Bleacher Report - Articles by Adam Barr

Can Adam Pearson Keep Hull Up?

Adam Barr — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:15:23 -0500

Things have definitely not been going well for Hull City. With four wins out of the whole of 2009 going into a home game against ninth placed Stoke City all signs pointed towards another defeat. All except for one critical event, the return of Adam Pearson.

On the face of it a change of chairman does not seem as radical as you would think. It is the manager who has control of the players, the tactics, the training and everything else related to the actual day to day running of the team. However this was quite a radical move for the owner of Hull to take.

In my opinion Paul Duffen was far to close to Phil Brown to be an effective chairman. Because of their obvious friendship the Duffen failed to challenge Brown when he made dubious decisions and so these were let to pass.

A good chairman should have a distance from the manager to enable him to see when a bad decision is being made and advise him to take a different course. He should be able to manage the manager.

I think Pearson can bring that to the job. As seen in the Stoke game on Sunday a marked difference was seen in the team. Some of that must have been to do with Jimmy Bullard, the clear man of the match. But another factor must also have been Pearson from behind the scenes.

How else do you explain the reappearance of Fagan from the naughty step, a place he had been confined to for weeks? Or the sudden attacking, positive attitude the whole team brought to bear on proceedings? These things can only have come about with a new ethos from the man at the top.

Hull fans all have soft spot for the Harrogate born businessman. This was the man who bought the whole club for a pittance when they were dangling dangerously close to extinction and then not only saved the club but oversaw back to back promotions to the Championship. For that he will always be remembered.

During his first tenure at the North-Eastern team one key event defined it. The building of the new KC Stadium. Unfortunately this momentum shifting event cannot be repeated, he will have to rely on subtler tactics to keep Hull up.

The best thing about him is his obvious loyalty to Hull. When Hull City were at the Play off finals he was there to watch his former team. This passion is just what the team needs.

The task before him seems just as difficult as escaping the depths of League 2. The Premiership is the hardest league in the world. To stay up requires expert organisation, determination and competence. Can he do it? I just think he might. But only just.

Jozy Altidore: Hull's Goal Answer?

Adam Barr — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:12:05 -0400

A very big problem for Hull last season was scoring goals. From last Christmas to the end of the season, goals were a rare commodity for Hull fans and when they came they were cherished for the whole week, until they failed to score again. That is why fans were getting so frantic when striker after striker turned down the club in favour of more lucrative deals.

However Phil Brown may have made two genius signings in the form of the American Jozy Altidore and the Algerian born Kamel Ghilas. Hull fans, myself included, had watched our team being outplayed by a solid if inaccurate Bolton side. That is until Altidore got on the pitch.

Immediately the atmosphere was lifted. The anticipation of a new player, a debut performance, was combined with the excitement of seeing the answer to Hull's striking problem.

The impact was immediate within 24 seconds and with his second touch Altidore had set up the eager Ghilas with a deft flick for the Algerian to gleefully whip the ball past the keeper.

After this City never looked back. At least four chances were created by the re-energised attacking force, all involving the American. One came so agonisingly close that even on the replay I expected the ball to hit the back of the net.

Brazilian, Geovanni, often last season did not have the outlet to get creative with the ball. However with the two new strikers Geovanni cut up the defence with incisive passes that left a Bolton defence reeling.

In the end Hull was lucky. Bolton had a number of key chances which they failed to take. But at the end of the day the difference between to the two teams was Jozy Altidore.

On Tuesday, Altidore netted his first goal in the form of a low free-kick against League One outfit Southend. Here, he was mainly out of it for the better part of the game. But again when Geovanni and Ghilas were brought onto the field he sprang alive again.

Over the course of the season we may hear a few more USA chants echo around the KC stadium.

Dean Windass Testimonial Game

Adam Barr — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:46:07 -0400

Well I'm back fresh from the Hull vs Aberdeen game and thought I'd write my thoughts out on what turned out to be a very mixed event.

Just because it was a testimonial to a true legend to both Hull and Aberdeen it was a very emotional day for fans from both teams. However, certain things happened that tainted the day for me and I suspect for quite a few fans as well.

Deano

Truly this day couldn't really be spoiled. Not when it was about a man who scored the goal that promoted our club into the Premier League, the player who put commitment into everything he did and the legend who's passion for the game shone through. D

eano, at times, got himself into a bit of bother, but that was more to do with his passion boiling over into an on pitch or even off pitch altercation.

With it being a testimonial game Deano was everywhere.

From his entrance to the game where all the players and officials lined up to welcome him on to the second half where he swapped teams and played for Aberdeen for a bit.

The final hurrah was the best moment where he came back on in the Tiger's kit and played the last 10 minutes of the game.

Every fan who went to the game turned up out of respect for Dean Windass. Even the 400 or so fans from Aberdeen who travelled at least 6 hours to be at the game.

It was a truly unique experience where fans from both teams sang together for one man.

The Game

Really having said all that about celebrating the career of Deano the result shouldn't really matter, but it did.

Now going down to a 1-0 defeat in a friendly doesn't seem like a big deal, but consider the fact we are playing Chelsea in less than a week. This match wasn't very promising.

Really Mr. Brown treated the game as a training match—substituting every single player over the course of the game to see who played well and who performed poorly.

Players that stood out for me personally were Olofinjana, who looked to have not lost any fitness, and inevitably Michael Turner who still is looking better and better.

However the rest of the Hull team seemed off their game which was kind of worrying.

Aberdeen fans for some reason had it in for Daniel Cousin (can't say I blame them) and this seemed to drive a wedge between the two sets of fans but it was still an enjoyable enough atmosphere.

The Singers

This really put a downer on the start of the match to be honest. It seems management thought to give the occasion a special feeling they would get live singers in.

Well they needn't have bothered.

Fans didn't want unknown singers warbling at them and getting them to join in.They wanted to watch a game of football.

Instead we got an embarrassing unwelcome start to an otherwise great day. I don't know what other people thought, but to me it was just bad.

Overall

Overall I enjoyed it. I can say I was at Deano's last Hull game, even if he was on 20 minutes in total and 5 of them were in an Aberdeen shirt. It means a lot to a local lad to see another local lad play with pride for his club.

So many achievements, so many memories. Thanks a lot Deano.

Stimulating New Ideas: Bulletin Boards

Adam Barr — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:13:07 -0400

I know this about every writer, including me. At some point good, plausible, interesting ideas desert us and we can spend hours staring at a computer screen trying, desperately, to think of something to write.

Everyone gets afflicted by this. It's natural.

When you're short of decent ideas to opine, you can take the opportunity to create and develop new ideas in several areas of sport that have been somewhat neglected.

Not to say the neglecting could have been avoided. B/R is an open source network. People can write what ever they like and that's the way it should be. But surely (as is B/R's aim) to create a No. 1 stop for sports journalism there has to be a variety of articles on offer.

B/R is unique as a sports website because of the different articles that can appear on it. Often professional sports websites stick to the hard news, rumors, and opinions. Of course this should be a focus on B/R as well ,but since this website is open source it should be able to offer something different.

To stimulate this what can we do? Bulletin boards. When I was exploring B/R one day I stumbled across what one community was already doing and what I think should become a standard feature of all the major communities.

It would be a simple list published by a community leader which outlines ideas that can stimulate new articles. These would not be on the most popular of topics but on the ones that are perhaps more exclusive, something people are less aware of.

In this way people won't be stuck by writer's block for a frustrating amount of time and we can widen the variety offered to sports fans across the world.

History of Football: Cuju

Adam Barr — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:07:16 -0400

We all know the football we watch and discuss and support today. However, the emergence of the modern rules of the game happened relatively recently (in the late 1800s).

However, leading up to this there were a myriad of different games that have clear links to football stretching back throughout history. In this article, I am going to explore one of these games and analyse its links to the modern game we love.

Cuju

Inevitably, it seems the first games in which the main technique involved kicking a ball originated in China. The game of Cuju was also played in Korea, Japan and Vietnam and dated back to the fourth century BC.

The literal translation of Cuju was "kick the ball with the foot." At first it was used to keep military troops fit however variations were played at royal courts as a form of entertainment but developed into a bona fide national sport.

There were different ways to play Cuju and the game itself evolved through history. Originally the ball was stuffed with feathers but eventually they moved on to a ball similar to what we have today, an air filled ball.

The goal posts went through a similar transformation but eventually two forms developed. One was a single post stuck in the middle of the pitch which had to be hit to score the goal and the other...was two posts with a net strung in between them.

Development

During the Song dynasty (960 to 1279AD) Cuju became wildly popular in all walks of life. Having started out as a military training exercise and courtly entertainment it developed into a national pastime.

Female clubs also developed where women could play up against each other and men. Often the women were more skillful at the game than the men and it is said that one time a 17-year-old girl beat a full team of soldiers on her own.

Professionalism

What is interesting about the Song period of Cuju is that the sport itself developed a commercial aspect. Professional Cuju players developed who were paid solely to play and teach the sport. Amateurs who wanted to play had to contribute some money to their local club—which supported the professionals.

As the game evolved it moved away from what we know as the modern game and took on more of a penalty kick style game—the aim to hit the stick by kicking the ball at it.

Eventually the idea of goals was taken out completely and a game based around appeared. Points would be deducted if the ball didn't reach the player or if it overshot. Points were awarded for judging the passing distance right or getting a first time pass.

By the time of the Ming dynasty (1368-1664 AD) Cuju dropped out of favour in the royal court and due to neglect and active discouragement the game slowly died out.

Sources: wikipedia.org, fifa.com, features.cultural-china.com

My Favourite Football Chants

Adam Barr — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:00:41 -0400

This is a tribute to the masses of football fans around the globe. The creativity of fans to hector and heckle the opposition fans and players in displays of mass spontaneity is genuinely something to behold. Some of these songs are funny, some a definitely offensive and often they perfectly pin down a devotion to club and country. Here are my personal favourites but you all might have different ones. Please comment and tell me the best one you have heard at a football game. WARNING: Some language in the chants may offend some people.

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I'm Going to Face It: Hull's Just Not Where Players Want to Go

Adam Barr — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 07:18:38 -0400

On the face of it, you would have thought my club, Hull City, would at least be a consideration for players.

But no. You would have thought it was. Hull is in the best league in the world, it has enough resources to offer substantial contracts (the Jimmy Bullard contract is testament to that) and a solid and loyal fan base.

However it seemed in the last transfer window (and now in this one) that players were reluctant to make the move to East Yorkshire.

As a Hull fan this doesn't sit well with me but as a fan of a smaller club (not one with the riches of Chelsea or Liverpool) that Hull just isn't a fantastic prospect.

The Location

This is a important factor to consider. Hull, since the 1960s, has had a negative connotation. At lot of factors contributed to this but mainly it was the destruction of social infra-structure after the heavy shelling during World War 2.

Whatever caused the negative view it happened and now Hull City AFC find it very hard to attract the talent it needs to survive because it is affiliated with the city.

Now this factor might not apply to foreigner players because of their unfamiliarity with the city. However, certainly for British players, this is certainly an influence.

"Small Club" Status

This may seem surprising since Hull is the 10th largest city in England. But yes, Hull is considered one of the underdogs in its league. This is one reason for this, the club's near meteoric rise to the Premier League.

Back-to-back promotions to the Championship and then a surprisingly quick promotion to the EPL means that Hull has had a very short time to adapt to the league it now finds itself in.

In many ways a slow rise is better than a fast one because of the fact that a club can establish itself in a league, find a place in the Top 10 and sign players that could take them to the next level. In this way, clubs are much much more prepared for surviving the post promotion season.

My point here is Hull, because of the fact that it is a relative newcomer to the top flight, are still considered a risky transfer move. This is because the prospect of a relegation.

EPL Record

Last season, Hull's finish was great. They stayed up. But the way they went about staying up was ignominious to say the least. If the season's record had been reversed - instead of a good run then a very bad run but the other way around then Hull City would have seemed like footballing masterminds.

But no. The fact that Hull clung on by the skin of its teeth implies to a prospective player that something went very wrong at the club.

Therefore an assumption might be made that Hull will have a dismal season next year...and be avoided because of that.

Overall

In conclusion, these three main factors combine to create a situation in which a player will more often than not choose the "other" club.

This can be seen right now with Fortune picking Celtic over Hull when AS Nancy chairman said Hull was the favourite, and Frazier Campbell mulling over a move to Sunderland.

Roundtable Discussion: Five Fans Tell "Why I Love My Sport"

Adam Barr — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:03:59 -0400

We all think our sport is the best. We may follow many sports, but there is always one that has a particular place in our hearts. Here, five different fans of five different sports provide their take on the sport that is their passion.

Kimberley Nash—Football

I have struggled with this statement for days now because, well, what isn't great about football?

Let me lay it out there for you. I am not a fan of the sport. It's not a passing fancy or a seasonal attention-getter—uh—football is life for me.

I breathe it in during the season, and when it's no longer there, I no longer know how to fill the void.

Sure, there are ways to kill the time: NFL Draft talk, pre-season prognostications, Organized Team Activities (OTAs), mini-camps, etc.

All serve the purpose of giving me my dose, but none satisfy me like the actual season.

Bring me the big hits, the great runs, the playmakers, the pageantry, and the passion. The game can not be encapsulated in a word or a cliché.

It's Walter Payton. It's Reggie White. It's Sammy Baugh. It's Joe Greene. It's Tom Brady. It's Hines Ward. It's Vince Lombardi.

It's about the history and the hard-core nature of each team's fans.

It's about playing the game hard for 60+ minutes and leaving absolutely nothing on the field.

In short, football is about turning an inch into a yard. It's about making "the catch"—no matter how improbable. It's about playing hard for the other 10 guys on the field because there is no such thing as "saying die" as long as there is time left on the clock.

It's men playing hard for the glory—contracts be damned.

So, what's the best thing about football in one word?

Everything.

Joe Burgett—Wrestling

What I love about professional wrestling would have to be the entertainment it brings.

It is not a sport as we all know; however, it is sports entertainment. It brings a sport-like feel with the matches, and then they provide entertainment with storylines.

There is no ladder match or Hell in a Cell match in football or MMA.

Sure, since they are competitions, other sports are naturally entertaining.

But professional wrestling can make you feel as if you're watching a TV show similar to House, How I Met Your Mother, or Lie to Me. Despite knowing that the event is scripted, you become emotionally invested in seeing who will win, which is unknown to the spectator. That is entertaining to watch.

Then, you see athletic ability that you would see in a sport like basketball, football, or MMA.

When you watch a good wrestling match, you become engrossed in the potential outcome and the display of athleticism. So, it's the best of both worlds if you will.

It bring the sports aspect along with a TV-show feel. It's all entertainment, which is fun to watch.

Adam Barr—Soccer

What is the thing about football that makes it so compelling?

It's one thing—the competitive nature of the sport. Each game is usually decided by one or two-goal margin, and often, games finish in a draw. This provides compelling action, as each game is fought to the end because there is almost always the opportunity to rescue a result from the game.

This competition provides frenetic action with players giving their all for their clubs—not playing for the money, but for their teammates, their fans, and their clubs.

One word applies to football—global. But "local" applies, too. The fans show just as much passion for their respective teams from Brazil to Bath City FC.

So, why do I follow football incessantly?

Is it the intrigue, the history, or the action? It's all of these things.

But, most of all, I follow football for basically every aspect of it—from the players to the fans, from the dedication to a club to the World Cup.

I love it all.

Dorothy Willis—MMA

In the early 1990's, my sons and I began to watch MMA. The first matches had no time limits and were very ruthless, with far fewer rules than today's MMA. The reforms which have been made since then were much welcomed in my opinion, and helped to legitimize the sport in the eyes of the world.

As a sixty-three-year-old mother of two grown sons, who were involved in martial arts and both wrestled in high school, the grandmother of six children, four of whom have been in karate, and two grandsons who love the sport of wrestling—I have a special affinity for the sport of MMA.

Ever since the first time I saw Georges St-Pierre fighting in Canada and tried to understand what the French commentator was saying, I have known that MMA had become my favorite sport.

St-Pierre had "GRAND HOTEL" printed in black paint on his back at the fight, and put on an outstanding performance.

Watching him, even after he signed with the UFC, has been like watching a beautiful new type of combat dancing. He is so graceful and has such fine-tuned kinesthetic sense in knowing where his body is in relation to his opponent. He has no false starts and appears as if every move has been choreographed in order to have the most-devastating effect upon his opponents.

Since I was a Professional Physical Education major in college, I can fully appreciate how much conditioning and control it takes to perform on such a high level in every fight.

Seeing the human body in performance of Mixed Martial Arts can be very beautiful, and St-Pierre's moves never cease to amaze me.

Although other fighters, especially Anderson Silva, have come close to St-Pierre's style. Rush will continue to be my favorite fighter in my favorite sport.

Bob Warja—Baseball

This game sucks you in like a squeegee, fills you with hope and joy, then rips your heart out and makes you watch. Yes, that’s baseball, and I love it.

Watching a baseball game is much like riding a roller coaster; the highs and lows of the lead changing hands during a game is akin to the thrill of an amusement park.

It’s like a drug—as quickly as the high comes, you get the crash of reality spilling all over your favorite team.

And, ultimately, you are left at home watching someone else win the World Series.

Still, you enjoyed the ride.

Baseball is something handed down from father to son; something that becomes more than just a game and ends up becoming your best friend and worst enemy. All the while, you beg for more.

It’s the crack of the bat and the smell of the freshly cut grass. It’s the thrill of the big fly, and it’s the excitement of a pitcher’s duel.

It’s a thinking man’s game; one that seems slow and sleepy. Yet, it is always punctuated by strategy and intensity. It’s a game within a game.

It’s a quirky game, filled with superstition and steeped in tradition; and, occasionally—no matter how long you've been watching—you will see something you've never seen before.

There’s a long history filled with statistics that truly mean something; and it’s a marathon of a season so there is always hope regardless of how your favorite team did on a given day.

It’s athletic and graceful; yet, at the same time, it can be frustrating and maddening, But, it doesn’t matter because it’s baseball—the American pastime.

It’s simply the greatest game in the world.

Overall

Thanks for reading. I would like to extend a special thank you to this article's contributors. Every bit of their effort was truly appreciated, and their contributions have lived up to everything I had hoped for and more.

But what do you think?

Increasing The Footballing Standard: Solutions To The Issues

Adam Barr — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:58:08 -0400

This is the follow up article to my previous one, highlighting three issues facing modern football. If you haven't read the first one this won't make as much sense.

You'll find it here.

No. 1 Competition

Now look, we all know the underlying issue here. The completely uneven distribution of wealth in the top leagues. How much money a club has has a clear link to their success in the league. Clearly what everyone wants to see is at least six or seven teams competing for a title instead of the more predictable three or four.

The restriction of the title race to three or four teams is honestly money related. Sure the top teams have top managers, top coaches and top players. But this is only because the owner of the club has the money to buy them.

The solution to this is probably non existent. You can't stop rich men or women buying football clubs because clubs would find it very it very difficult to finance themselves and I believe that a lot of clubs would go out of business.

However there might be one solution. In the present system winning teams get the biggest share of the television money, or more likely the top four teams as they get featured the most on television.

What if the breadth of television on offer was increased so that every team, in the top leagues at least, will get featured at least every two weeks. This would even up the coverage and mean that the money each club receives is much more even.

Taking this further a system could be employed where the distribution of the money is inverted, so the team who finishes 17th—the last three places get extensive parachute money anyway—gets the most money. The top teams are deemed not to need it as much and so get the least—a measly 30 million or so. Top teams can still be champions next year as their team won't disintegrate over night. However the opportunity will be given to the smaller teams to do well.

No. 2 Refereeing

There's only one way to solve human error. Video technology. Wherever the referee is unsure about which path to take he can all on a video referee who will go through the footage displayed on the big screen and see exactly what happened in slow motion and from different angles.

This way a match will be decided not on a a penalty kick that was wrongly given but on which team was the best. Or where the blame lies in an incident.

I envision a system adopted from Rugby League where the fair decision is reached and displayed to all the fans so everybody knows what happened.

People might say that this video reviewing would disrupt the flow of the game but I would argue that this would only be brought into play in the most difficult decisions and so the game won't be that disrupted.

No. 3 Sportsmanship

To address the sportsmanship issue I would say that sanctions have to be harsher to incentive-ise fair play.

Think about this. Danny Guthrie made an absolute horror challenge on Craig Fagan. Fagan got injured for four months. Guthrie got a red card. A three match ban. Clearly this is unfair as the victim of the foul got "punished" for a lot longer.

Now, if punishments were made harsher this would mean players would think twice before committing such a foul.

Another thing that can be done is the promotion of the role of captain in the team. Here the captain would have more of a responsibility to the rest of his players make sure that if they look like they are going to lose their heads he can take them aside and calm them down.

Obviously, this can't happen in open play but football has enough breaks in play to allow the captain to do this.

These are my personal solutions. You may disagree and if so please comment better solutions.

Increasing The Standard: Issues With Football Today

Adam Barr — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:13:11 -0400

In this article I am going to outline the main problems and issues facing the sport today and in my follow up article I'm going to see what could resolve these problems.

Football (to me) is a great game to watch. In fact it's a great game full stop. The fast paced action, the passion and the fans make it a unique game. However football does have issues that it has to confront and deal with if it is to move forward.

No. 1: Increase Competition

In Premier League, it's almost a given that one of three or four teams will be crowned champions. Often the season plays out as a two horse race. In La Liga, every season boils down to two teams—Barcelona and Real Madrid. Inter Milan has won the Series A title four times in a row.

There's no doubt that at the top level, football is becoming predictable. By halfway through the season you basically know what two teams will be competing for the title. By three quarters of the season you basically know the winner.

Even considering the many exceptions to the rule still football has become rather stale. On consider this—it is only going to get worse. As more money floods the sport only a select few teams will benefit from this in a substantial way.

This will mean that the sport can only get more predictable. Not good.

No. 2: Referees

I have a deep respect for referees. They make extremely difficult judgements where, whatever the outcome a lot of people are going to hate you for that judgement. But there is one undeniable fact. Referees are human and often human error affects their decision.

You only have to remember the infamous goal that never was in the Reading vs Watford to know that sometimes even the experts can get it very very wrong indeed. Often some decisive games have been decided not on which team was the best but on a central decision that could have gone either way. Now I'm not saying that all these decisions went the wrong way but I've lost count of the times I have sat through match of the day and A referee's decision has been shown to be a poor one.

Obviously not a lot of blame can be placed upon referees. Honest mistakes happen in every single profession. Nobody can claim not to be unconsciously influenced by a crowd of (at least) 18,000 screaming at you if you do something that displeases them. However a football game should have a winner who deserves to win, not from a refereeing mistake that went in their favour.

No. 3: Sportsmanship

Something that really needs to be addressed in the game is the way players conduct themselves in the game. This has been recognised by the Premier League with the promotion last season of fair play. However the 2008-2009 season saw no improvement in the standard of respect in the game.

Incidences such as Joe Kinnear's swearing rant, Danny Guthrie taking out his frustration on Craig Fagan and Didier Drogba's rant at the referee after the Chelsea vs Barcelona semifinal all show that the latest sportsmanship drive had little affect.

This really does negatively impact the sport. Bad sportsmanship is what nobody wants to see and lowers the standing of the sport in non-fans eyes. It really doesn't promote the sport when what makes the headlines is the latest horror tackle and not the latest wonder goal.

Thanks for reading. I will write a follow up article setting out my solutions to these problems.

5 Hull Players Who Need To Prove Themselves

Adam Barr — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:23:59 -0400

Hull had a terrible second half to the season and a big reason for that was that players dropped their standard of play over a season. They really need to up the ante and prove they deserve a place in a Premier League club next season. It's not that these players have done a bad job. It's just they need to develop their game and prove they can play at a competitive level.

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A Look at Hull City's Fixture List

Adam Barr — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:59:20 -0400

At first glance it looks like Hull have got a pretty bad set of fixtures. Headline fixtures such as Chelsea at Stamford Bridge to kick off the season and finishing up with Liverpool at home seem like bad new.

But if we dig a little deeper we can see that Hull have actually got a pretty good season.

After Chelsea and then Spurs there's a run of four teams including Birmingham and Wolves that they have a very good chance of getting results against.

Really the fixtures play out very much like this throughout the season. We seem to have a couple of hard games and then a stretch of games where we have teams that we are able to compete against.

The last fixture is certain to cause a few worries for any loyal fan. Who can forget the last day nerves at the KC when Hull went down 1-0 by a Manchester United youth team and not knowing whether they stayed up or went down. Nobody want that experience again even though the elation was all the more sweeter when we found out that Hull had stayed in the Premier League.

Having said all that about the last day it was with some consternation that I noticed Hull had another big four club—in the dread guise of Liverpool. But looking a bit deeper into the fixtures and it doesn't seem too bad at all. Running up to the last game Hull have a run of six games which are easily winnable.

Playing well in these games means that the last game of the season actually doesn't really matter that much. Now I know that Hull fans only have to think back to the traumatic last quarter to the season where the big plunge really started and the fixtures looked pretty much like they did for the upcoming season. Winnable games followed by the big four finish.

But with the upcoming season Hull will be a stronger, wiser, fitter side (in theory) and such a plummet would seem less likely.

Overall I think Hull have a pretty nice fixture list. Sure Chelsea away looks tough to kick off the campaign but the big four teams are quite spread out over the season and not grouped together in a "month of death."

Of course nobody knows how the transfer market and the next season will play out and some team might turn out to be a huge disappointment or an incredible revelation (Sunderland could go either way.) But on Hull should be pretty thankful for the lottery that is the EPL fixtures.

Frazier Campbell: Newcastle Or Hull?

Adam Barr — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:55:15 -0400

Any Hull City fan, and even some who aren't, knows that Phil Brown is interested in Frazier Campbell - to the tune of £6,000,000. But there has been some reluctance on the side of the Manchester United youngster to commit to Hull, even verbally. At first I thought this was because he wanted to concentrate on his international duties. That's fair enough.

But a rumor has hit the Internet recently saying that he is also considering a move to newly relegated Championship Newcastle United. Although I don't know the validity of the rumor, it seems to be quite widespread. Thus, in this article I am going to write about the pros and cons of choosing Newcastle as a club over Hull.

I would like to point out that these pros and cons depend on your perspective and are therefore subjective.

Newcastle

First of all Campbell would be in his comfort zone. He already knows he can play at that level - he scored 15 goals for Hull in the 2007-2008 season. There would be no pressure to step up his game. At Hull the price tag would weigh on his head and it is interesting to note that he has not yet proved himself at the Premier League level.

Staying at a comfortable level would also mean he has another year developing his talent before considering the Premier League again. At Hull he would be at a relatively small team whereas at Newcastle it would be vise versa. With the security of being in one of the big teams of a division he can develop his talent more.

Another factor to consider is the presence of Alan Shearer. If Shearer does get the manager job then apparently Campbell is high on his target list. Shearer was a well-respected player in his day, and maybe Campbell couldn't resist working under a soccer legend.

At the end of the day Campbell would only want to go to Newcastle to stay in his comfort zone, and not to try and stretch himself, but instead, develop his talent to try at the Premier League next season.

Hull

There is one thing to think about when choosing between each club. The divisions they are in. It’s evident that Newcastle is the bigger club and it is also evident that they have more fans, not to mention they have a bigger stadium. But at the end of the day Hull City AFC is a Premier League club and that makes it the more attractive.

Every football considers the Premier League the best in the world. Thus, obviously this is where they would want to play (if they were good enough.) So Campbell might think that the best place to develop his talent is against the best Defenders and the best Goalkeepers in the world. Where else to hone your skills?

Another very good reason is international football. Campbell will want to make an impression on the England coaches and the only place that he will have to best exposure will be at Hull. The national team set up would only seriously track players in the Premier League because that is closest to the standard on international football. Playing for your national team is the pinnacle of what you can achieve and Campbell will want to do as much as he can to get to that level.

Campbell also enjoyed a great season at Hull and enjoyed his football at the KC Stadium. His success in a previous season and his notoriety with the coaching staff at Hull might convince him that Hull is the best option. While he was at the KC he was a fan favorite, so of course they would welcome him back with open arms.

Conclusion

To conclude I would side with going to Hull, mainly because of the fact they are a Premier League club and he is familiar with the set up there. I do believe that he enjoyed his season at Hull and you have got to factor in Manchester United as a club. I don't believe Newcastle would match Hull's offer.

Anyways, I am a Hull fan so of course I am going to be biased. If you think of any more reasons for Newcastle you can comment on the article and I will try and add them in if I can.

Thanks for reading.

The 5 Hull Players Who deserve A First Team Place Next Season

Adam Barr — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:14:21 -0400

There's no doubt about it. In the end Hull City were lucky at the end of the season that Newcastle and Middlesbrough played so poorly. With the same team we certainly won't stay up stay up next season. However there have been some stand out performances this season, players who have given their all for the club and deserve a first team place next season.

Begin Slideshow

Foreign Player Restrictions In English Football

Adam Barr — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:11:48 -0400

I don't know about anybody else but for me international football is the absolute pinnacle of the sport. The best players of a nation come together to play against the best players of another nation.

The international competitions should produce the best football games in the whole world, and often it does. Football has, in my opinion, a global reach much more than other sports as almost every county in the world has a professional national team.

If you follow the theory that the best players of a country form the national team then England's national squad should be, in theory, the best in world. But it isn't. It should be.

We have the best league in the world, the EPL, from which our teams always do well in the Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup. So why is it that our national team regularly under-performs in tournament's—in the 2008 European Cup we didn't even qualify.

The answer is simple. Our Premier League is heavy in foreign talent. Undoubtedly they are very good at what they do and they are what makes us the best league in the world. But the responsibility to England as a football is too great.

Therefore a English player quota should be introduced, meaning clubs should have to field a certain number of English players. This measure is for the sole purpose in raising the standard of the national team.

We may be seeing a good run under Capello but we only have to remember the disaster in Austria to know that things could be better. As the exporter of football around the world England should have a national team worthy of that heritage.

The introduction of such a quota would force clubs to develop their own talent, increasing the quality of English players as clubs invest more time and effort in their own talent.

This would create a bigger pool of players for a manager to select from and also create competition for each place as two or three very good players compete against each other for the same spot.

I am aware that such a change in the rules, even a small one (three or four players), would be a major problem for many clubs. Arsenal for example has only Theo Walcott as a credible first team English player.

Therefore such a change should be delayed for a time to allow clubs to prepare for the change. After this date the number of players should be gradually increased until we get to about at least four or five English players in every club.

In the long run this would in part raise the standard of our national team but also possibly slightly lower the standard of the EPL for a while but this would only be a temporary thing I am certain with the vast amounts of money available to Premier League clubs.

However there might be another at stake. Our players just aren't motivated enough. I will deal with this in a separate article. However the changes suggested could raise the quality of English players as a whole and thus raise the standard of the team.

Do you agree? Or am I completely wrong?

Daniel Cousin Uncertain About Hull City Future

Adam Barr — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:30:15 -0400

Hull striker Daniel Cousin has said that he would consider leaving the KC stadium during the summer if a lucrative deal was offered to him.

He told Aujourd'hui Sport, “At my age (32-years-old), the sporting aspect is important, but the financial aspect is more important."

I, for one, would not mind seeing Cousin leave the KC at all, as he has hardly filled the role required of him as a striker; He has scored only four goals in 27 appearances.

In the Premier League, first-team players are required to produce, whether it's clean sheets from the defense, or goals from the attack. If they can't do this, then they don't really deserve to stay at the club.

Cousin has also had a record of niggling injuries that kept him out of vital games for Hull. If events happen, as they should, and Hull sign new strikers, then Cousin would be relegated to the bench.

It would be much better to sell him to for a decent amount of money and try to get something back.

Money in the EPL and Where It Should Go

Adam Barr — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:29:31 -0400

Clubs in the Premier League get an disproportionate amount of money compared to lower league clubs in League Two, League One and even the Championship.

No fan can disagree with this whichever club you support.

For the 2008-2009 season Machester United as the winner of the EPL and runners up in the Champions League received 90 million pounds.

In comparison Sheffield United, runner up in the Championship playoff final received a pittance in comparison. Even relegated West Bromwich received £32,000,000.

League One clubs like Leeds or newly promoted Gillingham receive absolutely nothing from this deal as their matches hardly ever get televised at all.

What I think should happen is all of the Premier League Clubs' money to be reduced.

This would not impact on EPL teams as a whole because the amount to be reduced would be minuscule—a mere 1 percent of the money. Such a small amount of money would not be missed from the vast sums teams already get.

However the main reason for this is investment in the structure of English football as a whole, which eventually even the Premier League will benefit from.

What, in my opinion, should happen is this money should be used to make small grants to lower league teams to be used to improve the infrastructure of their football clubs and invest in their young players.

This improvement in lower league teams' ability to train potential football stars would eventually create an environment where the overall quality of players in all league would be raised. That can only be a good thing.

This elevating of quality would eventually trickle though to the Premier League clubs. Then they would not have to bring in big money foreigners but merely look into the Championship and select the top quality available there.

This seems impossible imagine but players who get promoted to the EPL with their club can prove they are effective at Premier League level. Also players from the championship are already making an impact on the big clubs.

Michael Turner, for example, has gone from strength to strength in his season at Hull City and is being tracked by several clubs including (possibly) Liverpool and Spurs.

Introducing a slight tweak in money distribution would only increase the kind of players likely to interest top clubs.

Overall I think that the Premier League has a duty to improve the standard of English football as a whole, not just the itself. This new distribution of wealth would help towards this. There should be an effort to promote the long term future of English football.

But what do you think—am I wrong?

In Defence of Phil Brown

Adam Barr — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:03:42 -0400

I recently read an article entitled "Phil Brown Is The Worst Kind Of Manager", and although it was very well written and also well argued, I disagree with certain aspects of the article.

The article focused on the now infamous half time on pitch team talk in the middle of the disastrous Manchester City game.

Really I can't think you can blame this on Hull's awful second half of the season. I don't think that incident affected the entire season at all, it was mere coincidence at the most. Just because one thing happened and then another thing happened doesn't mean one caused the other.

First of all I do think it was justified for the simple reason that Hull had a shocking first half. They didn't get into the game, they didn't try, they didn't defend, pass, attack or do anything. It was a genuinely pathetic performance.

What Brown did was emphasise just how important good Premier League performances are, not just to him but to the Hull City faithful who had just sat through 45 minutes of complete rubbish.

To suggest that that single event is responsible for a half a season of bad results is ridiculous, I'm sure most of the players knew that their performance wasn't the best they could have played. The article I mentioned in the beginning suggest that the players didn't play for the manager for the rest of the season.

This doesn't hold up for two reasons.

Firstly (as previously mentioned) the players knew they put in a terrible performance as a team and they probably deserved the public dressing down. But also they would know that they weren't just playing for the manager but playing for the Hull fans who put in so much passion into their club.

If Hull fans had booed the team during the talk then the team could feel disgruntled towards them. But instead the players knew that they still had the confidence of the fans and that they were playing for them just as much as they were for the manager.

People have said would Ferguson have done it? Or Benitez? Or Wenger? The answer is no. But then Phil Brown is just a different kind of manager to these great managers. He displays a public passion for his team, but this can also spill over into the scene we all witnessed at half time away to Manchester City.

A final point. Phil Brown in recent months has come across as arrogant and full of himself in the press. Apart from the fact that the press can make a person look bad from the most innocent of quotes is obvious. what some people seem to be missing is Brown's inexperience to managing a Premier League club.

He was unused to the media glare that goes with the job and made mistakes which got overblown. All I'm saying is that people should give him a break; old pros like Wenger might be able to say "I didn't see it" to every incident but a relatively inexperience Brown cannot keep his emotions in check.

People might say that he had experience when he was Sam Alladyce's right-hand man at Bolton, but the media's attention is never on the assistant, only the man in charge.

As to the sing at the end of the Manchester United home game all I can say to that is the man had just kept Hull City in the Premier League and i think he was entitled to enjoy himself a little. The true stars are the players to be sure but without a manager they would have no direction, no vision.

They probably were glad to have a cool down in the changing rooms and let's be honest - Brown didn't not let them out at all. They had their moment as well.

Hull City: Next Season Part Three

Adam Barr — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:10:44 -0400

This is the third and final article that I am going to write about Hull City's preparations for next season. It will deal with a major problem that has plagued the football club over the latter half of the season. Their complete inability in score in vital games.

The Forwards

For the first half of the season they had decent forwards who on the whole put in reliable performances and managed to score enough goals to maintain a credible threat for other teams. However, the January hit and disaster struck. Their forwards went from potent force to a laughing stock—they just became incapable of scoring regularly.

There is one man to look to for this dramatic change. Marlon King. He did have his problems off the pitch,(allegedly) assaulting a women in a nightclub being the worst, and he was a disruptive force in the dressing room but the fact is he was our main source of goals and when he left our attack lost something.

Matters didn't help during the transfer window as Hull didn't find a replacement for him at all. Frazier Campbell might have been a possibility (and still is now) but in the end they gambled on the raw Manucho. This didn't pay off as in the end he only scored two goals and although he improved he still didn't look good enough.

Moving on Daniel Cousin should be considered to be kept on as with the right support from a partner he can score. However, there are rumours that he and Geovanni do not get on, and if it was a choice between him and Geovanni, I would personally go for the Brazilian.

Hull probably need to sign two strikers with definite goalscoring ability because really our striker position has fallen apart.

Like every Hull fan I would say that we should bring in Frazier Campbell as his pace up front is what has been lacking sometimes, plus he has the ability to finish and he would play passionately for the club as I'm sure he enjoyed his time at Hull (though you can never really tell).

Somebody to balance Campbell to balance the forward line. A large target man who can hold up the ball and play it on to Campbell who also is good at heading.

Since in my last article about the midfield I didn't mention Nick Barmby I will now. He is a phenomenal player who still has the intelligence to read and control the game, and although his legs have given up to a point, the contract extension he has received is entirely justified, as he can play for at least a half and since he is a local lad he will give his all for the shirt.

This concludes my look at Hull's team and the next article I will write will be about broader Premier League topics that will probably interest more people than me and Carolina Tiger!

Hull City: Next Season Part 2

Adam Barr — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:46:28 -0400

This article is going to continue looking at what Hull City needs to do to establish themselves in the Premier League next season. As this is only my second article here please leave comments on how i could improve my writing.

Midfield

Midfield where the problems really started for Hull in my opinion.

Geovanni really has looked like the only bright spark, and even he disappeared over the course of the season. But bringing in experienced Premier League midfielders would free up Geovanni from always playing defensively to taking on the creative playmaker role that he excelled in earlier in the season.

This is of course assuming Geovanni stays with us.

Really somebody who could do this for us is Jimmy Bullard, who is set to come back for next season. With his undoubted talent he can run and organise the midfield and direct the ball to create chances and take the pressure off the defense.

Next the left and right midfielders definitely need looking at.

Too many times this season a weak left or right side would cost us vital points. Craig Fagan can do a decent job at left mid and some of his crosses this season have been great. Kevin Kilbane can also put in a decent ball but he has been a bit hit and miss in terms of performance. In all Fagan is very good at running defenses down and harassing opponents; he can become a decent left mid.

Right midfield is a little trickier to sort out. Mendy can put on a great performance, but also often looks like he doesn't care. You only have to look at his short display against Liverpool at Anfield in right mid before he was moved to see his potential.

Mendy however, is best at coming off the bench as an impact player and so another right mid should be signed with a bit of pace and a decent cross. The crossing ability is particularly important because we seem to do better when we try to get the ball into the box.

The next article will be about the forwards which need a complete overhaul as their complete lack of goalscoring during the last half of the season has been a real problem.

Hull City: Next Season

Adam Barr — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:07:21 -0400

Before I talk about how I think Hull should tackle the Premier League next season, I want to talk about our first season in the best league in the world.

There has been a lot of criticism of Phil Brown in the media, some of it justified some of it not, but at the end of the day the team he managed was better than three other teams over the whole season and that alone means Hull deserve to stay up.

Anyway, I think if Phil Brown makes a few good buys during the summer and the team can be re-energized after a dreadful ending to the season then Hull can push onto mid-table security and beyond.

Watching Hull this season was at times exciting and dreadful, sometimes at the same time, but it always seemed to me that about four or five players would bring the team together and make it look like a solid premier league side.

The Defense

The defence over the season has looked pretty solid throughout which seems an odd thing to say since we conceded so many goals. However, I think that we did have a decent defense and here's why. Our midfield. Such a poor display by the men in the middle meant that we didn't move the ball forward, didn't pressurise the opposition, and in consequence the defensive four were put under constant pressure by Premier League quality strikers and under such pressure I think any defence would have a hard time.

Next season we should build the defence around the man who's pictured above, Michael Turner, whose been top quality all season both on the ground and in the air. Next season he should be paired with Gardener who, if he can stay fit, is a very good defender and can lead the defence through experience. However, we have signed a new French defender who can provide cover if needed and, if he's good enough, partner Turner.

The real problem is the full backs who have looked a little stretched this season. Both Ricketts and Dawson have had their first seasons in the Premier League and unlike Turner have found it harder to adapt. So another full back should be signed to provide Premier League experience to these positions. Dawson has played the football over Ricketts which is remarkable since he came from League Two with Hull so I think a right back should be signed, but it doesn't really matter.

I will talk about the midfield and strike-force in another article as these are where most of the problems lie and I will also talk about the tanned one himself Phil Brown and why he does and doesn't deserve some of the criticisms he has been getting.