Hull City’s- Championship expectations revealed as Tigers set firm challenge

There may have been a big summer of change at Hull City since Liam Rosenior’s exit and Tim Walter’s arrival, but expectations have not changed according to skipper Lewie Coyle.

Coyle remains firm in his belief that City’s goal once again this season is to get out of the Championship and win promotion to the Premier League, having missed out by just three points last term under their former boss.

There’s a general consensus in football that the second-tier will be more competitive this time round, given how Leicester, Ipswich, Leeds and Southampton all created a huge chasm to the rest of the league, something few are predicting this term.

That gives City an opening to try and exploit, assuming they can do the required work in the transfer market to give Walter a squad capable of mounting a serious push for the top six, just as they did last term, kicking off the campaign with a battling draw at home to Bristol City.

 

“I think last year was incredibly tough, especially when you look at the top four positions, the points total that they all finished on, it was an incredible standard,” Coyle told Hull Live.

“Again before the season comes and usually before the competition starts getting going, people have their say on what they think the level of this season will look like, but any season in the Championship for me is a tough, a tough year.

“The Championship is a gruelling league and it provides a tough ask to get out of the league. We know our ambition. It’s the same as the ambition last year to get out of the league. I’m looking forward to a tough, a tough test which will hopefully be made when we achieve what we want to achieve.

“It’s relentless, it really is, but as a football player, we love playing games of football and so when there is that number of games and it is Saturday Tuesday, that’s usually when I feel you get the best out of yourself because you’re in a rhythm, you free flowing and you know the games are coming thick and fast and that’s the most enjoyable part for us. As tough as it is physically and mentally, it’s our job, it’s what we get paid to do and it’s what we love, it’s a game that we all love.

“It’s a game that we all grew up wanting to play and we’re very, very fortunate and in a position that what we do it for our livelihood. It’s not a job because we enjoy it so much, that’s the nice side of being a footballer

Under Walter, City will operate a fairly unique brand of football, one that’s easy on the eye but with end product. Players will rotate throughout the system and you’re as likely to see Coyle in a left-wing position as you are in his traditional right-back role.

That unique brand of football is cavalier and it remains to be seen how it responds to the cutthroat nature of the Championship, but Coyle for one, is excited about the impact it can have.

“I think that’s almost an exciting thing because it’s so different, I think it will cause teams a lot of problems because it’s not exactly a style that has been seen a million times before,” he said. “It’s a very different style and it’s a very tough style to play against. Even in the three weeks that we’ve worked together with the new gaffer, in training when you start playing attack vs defence, it’s tricky to play against so no, I see it as very exciting, and I’m looking forward to seeing to seeing how it goes.”