Steve Bruce said he would turn his mobile phone off for a week or two in an attempt to unwind at the conclusion of an arduous campaign and ready himself for next season. Yet the Hull City manager does not appear entirely sure that he will still be in charge to guide the club in the Premier League.
Such is the uncertainty surrounding Hull, with persistent rumours about a takeover and the owner’s deteriorating health, that a strange atmosphere lingered amid the celebrations.
This should have been a weekend to toast their top-flight return. Instead Bruce ended up raising questions about the future and a couple of his players admitted to anxieties over new contracts, too.
The Hull manager dedicated their triumph to the club’s polarising owner, Assem Allam, who is “fighting on” with an unspecified illness.
Allam was not at Wembley and wants to sell the club. A selection of Thai, Chinese and US investors are said to be interested now the club are back in the top flight, but a sale is some way off.
Mo Diamé’s wonderful goal near the end of a tight, nervous but enjoyable game sent Hull back to the Premier League for the third time since 2008 and gave Bruce an unprecedented fourth promotion from the second tier, while shattering Sheffield Wednesday’s dream.
However, it was easy to come away from Wembley, as far as the victors were concerned at least, with more queries than answers. “Hopefully over the next six weeks, I can look after myself and not just a team,” Bruce said when asked about taking time to unwind after his most pressurised season yet. “There are all these rumours and of course it was a crossroads. If we hadn’t won, I believe it would have been very difficult at the club.”
Promotion, however, does not equate to those issues instantly evaporating. “I don’t know if I’m staying myself yet,” Bruce said. “I’ll have a conversation, like I said I would, at the end of the season.
“I’ve got to make sure that we are equipped. We’ll see. I still haven’t 100% decided but I will think about it and chat with my family. I am wary. It’s been long and difficult for many reasons.
“I will sit down with the powers that be and see where the club wants to go. If there are takeovers I need to know – because that means a new broom. I’m not taking it for granted, there have been 60 managers sacked this season.”
It would still be a surprise to see Bruce elsewhere, mind, and the manager also spoke of his happiness to bolster the ranks of homemade managers in the top flight.
Despite his unique achievement of winning promotion to the top flight four times, Bruce is often ignored in discussions about the best English managers, which leads to an inevitable question.
Is he underappreciated? “I’m going to let other people judge that,” he said. “Everywhere I’ve been, I’d like to think I left them in a better position than when I took over.
“We always dream of a big job but you’re just classed as ‘he’s OK, he can get a team out of the Championship and have them scrap away in the Premier League’. For all the British ones doing their coaching badges or whatever, I’m pleased one of us is back in the Premier League. We all have a go but it’s a shame the big jobs go to the foreign managers.”
So, there is a glass ceiling for British managers? “Of course there is. Look at Sean Dyche at Burnley.”
If he does remain the first aim will be survival and then to follow the path of “teams like Swansea and West Brom”.
“We need to try and emulate them and make it grow. It will always be difficult for us to attract players. We’re never going to be the biggest payers and it is difficult to get people to come to us even if we have the money. There is a long road ahead but let’s not talk about the negatives now. Let me enjoy and then do all the worrying.
“I haven’t asked about money and what’s available. I really don’t know.”
Questions linger over the players’ futures, too. “Lots,” Bruce said when asked about how much would need to be invested, but a couple of his key players this season remain in the dark about their own contract situations.
Tom Huddlestone went on holiday on Sunday for 10 days with his partner and hopes to resolve his future quickly upon returning, admitting it was frustrating to see some of his team-mates agree extensions while he was left in the dark. Eldin Jakupovic, entrusted to keep goal with Allan McGregor injured, also spoke of his desire to agree new terms in the next couple of weeks.
With Middlesbrough and Burnley, the other two promoted sides, some way down the line in their preparations for the Premier League, Hull already have catching up to do.
In contrast, Sheffield Wednesday appear to have stronger foundations in place for the immediate future. This was a long-awaited taste of the grand stage and while they did not perform to their capable level, needing the goalkeeper Keiren Westwood to keep them in the tie, a sense remained at full-time that something special is within the grasp of Carlos Carvalhal and his team.
One line of thought is that losing at Wembley may be a blessing. A couple of kinks need to be ironed out from a squad that was pieced together in precious little time when Carvalhal was appointed in surprising circumstances. Another summer of fine-tuning before what should be an attack on automatic promotion materialises next season is desirable.
Westwood and some of his team-mates were inconsolable at full time but the future is bright at Hillsborough and when the pain of failing to jump the final fence subsides there will be cause to be proud and, maybe most important of all for the blue side of Sheffield, optimism at what is to follow. Perversely, an unmistakable degree of pessimism looks set to pervade on Humberside.
