When Leicester City’s team bus pulls up outside the KC Stadium on Sunday, Steve Bruce expects to feel a little like he did on a certain Saturday at Wembley in May. The difference is that Hull City’s manager believes his team are playing for higher stakes than last season’s FA Cup final and he expects the experience to be even more testing.
“Leicester at home is a bigger game for me than the Cup final,” says Bruce. “Yes, I know that’s quite a statement but that’s what it means to me.”
If losing to Arsenal at the national stadium was far from the end of the world, a reverse against Nigel Pearson’s side would leave Hull staring a relegation battle in the face. In contrast, victory should leave a team whose 3-1 Boxing Day victory at Sunderland was their first in 11 league attempts rising to mid-table. While an away win would position Leicester, currently bottom, only three points short of Hull, defeat could all but set Pearson’s players adrift at the foot of the table.
“Nigel will want to turn us over,” said Bruce, whose side stand 17th. “But if we turn Leicester over and go nine points clear of them at the halfway stage of the season it would take a big turnaround on their part to catch us. As we know, it’s difficult enough to win one or two games in this league, let alone turn a three-game swing around.”
Hull’s manager is experienced enough to know that, until May arrives, he will always be looking over his shoulder. “I could have called the bottom eight before the start of the season – and we have to accept we are going to be one of them,” he said. “We’ve only spent four seasons in this division in our entire history so we’re going to be in and around the bottom. We always expected to be.”
Bruce’s critics suggest that Hull should be doing a little better, having spent around £40m net during 2014, but his riposte is that sometimes investments take time to pay dividends. Gastón Ramírez’s loan from Southampton this season has been queried but, after a slow-burn beginning to life on Humberside, the Uruguay forward shone at Sunderland, scoring one goal and creating another.
“Ramírez went to Southampton for £12m but it’s taken him time to adjust to England,” says Bruce. “He looked a really good player against Sunderland but that’s because he was given time to adjust to the food, the culture, the cold and the language barrier. We’ve had to let him take time to adjust and find his own way.”With Ramírez starting alongside Sone Aluko on Wearside, Bruce left another Uruguayan, namely his £10m summer attacking signing from Palermo, Abel Hernández, on the bench. “Hernández will be a really good player,” maintains a coach who has had to contend with recent behind the scenes problems involving Paul McShane and the now departed Hatem Ben Arfa.
“But sometimes when you pay a lot of money for a striker from abroad you have to give them time to adjust.”
Hull’s manager is adapting to life without Steve Agnew after his assistant defected to Middlesbrough where Agnew has been appointed Aitor Karanka’s N2.
Adamant the switch was amicable, with Hull simply being unable to match the generosity of Boro’s terms – “I wish someone would make me an offer like that,” joked Bruce – he said he had dusted down his tracksuit and would enjoy taking training until a replacement is recruited.
