Sunday 14 May 2017 15:48, UK
Hull City have been relegated - but there's every chance their impressive manager Marco Silva will still be working in the Premier League next season, writes Peter Smith.
A 4-0 thrashing at Crystal Palace condemned Hull to an immediate return to the Championship but the fact their fate wasn't decided until the penultimate weekend of the campaign is testament to Silva's work since his mid-season arrival.
Hull have been up against it from the start this season. They were without a manager when Steve Bruce resigned in late July and had just nine fit senior players at the start of August. Curtis Davies' tongue-in-cheek tweet from their pre-season tour to Austria summed up the dire situation.
Bruce's replacement, Mike Phelan, oversaw an admirable start and even picked up the August manager of the month prize, but the season went downhill from there and he was sacked at the start of January with Hull bottom of the league and three points from safety.
Silva - a relatively unknown quantity on these shores at the time of his appointment, despite success in Portugal and Greece - said in his first press conference the team would need a "miracle" to survive.
The subsequent sale of key players Robert Snodgrass and Jake Livermore, followed by a season-ending head injury for record signing Ryan Mason, left Hull in even worse shape. But Silva was determined to make an impact.
He hurriedly brought in eight January signings - including loanees Lazar Markovic and Oumar Niasse, players rejected by their parent clubs who he'd squeeze performances from - and made changes to nutrition and training.
The turnaround was remarkable. Six wins in his first seven Premier League home games, including a shock 2-0 triumph over Champions League-chasing Liverpool, plus away day draws at Manchester United and Southampton, lifted Hull out of the relegation zone.
Two points clear of third-bottom Swansea with three to play, the great escape looked on.
That was until, out of nowhere, Hull produced a wretched performance at the KCOM Stadium last Saturday against already relegated Sunderland. The 2-0 defeat was a hammer blow to those survival hopes. An inspired Swansea capitalised with an impressive 1-0 win over Everton in south Wales.
When Paul Clement's men backed up that result with victory over Sunderland this weekend, Hull's number seemed to be up. If Crystal Palace didn't do for them, surely Tottenham on the final day would.
In the end, it was Sam Allardyce's Palace - who had to secure their own Premier League status - who sealed Hull's fate.
An individual error from Andrea Ranocchia just three minutes in left Hull with an uphill battle before unmarked Christian Benteke powered in a second from a corner.
Hull's limitations were exposed as they failed to break down a Palace team content to sit back and they were eventually undone on the break, with a Luka Milivojevic penalty and Patrick van Aanholt finish rubbing salt in the wounds.
The attention now turns to the future. Silva has a clause in his contract which releases him from his 18-month Hull City deal in the event of relegation. With newspaper reports claiming Southampton, Watford and West Ham could be lining up a move, it seems unlikely he'll spend 2017/18 in the Championship.
Silva's work at Hull City alone would warrant attention from top-tier suitors. He's united a divided club, after fans boycotted his first game in charge in protest at owner Assem Allam, shown his tactical ability to upset some of the country's top teams and put his man management skills to use by eking impressive performances out of players written off as not good enough.
It seems like Silva's destiny is set in terms of getting a big job in the Premier League.
But Silva's CV also includes taking second tier Portuguese club Estoril into the top flight and into Europe, winning Sporting Lisbon the domestic cup, their first major trophy in seven years, and dominating the Greek league with Olympiakos, where he also secured a Champions League win away to Arsenal.
He has developed clubs and taken them to new heights, he has won silverware at historically successful sides. With Hull City, he's shown he can deliver results in the face of adversity and with limited resources. "It seems like Silva's destiny is set in terms of getting a big job in the Premier League," Gary Neville said on Monday Night Football.
Silva's Hull players may be sliding out of the Premier League, but his reputation is on the rise. He'll be a sought after manager this summer.
