Despicable, pathetic ... and still here

Phil Brown did indeed get us promoted. And yes, we are only half a dozen games into the new season. Two statistics which Paul Duffen elected to quote when summarily dismissing Hull City supporters as "despicable" and "pathetic" this week as question marks get broader over the manager's continuing suitability for the job.

However, this is a selective use of history. While one doesn't choose to argue with facts of which the chairman seems to think we need reminding, there is one other stat gaping in between - three Premier League wins in 35 games.

Three wins in 35 Premier League games.

It isn't a lot, is it? It's not something to be proud of at all.

And, given that we are constantly told that the squad is strong enough, our best ever, a sign of an excellent investment strategy and all that, then it presumably isn't the fault of the players that our victory ratio is so damned chronic. They are our best ever, and let us not forget it. The club itself says so.

So where does the blame lie for three wins in 35 Premier League games? Or do the club think there is no blame at all? If nobody wishes to claim culpability, be it for themselves or on behalf of someone else, are we then saying that this dreadful record is somehow acceptable? Or to be expected?

Brown remains - just - the man for the job, as far as this blog is concerned. Many more claim not and you'd struggle to find an argument. But to suggest that he is somehow not at fault, that the supporters should be mushroomed and cast aside as extremists for daring to quote facts about the club's declining fortunes, shows a great deal of contempt for the paying public from Mr Duffen than anything a set of passionate fans can throw the way of highly-paid professional people in football.

Bloody hell, we thought the days of clashes between fans and chairmen had long gone. And yet Mr Duffen seems determined to pick fights with the Tiger Nation about anything. He has abandoned Away Direct and the Fans Liaison Committee (these were Adam Pearson innovations which were massively popular and useful - and there genuinely seemed to be no real reason to axe them) and sold Michael Turner for an amount of money he won't state, and now thinks we're "despicable" for daring to wonder if something is wrong in the coaching set-up after observing some real garbage on the park.

Mr Duffen is a salaried chairman, who has enjoyed and exploited the high profile his tenure has allowed him. We are paying City fans who saw the appalling football of the 1990s and, more pertinently, would watch it again should we ever sink back to that desperate level. Our guess is that Mr Duffen wouldn't. There is the difference, you see. He has done a fine job, but it is a mere job to him. We're in this emotionally forever, financially committed to supporting our club. Therefore when things are going awfully wrong, we are more entitled than anyone at all - that's anyone - to say so.

Meanwhile, Brown has to start picking a team to attack again. Liverpool at Anfield may be a total write-off and so all this blog hopes for is a respectable scoreline, which would hopefully befit a respectable performance. The treatment of fifteen quid a time fans with that abomination of selection and performance against Everton in the Carling Cup means that our manager, whatever he thinks of us right now, owes us big time. We'll still be here long after he and his mouthy chairman have gone, despicable lot that we are.