Hull City: Controversial Acun Ilicali decision is looking worse each week | OneFootball

Hull City sacked Liam Rosenior for Tim Walter, which is shaping up to represent a calamitous decision from Acun Ilicali

Hull City owner Acun Ilicali took a significant gamble by sacking Liam Rosenior, who was succeeded by Tim Walter in a decision which is quickly proving to represent a calamitous one.

The Tigers found a sense of stability, continuity and steady progression under Liam Rosenior. The former Tigers defender, who headed up to the MKM Stadium to kick-start his managerial career after serving as Wayne Rooney's widely-esteemed assistant at Derby County, built positive and sustainable foundations during his first season at Hull by guiding the side to a respectable 15th-placed finish.

A progressive-minded young coach with a distinct philosophy and growing reputation within the game, Rosenior revamped the playing style while handing ample opportunity to young players, setting the tone for what was to come.

He was hugely popular among supporters and offered the first real breakthrough of the Ilicali era at Hull. Following a relatively successful opening campaign laying the groundwork, Rosenior sparked Hull into lift-off in the first-half of the 2023/24 season.

The Tigers went all guns blazing in a bid to gain promotion during the January transfer window by signing the likes of Ryan Giles, Anass Zaroury and Fabio Carvalho, signings which eventually underlined how Rosenior had seemingly underachieved in failing to secure a top-six finish as they just fell away somewhat in the latter stages of the season. Despite having been nominated for the EFL Championship Manager of the Year award, Rosenior was ultimately relieved of his duties shortly after Hull were forced to settle for seventh place.

It was a widely controversial decision at the time and while high risk could well have ended up returning high reward, it simply hasn't worked out for his successor, Tim Walter.

Tim Walter has failed to match Liam Rosenior at Hull City

Hull supporters were promised "heart attack football" from Walter, who had developed an intriguing reputation during his two-and-a-half seasons managing Bundesliga.2 outfit Hamburg. Widely regarded as a gung-ho manager with an unrelenting emphasis on quick, attacking football, expectation was high for Walter - even though he twice failed to gain promotion through the playoffs with Hamburg before his exit in February of this year.

Naturally, Hull were in huge transition during the summer and now have almost an entirely new squad from the side which was managed with Rosenior, with Walter bringing in a host of fresh faces to offset myriad departures including the exits of Jaden Philogene, Jacob Greaves and Jean Michael Seri.

Latitude can be afforded to Walter in that aspect, then, but there's no escaping the fact it's not going to plan whatsoever. Having sacked Rosenior after narrowly missing out on the playoffs, promotion must have surely - and somehow - been the objective but, if anything, Hull are in genuine danger of relegation to League One at this moment in time.

Walter had to wait until September 20 to claim his first win in English football by winning away at Stoke. His Hull side have won just once at home all season, and just once against a side which isn't currently in the bottom four of the Championship, where Hull now find themselves too.

They're winless in their last eight games and are accordingly placed 22nd in the league standings following a frustrating 1-0 defeat at Luton Town on Saturday afternoon. As you would expect, all things considered, supporters simply haven't been onside with Walter for quite some time and his future at the club does appear precarious heading into the hectic festive period, where Hull will be fighting to avoid being potentially cut adrift.

Just how long it takes for Ilicali to yield the axe remains to be seen and the club's decision makers may want to try and keep their pride and avoid accepting defeat just yet, but it's ultimately a results-based business and it's increasingly clear that Walter isn't the right man for the job.

Hull City, Acun Ilicai should've kept Liam Rosenior instead of appointing Tim Walter

The decision to part ways with Rosenior in order to appoint Walter looks a fateful one. While Rosenior did technically underachieve in failing to secure a playoff place despite having five-star attacking talent by Championship standards in the likes of Philogene and Carvalho, he created a project which both players and supporters alike brought into and set the foundations for steady upwards progression.

That, unfortunately, has all been dismantled for a relegation battle, while Rosenior himself is doing fairly well over in Ligue 1 with Strasbourg.

Sacking Rosenior was always going to be a harsh decision, though it could've been the brutally-right one had Hull managed to source a significant upgrade capable of unlocking Ilicali's somewhat misguided ambitions of rushing to the Premier League.