Hull City's Premier League Years — A Complete Season-by-Season Guide
Hull City's relationship with the Premier League has been brief, dramatic, and unforgettable. Three separate spells in the top flight produced some of the greatest moments in the club's history, alongside some of the most painful. This is the complete story of Hull City in the Premier League.
The Road to the Promised Land (2007/08)
To understand what the Premier League meant to Hull City, you need to understand what came before. This was a club that had never played top flight football in over a century of existence. Hull City were a byword for unglamorous lower league football. The idea of playing in the same division as Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool was genuinely laughable.
Phil Brown's squad changed that. The 2007/08 Championship season saw Hull City play with a fearlessness that belied their budget and reputation. Key players included Dean Windass, who at thirty eight years old was playing the best football of his career, Fraizer Campbell on loan from Manchester United, and a squad of honest professionals who refused to accept their supposed limitations.
The playoff campaign was nerve shredding. The semi final against Watford went to penalties and Hull progressed. The final at Wembley against Bristol City produced one of the most iconic moments in English football history. Dean Windass, born and raised in Hull, volleyed the only goal of the game to send his hometown club to the Premier League for the first time. A local lad scoring the goal that changed everything. Football doesn't write better stories than that.
Season One: 2008/09 — The Dream
Hull City's first ever Premier League season remains the most extraordinary chapter in the club's history. The opening day, 16 August 2008, saw Hull host Fulham at the KC Stadium. The ground was sold out. The atmosphere was electric. Hull won. The Premier League adventure had begun.
But the real statement came on the second matchday. Hull City travelled to Arsenal's Emirates Stadium and won one nil through a stunning long range strike from Geovanni. The Brazilian midfielder produced one of the Premier League goals of the season, curling a shot into the top corner that left the Emirates in stunned silence. It was the moment Hull City announced themselves to the footballing world.
What followed was surreal. Hull City won five of their first seven Premier League matches. By early November they sat third in the table. Third. Hull City. In the Premier League. Above Chelsea, above Liverpool, above almost everyone. The national media couldn't believe it. Hull fans couldn't believe it. The rest of English football looked on in a mixture of confusion and admiration.
The dream inevitably faded. Results declined through the winter months and the squad's lack of Premier League experience began to show. Phil Brown's increasingly erratic behaviour, culminating in the infamous touchline team talk at Manchester City where he addressed his players on the pitch at half time, contributed to a loss of dressing room confidence.
Hull survived relegation on the final day of the season, finishing seventeenth. The dream had been preserved, but only just. The final third of the season was a grim struggle that bore no resemblance to the joyous opening months. Still, survival was the objective and survival was achieved. For a newly promoted club with one of the smallest budgets in the division, that represented success.
Season Two: 2009/10 — The Fall
The second Premier League season was a painful correction. Phil Brown was sacked in March 2010 and replaced by Iain Dowie, whose brief and unsuccessful tenure did little to arrest the decline. Hull City were relegated with a whimper, finishing bottom of the table.
The magic of the first season had evaporated completely. The squad was weaker, the manager had lost the dressing room, and the confidence that had driven those early victories was replaced by anxiety and fear. Hull City looked like a club that had been found out. The Premier League party was over and the hangover was severe.
Season Three: 2013/14 — The Cup Run
Steve Bruce brought Hull City back to the Premier League via the Championship playoffs in 2013. This time the squad was better prepared for the challenge. Bruce knew the division intimately and built a team capable of competing rather than merely surviving.
The league campaign was solid. Hull finished sixteenth, five points clear of the relegation zone. Not spectacular, but comfortable. Job done.
The real story of 2013/14 was the FA Cup. Hull City's run to the final was the stuff of fairy tales. Victory after victory, each more improbable than the last, carried the Tigers all the way to Wembley. Their opponents in the final? Arsenal. Again.
What happened on 17 May 2014 will haunt Hull City supporters for the rest of their lives. James Chester headed Hull in front after four minutes. Curtis Davies made it two nil after eight minutes. Hull City were two goals up in an FA Cup Final. Against Arsenal. At Wembley. The trophy was within touching distance.
It slipped away. Santi Cazorla pulled one back with a free kick. Laurent Koscielny equalised with a scrambled goal. The momentum had shifted irreversibly. Aaron Ramsey scored the winner in extra time. Arsenal three, Hull City two. From dreamland to devastation in the space of ninety minutes.
The two nil lead that became a three two defeat remains the greatest what if in Hull City's history. For a club that had never won a major trophy, being two goals ahead in an FA Cup Final and losing is a wound that has never fully healed. Every Hull fan who was at Wembley that day carries the memory. The ecstasy of the first eight minutes. The creeping dread as Arsenal fought back. The final whistle and the hollow emptiness that followed.
Season Four: 2014/15 — Survival and Departure
Bruce kept Hull in the Premier League for a second season, but it was a struggle. The squad was stretched thin and the off pitch chaos surrounding the Allam family's attempts to rename the club to Hull Tigers created a poisonous atmosphere. Bruce departed in the summer of 2015, citing frustration with the ownership.
His replacement, Steve Bruce, had been the glue holding everything together. Without him, things fell apart quickly.
Season Five: 2016/17 — The Final Fling
Hull City returned to the Premier League once more in 2016, promoted via the playoffs under Steve Bruce who had returned for a second spell. However, Bruce left before the Premier League season began, replaced by Mike Phelan whose caretaker spell was eventually made permanent.
The 2016/17 season was defined by chaos. The squad was woefully thin, with the club failing to sign sufficient players during the summer transfer window. Phelan was replaced by Marco Silva in January 2017. Silva, a highly rated Portuguese coach, improved results significantly and briefly gave hope of survival. Victories over Liverpool, Southampton, and Swansea suggested that a Great Escape was possible.
It wasn't to be. Hull were relegated with two games to spare. Silva left immediately for Watford, taking his reputation with him but leaving Hull City to pick up the pieces. It was the third and, as of writing, final relegation from the Premier League.
The Premier League Legacy
Hull City's Premier League story is one of extraordinary highs and painful lows. Five seasons across three separate spells produced memories that will last generations. The Windass goal, Geovanni against Arsenal, the FA Cup Final, the improbable victories against clubs with ten times the budget. These moments defined what it meant to support Hull City during the most remarkable period in the club's history.
But the Premier League years also exposed the fragility of Hull City's position in the upper echelons of English football. Each promotion was followed by relegation within two seasons. The club never established itself as a permanent presence in the top flight. The gaps between the resources available to Hull and those available to established Premier League clubs were simply too wide to bridge sustainably.
The question that hangs over Hull City is whether there will be a fourth Premier League chapter. The infrastructure is there. The MKM Stadium is Premier League ready. The city is large enough to sustain a top flight club. The desire among the fanbase is obvious. What's needed is the sustained sporting competence to get there and, more importantly, to stay there.
Key Statistics
Total Premier League seasons: 5
Total Premier League matches: 190
Best finish: 16th (2013/14)
Worst finish: 20th (2009/10, 2016/17)
Most memorable moment: Dean Windass playoff final goal (2008) or 2-0 lead in FA Cup Final (2014)
Most painful moment: FA Cup Final defeat to
Arsenal (2014)
Top Premier League goalscorer: Nikica Jelavić (8 goals, 2014/15)
