What I learned from evening meal with Acun

IT'S NEVER DULL AT THE TIGERS

- By BARRY COOPER

Covering Hull City rarely gives you a chance to draw breath, and it’s been no different since the season finished at a club that doesn’t like to sleep.

The notion that things slow down a tad after the season finishes is not something that applies to the Tigers. If ever that point was true came back on Bank Holiday Monday, just hours after the season finished with Ruben Selles’ side sealing Championship safety.

While the rest of the EFL was drawing breath, City's skipper was in the news having been pictured topless in a street following an incident, and the head coach was on the cusp of losing his job, which he eventually did. Just one normal, quiet day is all we ask for. Most planned days off end up involving work of some sort, whether it is filing stories or taking phone calls from different sources, and this one followed a similar pattern, albeit with a very different outcome. Not a complaint in the slightest, merely the territory in a profession that demands almost 24/7, 365 availability.

Barely had the clock struck 9am on Wednesday, and the plans that had been put in place for a mundane day off were thrown into chaos. Hair cut, shopping, sort out washing and get a few bits done, especially with a rare family break on the horizon, were all placed on the back burner.

One phone call from the owner of the club and suddenly, a seat on the next train to London was booked, and we were off to the capital for a sit-down chat with Acun Ilicali.

The Tigers owner, it's fair to say, operates on his own timezone. ‘Acun time’ is what it's known as, and given the Turkish businessman is constantly flying between England, Turkey, the USA and Dominican Republic - for starters, it's perhaps not a surprise.