Will Jakirovic follow PSG's 'blueprint'?

PASS, PASS FOOTBALL COULD BE OUT OF FASHION

- By BARRY COOPER

PSG's thumping 5-0 record-breaking win over Inter Milan in the Champions League final was a great result for the football purist, in so many ways.

Yes, the Gulf-owned club have spent fortunes over the past few years trying, and failing, to win Europe's most coveted prize, and there's plenty to be said about the state-funded nature of that bankrolling coupled with Qatar's well-documented issues.

But, let's be honest, we've all got bored with modern football.

The way the whole game is now sanitised, from the actual product on the field to the way supporters are treated by clubs and the authorities - that's a story for another day.

At Hull City, we've seen it at close quarters in recent seasons. Managers so wedded to their philosophies that they cannot deviate from their own beliefs that what they do is the only way forward.

Pass, pass, pass and if in doubt, pass again. Usually, playing hundreds of passes before they're allowed to break the halfway line and then a rule where every player has to touch it 25 times before anybody can have a shot. And that shot, based on the XG of shooting at goal, must come from a very specific blade of grass on the pitch at a certain time in the game and only when a specific player gets it.

Of course, I'm being a tad facetious there, but the principle of what we're seeing now is similar.