Phil Brown loves the spotlight but must get results to stay there

By Mark Lawrenson

Published 06:06 26/09/09

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Phil Brown is facing the biggest month of his managerial career.

Brown loved being in the spotlight last season and it’s fair to say that he would be a member of his own fan club.

From his half time team talk on the pitch at Manchester City to picking up the microphone on the final day after Hull stayed up, Brown loves the attention.

Brown is unbelievably media friendly which is great. But the trouble is, you have to be able to carry it off by getting results as well and Hull’s have gone down the pan.

You can only think that Hull will get beaten again at Liverpool and then it’s just a question of whether the chairman Paul Duffen believes his manager can turn it round and whether the cash is there to do it in January.

If you take last season, turn it on its head and imagine Hull had made an awful start and then finished with a great run then Brown would be considered a managerial genius.

But the reverse happened. Amazing start and then awful finish. That’s what people remember and yet the objective at the start of the season was to keep Hull in the Premier League. Mission accomplished.

Trouble is, in the summer Hull couldn’t attract the players they wanted - like Darren Bent, for example - because people saw the way they finished and put them down as relegation candidates.

Sadly, I think Hull will go down this season. They have lost Michael Turner, sold to Sunderland, and the defence - albeit they lost heavily with him in the team - has been store detective ever since: all over the shop.

So it’s hard to see how Hull are going to turn it round. The chairman has also gone quiet whereas - just like Brown - when results were going well last season he was milking it for all its worth.

But when the team wins it’s all about the team. When you lose, the manager has to take his share of the blame. Does Brown see it like that? That’s the way it should be with managers though.

It’s easy to say that Hull need to get back to hard work and doing what they do best.

But the players who were outstanding last season have disappeared, either sold, injured or horribly out of form.

That’s when you need big characters. When the chips are down. Who is the big player to save Hull now? Turner was a rock for them and yet now he’s gone too.

They are struggling for confidence and the defeat to Everton in the Carling Cup only highlighted the problems facing Phil Brown.

Hull are not scoring goals at one end and letting them in at the other. At the moment, this team is simply not working.

I’m not expecting him to go away and hide from the public spotlight. But it’s like he can’t help himself at times.

Appearing on TV shows with a pink jumper round his shoulders. Not a good look when a shirt would do.

It’s just those little things that make you think he enjoys the spotlight too much. The karaoke on the pitch on the final day was the crowning glory. They’d just lost at home, had a lucky escape - and he’s still singing!

It may have been better to thank the fans, admit it was a close shave and hope for better things next season.

Brown deserves huge respect for the job that he’s done. But the next few results will define him as a manager and for what he’s remembered as at Hull.

If Brown can pull Hull out of the mire then let’s hope he goes from strength to strength, learns from the past and sticks to what he’s obviously good at - football management.

Don’t forget he’s taken an unfashionable football club into the Premier League and kept them there. In another season, he’d be getting Manager of the Year. Certainly, if they’d finished like they’d started.

However, if results don’t improve then Brown may be remembered as the karaoke singing manager and for his half time team talk on the pitch at Manchester City.

And, quite frankly, those are two incidents any other manager would want to forget and it would be sad to be remembered just for that.

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