The best of times, the worst of times: A tale of Hull City under the Allams

After the takeover of Hull City by Turkish media mogul Acun Ilicali, Calendar's sports reporter Chris Dawkes reflects on the controversial 11-year reign of the Allam family.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. A tale of Hull City under the Allams.

I’ve visited Assem Allam at his business offices in Melton, just west of Hull, on numerous occasions. I’ve always been made to feel welcome.

From Jean on reception, to the man himself. Nothing is ever too much trouble. And the Lindt chocolates on offer in his office, which offers panoramic views across East Yorkshire, always make it an appealing journey.

Assem Allam is charming, courteous, warm. It was always hard to marry up the man sitting in front of me with the venom and bile he elicits from some members of the Hull City support.

Maybe telling those fans they can "die if they want to" didn’t foster amicable relations between the two, but I’ve always thought that was an ill-thought out attempt at clever word play from Allam in response to the fans' chant of "City till I die".

We’re getting ahead of ourselves though. Let’s go back to the start, when Assem Allam rode into what is now the MKM stadium on a white horse and extolling philanthropic virtues about saving the club from impending administration as a goodwill gesture to the city which had given him so much.

Let’s not forget this is a man who escaped an oppressive regime in Egypt with £5 in his pocket, and who ended up a millionaire in the most unlikely of places, creating hundreds of jobs for a city still recovering from the decline of the local fishing industry.

Hull City the football club was on its knees when Allam rescued it from oblivion in 2010.

Less than three years later and, thanks to the astute appointment of Steve Bruce as manager, Hull were promoted to the Premier League for only the second time in their history.

A year later and there was a first FA Cup final and a first, albeit brief, European adventure.

The club was not only off its knees – the place was jumping. That’s when it all went wrong.

Or rather it went wrong the summer after promotion when Allam made the decision he wasn’t prepared to continue ploughing money into the club. They were now in the Premier League, with the untold riches that brought.

Yet chasing promotion had come at a cost and Allam felt the only way to make the club self-sustainable was by marketing Hull City abroad. Sensible.

What lacked sense were his methods. Allam felt "City" was too common a title. Tigers - the club's nickname - though, now that’s an image the world can get on board with.

Hull Tigers was never going to wash with the people that really mattered though – the fans.

They rallied, protested, chanted. Allam wouldn’t budge. He was wedded to the idea. In his view, this was the only way the club could achieve his ambition of self-sustainability.

But the FA rejected the name change proposal. Allam put the club up for sale. That was eight years ago and the relationship between owner and fan has never recovered.

Another promotion to the Premier League was delivered by Bruce in 2016 although for many the victory felt hollow.

I remember sitting on a train back to Yorkshire sat amongst victorious Hull fans and supporters of playoff losers Sheffield Wednesday. On that journey you’d never have known which team had just won promotion, such was the level of ambivalence.

Two relegations and another promotion later and the Allams have finally sold up.

For all the success on the pitch and his initial gesture of goodwill, Allam could have remained at the club in the form of a bronze statue outside the stadium. Sadly the name change controversy put paid to that.Allam once told me that Massimo Cellino offered him the chance to buy Leeds United. He said he never even considered it. Hull was the only football club he’d ever own. Because Hull was the only city he truly cared for.

Allam always said he wasn’t a football man. He was a business man. To succeed and earn popularity perhaps you need to be a bit of both.Assem Allam’s intentions were honourable, his methods certainly questionable.