{"id":591578,"date":"2026-08-21T13:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/591578\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T13:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:10:12","slug":"jovial-jakirovic-determined-to-haul-hull-over-and-beyond-coles-relegation-jibes-hull-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/591578\/","title":{"rendered":"Jovial Jakirovic determined to haul Hull over and beyond Coles\u2019 relegation jibes | Hull City"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a baking spring bank holiday, Sergej Jakirovic basked in the glory of Hull\u2019s fairytale promotion to the Premier League<\/a> in an address to 40,000 ecstatic supporters from the balcony of Hull City Hall. \u201cI only had one task before the season \u2013 to stay in the Championship \u2026 I failed. We\u2019re going to the Premier League!\u201d roared the Jakirovic to the delight of those in attendance.<\/p>\n

Oli McBurnie\u2019s late goal had secured a 1-0 win over Middlesbrough<\/a> in the Championship playoff final 48 hours earlier, clinching one of the unlikeliest ascents for years. Hull only survived relegation to League One on goal difference in 2024-25 but Jakirovic, an intriguing character and fine raconteur, proved the man with the alchemist\u2019s touch.<\/p>\n

Three months on from those wild celebrations, the Bosnians new-look side must defy the odds again \u2013 and then some \u2013 to survive in the Premier League. Hull have been written off as relegation certainties by bookmakers and pundits, including former England duo Carlton Cole and Joe Cole, who ridiculed them on their podcast this week. \u201cHull are gone, man,\u201d said the latter. \u201cThey have spent \u00a370m and I\u2019d be stunned if they stay up. They have come in through the back door, they\u2019ve slipped in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such barbs do not faze Hull\u2019s head coach, who was in typically ebullient mood before Manchester United\u2019s visit to the MKM Stadium on Saturday lunchtime. \u201cI\u2019m buzzing,\u201d said the 49-year-old. \u201cOf course there\u2019s a very big gap between the Championship and Premier League. We\u2019re up against the best teams, players and managers and I\u2019ve seen all the predictions. But it\u2019s a great motivation to prove them wrong because we don\u2019t have anything to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we did last season was a very big achievement, but this is football and what happened yesterday doesn\u2019t matter any more. We want to improve and show that we can develop to do even better as a team \u2013 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jens Hjert\u00f8-Dahl, one of Hull\u2019s new arrivals, heads at the Nice goal during last Saturday\u2019s pre-season friendly. Photograph: Richard Bierton\/Every Second Media\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Jakirovic has made the people of Hull walk a little taller in a city which has received more than its fair \u2013 or rather, unfair \u2013 share of negative publicity at times. What did he make of the jibes from both Coles, which provoked such a furious backlash from Tigers fans? \u201cIt was stupid and disrespectful towards the club and players because we earned everything on the pitch \u2013 nobody gave us anything for free,\u201d said Jakirovic. \u201cIt\u2019s not fair, especially when it\u2019s 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\u2019s easy to say we\u2019ll finish 20th, but can they bet on that? They can put everything on that or they can lose, so we will see. But we\u2019re not here by accident.\u201d<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s high-profile chairman Acun Ilicali, who has said he will keep faith with Jakirovic even if Hull go down, has made 11 new signings \u2013 several of whom are currently injured \u2013 and broken the club\u2019s transfer record twice in the process. The recruitment drive, described by some as scattergun, is also not over \u201cWe\u2019re expecting three or four more players,\u201d Jakirovic said. \u201cWe\u2019ve signed some good players with potential, but I\u2019m also aware that they need more time to adapt and build chemistry with the team.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMr 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hull\u2019s dramatic rise last season \u2013 their fourth promotion to the Premier League from 2008 onwards \u2013 caught the imagination, and Jakirovic is a good story in his own right. Born in Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, then part of Yugoslavia, the imposing former centre-half grew up in Metkovic in Croatia. His childhood experiences \u2013 running from fighter plane bombings and taking shelter during the 1990s Balkan wars \u2013 deeply shaped his resilience and perspective on life.<\/p>\n

Jakirovic\u2019s playing career included spells in Slovakia, Slovenia and Bulgaria before he moved into management and eventually landed in Hull \u2013 his eighth club in nine years \u2013 last summer. \u201cI always sleep like a baby because this is just sport at the end of the day,\u201d he said with a smile. \u201cI have to be fresh on Saturday; I also need to show my potential and prove that I can handle this stage. And I don\u2019t have any doubt because I\u2019ve showed already that I\u2019m capable of doing some great things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a baking spring bank holiday, Sergej Jakirovic basked in the glory of Hull\u2019s fairytale promotion to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-591578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}