‘Cherish the future’ says Hull City chief as Tigers seek new direction of travel
The Tigers opted to change their manager a week ago
A week on from the exit of Liam Rosenior as manager, vice-chairman Tan Kesler has spoken for the first time about a departure which caused a ripple of surprise across the football world.
Rosenior, in his first full season as a Championship manager, guided City to seventh place missing out on the play-offs by three points after a run of just three wins in the final 13 games of the campaign.
Owner Acun Ilicali cited his reasons for making a change barely 48 hours after the campaign ended, and now Kesler, who is the Turkish businessman’s right-hand man inside the ambitious Championship club, says the meeting held at the MKM Stadium last Tuesday to relieve Rosenior of his duties was emotional, but the right one for the future of the club.
Kesler, who worked closely with Rosenior throughout the duration of his 18-month reign and has been involved in extensive talks with potential new candidates over the past few days, has called on fans to be excited about the future of a club that retains strong ambitions to return to the Premier League.
“Yeah, it was an emotional and tough,” Kesler tells Hull Live. “It was a tough split from my end, but not just my end to be honest with you. When we had the final conversation with Liam, myself, the chairman, it was very emotional. It was very moving and we all got emotional because we’ve spent 18 months all together fighting for something.
“In the end, both sides agreed on what didn’t work, what created the differences or conflicts of opinions and then we split it very positively in a way and our fans might think that break-ups are usually not soft but in our case, it was very logical and mutual.”
After an initial outpouring of frustration from supporters when news broke last Tuesday afternoon, coupled with Ilicali explaining his methodology in the media, relations seem to have cooled somewhat as City go in search of Rosenior’s successor, which, we expect to be former Hamburg chief Tim Walter. Attention has quickly turned to the new man and the buzz of a fresh appointment, and one who is largely unknown to Tigers fans, unlike his predecessor.
Kesler says the decision to part company with Rosenior, a man they’d developed a close bond with during his 18-month tenure was tough, but one they felt was necessary in the interests of the club moving forward, a decision that they believe will be the right one, and has asked for their backing in moving forward without the 39-year-old.
“The chairman is someone who wears his heart on his chest. It’s not about who we’re trying to blame it on, but it’s just people need to understand, especially our fans that there was a very positive and mutual agreement. We both realised that there was a conflict of opinions (between the board and manager) and therefore we should move on. Everybody should understand that we are the ones who took a risk with Liam (in his first senior managerial role). We always acknowledged what he had done for this club.
