate.
From ray.ward75 on Fri Oct 02 10:02PM
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he is a good manager but its players who got to show what they can do not him it understandinble if Hull are in the relegation spot however look where they were last leason its hard being a manage give him time even if they go down he will be ready to bring them back up.
White your not funny from an everton fan
From suemulls on Fri Oct 02 10:05PM
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To suemulls, brown IS NOT up to the job. mus62ic, i agree, as a city fan, he is a gloryseeker but has no idea how to get glory. we won a few games to start last season but once every1 knew how we played they bettered us. He hasn't a clue how to try anything new, its the same gameplan he's had since we were promoted. we need rid asap, to give us any chance of crawling from the bottom 3.
From risla100 on Fri Oct 02 11:52PM
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tfnholt, are you serious??? he laps up his 5 mins on match of the day. ANY manager who doesn't think every game is a must win game doesn't deserve the job!!! When was the last time you heard fergie, wenger, benitez,redknapp moyes ..... say that a game wasn't a must win game. He's clueless, the fame has got to his head.
From risla100 on Fri Oct 02 11:58PM
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Fabricated suicide story. This is pseudo-journalism. The lowest kind of journalism. Where did the pesudo end and the real story begin?
From cokrowinoto on Sat Oct 03 01:07AM
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A TAKE AT 5HOT WEE STARAY ABOOT THON WEMON WAS ALOADA CREP?
From donneymcclain on Sat Oct 03 04:31AM
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AM A BIG LIVERPOOL FAN BUT I REALLY FELT FOR BROWN,ITS SO UNFORTUNATE THAT THE SAME PEOPLE WHO PRAISE SING YOU YESTERDAY ARE THE SAME PEOPLE CALLING FOR YOUR HEAD TODAY,WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT FROM HIM,DID HULL SPEND BIG LIKE OTHERS?DON'T BLAME BROWN ONLY ALSO BLAME THE MANAGEMENT,JUST LIKE LIVERPOOL,THEY WANT TO WIN THE PREMIERSHIP BUT THEY STILL HAVE PLAYERS LIKE BABEL,NGOG,AURELIO,CARRIAGHER,LUCAS,AND A WHOLE LOT OF PLAYERS THAT LACK THE QUALITY TO WIN THE PREMIERSHIP,PLS LEAVE BROWN ALONE FACE THE MANAGEMENT.
From ferrelous on Sat Oct 03 09:36AM
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STOP BLAMING BROWN,TELL ME ONE QUALITY SIGNING DID HULL HAVE THIS SEASON,PEOPLE SEEM TO FORGET THAT YOUR WINNING OR LOOSING DEPEND ON THE QUALITY OF PLAYERS,ATTENTION SHOULD BE ON THE MANAGEMENT NOT BROWN.
From ferrelous on Sat Oct 03 09:40AM
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Risla 100 - Did you see the interview where PB said he was copying Fiorentina's game plan against Liverpool? Now that's just inviting ridicule! When will he accept that we are not a team of flair players and we are not going to sweep to glorious victories week in and week out? Yes, we have some quality, but it's all about grinding out results in the Prem; the top sides understand this, so why don't we?
PB needs to think about how we can make the KC a (ahem) 'fortress' and blag what points we can on the road. If he doesn't, it will cost him his job!
From mus62ic on Sat Oct 03 09:50AM
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Hull to beat Wigan today 2-1,Phil Browns woes will be forgotten and you can start on Pompy Boss again.
From accsubsea on Sat Oct 03 01:38PM
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some one always worse off lol!!!
From skhalid23 on Sat Oct 03 02:13PM
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If this is a true story well done Tango Man I like a tan too ! Stokie
From johnproctor380 on Sat Oct 03 03:10PM
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From Stokie if a true story -well done Tango man I like a tan too lol
From johnproctor380 on Sat Oct 03 03:13PM
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Brilliant article once again from THE ONE AND ONLY SUPER JIM WHITE
Alan from Malta
From avellabonello on Sat Oct 03 03:33PM
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A BRILLIANT article once again from the one and only SUPER JIM WHITE
Alan from Malta
From avellabonello on Sat Oct 03 03:35PM
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A Brilliant article once again from SUPER JIM WHITE
Alan from Malta
From avellabonello on Sat Oct 03 03:37PM
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A Brilliant article once again from SUPER JIM WHITE
Alan from Malta
From avellabonello on Sat Oct 03 03:38PM
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mus62ic, unfortunetly i didn't see the comedy sketch you refere to, shame. it just proveswot i said, he has no ideas of his own, but even ridicule sometimes gets your face on the tv!!!
From risla100 on Sat Oct 03 09:11PM
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