Tim Walter has got five matches to prove Hull City owner Acun Ilicali right
Any passing glances at the Championship table on Saturday afternoon would not have lifted the spirits of a fan base who are growing increasingly frustrated.
It may only be five games into the season following a summer of unprecedented change, but the sight of Hull City sitting second bottom made for grim viewing and shows the challenges that lie ahead.
Until Portsmouth's home loss to table-toppers West Brom on Sunday afternoon, only Cardiff City were keeping the Tigers off the foot of the table, and their record is nothing short of woeful - four defeats in five and just one goal to their name - given the uncertainty at the back end of the season, it’s perhaps no surprise to hear Erol Bulut fighting to save his job, and since the weekend, we've seen Friday night's opponents - Stoke City - sack Steven Schumacher after three defeats and two wins in their opening five matches.
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To read too much into the table at this stage with 41 more games to go is generally viewed as a rather pointless exercise, and rash calls or predictions should be made with extreme caution.
Just last season, Middlesbrough were bottom after a disastrous start to the campaign and there were calls for Michael Carrick’s sacking. After recovering to beat Southampton eight games in on September 23, 12 months ago, Boro mounted a strong push for the play-offs and came fairly close after sticking with the ex-Manchester United star.
City’s situation is a tad different to that one, not least because the manager had been in situ for a period of time, and knew the league, but also, there was a period of change in the Boro dressing room over the summer, albeit not as stark as we’ve seen at the MKM Stadium.
What three draws and two defeats do show is that City’s start had been poor. Walter was gifted a gentle start to life in his opening three fixtures, and while the last two against Leeds United and Sheffield United have been two of the more difficult assignments, neither were at their best nor strongest and still won with a fair amount of room to spare without the Tigers laying a glove on their Yorkshire opponents, whilst looking a mess, at times, with players looking anything but happy or at ease.
Walter’s cavalier style is yet to convince that it can work at this level and by work, that means winning games of football. The early signs are not overly promising, and results have reflected that.
A promise of attacking football has not materialised, yet, with just one goal from open play in those five league games to show for their efforts. City may be a work in progress, and it might not be fair to assess Walter and his squad until we get to the 10-game marker which won’t come until after the next international break. But by that time, he must have found a way to win a game of football, something, which if we’re brutally honest, he hasn’t looked like doing in any game since taking over.
Being in the bottom three after five games shouldn’t have the alarm bells ringing too loudly, but it should serve as a wake-up call to the manager that if you don’t get your act together quickly, the Championship will leave you behind. City can ill-afford to allow this run to go on any longer.
Shota Arveladze's demise should serve as a stark warning to Walter. While Acun Ilicali is backing his manager at the moment, patience can wear thin very quickly. Arveladze was given the boot after three wins and 11 points from the first 10 games, at the end of the second international break, and Walter will know that backing from the owner isn't assured or everlasting.
Friday night’s visit to Stoke City is crucial, and the visit of Cardiff on Saturday week is already looking significant before trips to QPR and Norwich sign off this latest batch of games.
It’s not the time to panic or make rash decisions, yet. Walter has rightly called for time to get things on an even keel after such a gargantuan summer of change. But fans are growing increasingly nervous and with good reason given the seasons of struggle they’ve had to witness in the past few years, hence their jeers of annoyance at full-time on Friday evening.
It might only be five games now, but that can very quickly become 10 and then 15 and then all of a sudden the winter arrives and once you get mired in trouble, the Championship has a curious way of making sure you do not escape too easily, so that should serve as a stark warning to Walter, his players and the club’s hierarchy.
Ultimately, as Chris Wilder quite rightly pointed out in his uniquely cutting way on Friday night, Championship football is all about being difficult to beat, keeping the ball out of your net at one end and putting it in the one at the other end. So far in the opening six competitive games of this season, City have been none of those and that simply has to change quickly, starting on Friday evening in the Potteries, against a side who may well have their new manager in the dugout.