It seems that Phil Brown has again exchanged harsh words with one of his players and, as ever, it is the player who will suffer.
There were a handful of victims of Brown's sharp tongue in the Championship, and since elevation he has already fallen out with Wayne Brown, Marlon King, Dean Windass and Caleb Folan, while Sam Ricketts offered a disparaging remark or two about his ex-boss after being sold to Bolton Wanderers.
Now it's Craig Fagan whose dummy has been forcibly extricated from his lips following a disagreement with his manager. Brown wasn't happy, and very rightly, with Fagan's performance and attitude at Sunderland recently and said so. Fagan appears to have contradicted this viewpoint and now rumours of a hastily-arranged loan deal out of the club (like Folan's rapid relocation to Middlesbrough a fortnight ago) have reared.
Fagan is a very chippy, belligerent character and Brown will have known that he would likely be less than enamoured about the criticism he took, publicly and privately, following the debacle at Sunderland. You can imagine just how blue the air would have been in Brown's office after Fagan arrived for a showdown with a manager not prone to holding back on his opinions. Brown has been misguided in some of his public slamming of his players of late, but as far as Fagan is concerned, admonishment was entirely justified, because the player was truly awful. It was, without any nod towards exaggeration, one of the worst individual displays from a City player, made all the more upsetting by the importance of the occasion (the debut of Michael Turner at his new club) and the known talent of Fagan.
There is a general admiration for Fagan among the Tiger Nation because when he's good, he can be truly superb. In League One's dying months, his first few at the club after signing at deadline time for Peter Taylor, he was sometimes unplayable. In the first Championship season he settled down and, at times, scored vital goals and made a telling contribution. Knowing his star was increasing, he held off from the offer on the table a season on and left for Derby County and a mega profit for the Tigers after a New Year's Day draw at Sheffield Wednesday.
He instantly won promotion at Wembley with the Rams but largely failed at a club that was a failure as an entity, and soon returned on loan to the KC, in amber boots, just in time to make a very peripheral contribution to another play-off triumph, sneaking himself more Wembley time as a substitute. News of his lack of fitness through injury came through as part-justification for his mid-range form, and eyebrows were raised but eggs not thrown when City chose to make his return permanent.
Last season, Fagan had some truly superb games - Chelsea away leaps to mind, when he led the line alone with professionalism, pace and immeasurable stamina - and tucked away three goals, one of which was the equaliser at Bolton that ultimately provided the solitary point that made the difference between survival and relegation. He also was down on his luck thanks to the broken leg suffered at Newcastle United courtesy of a bit of frustrated thuggishness from Danny Guthrie, which kept Fagan out of action for nearly three months.
However, for all the good things Fagan represents, he has a truly dark side to his nature and game too. He is predominantly a centre forward who has never been able to be even mildly prolific in front of goal, possessing a poor first touch and needing half a dozen chances to score before getting one on target. Taylor recognised this weakness in the Championship and, still wishing to use Fagan's deadly pace, planted him on the right wing. Fagan whined too loudly for Taylor's liking on one occasion - a home game with Coventry City which the visitors won - and was dropped entirely from the squad, forcing Taylor to play Kevin Ellison on the right, despite his being the most left-footed player in the history of football.
Yet the managers have been proved right on Fagan's weakness down the centre as the years have passed, and it is as a winger he has played most of his football over the last four years. He isn't a proficient crosser of the ball but when on his game (a crucial caveat, as he isn't on his game anywhere near enough) he can give any full back the runaround, leaving the Tiger Nation praying each time that his end product upon freedom from his marker would be any good.
Fagan makes daft errors, loses the ball too easily and is constantly sniping at referees and opponents, getting himself into trouble when it is never really necessary. His character weaknesses can be his strengths if he can transfer his negative energy in a positive manner, such as the "up yours" attitude he took into the Chelsea game last year that resulted in a superb line-leading display that was spoiled only by his lack of finishing prowess when given a gilt-edged chance with just Hilario to beat in the second half. The problem is that he is far more likely to use the chip on his shoulder to trouble himself rather than his adversaries.
The Sunderland game seems to have been the final straw for both Fagan, who appears to have had a blazing row with Brown, and the manager himself, who has not been quick to deny the strengthening rumours of a rift with the player. Fagan has not made the 18 on duty for any of the three Premier League games since, and even only sat on the bench when Brown gave the second-stringers their night against Everton in the Carling Cup. So angry was Brown, it appears, that Fagan stayed there all game even though injections of pace, experience, bluster, anything, were required as the visitors ambled to a 4-0 win.
Fagan's handball in his own box while unchallenged led to Sunderland's early penalty at the Stadium of Light, and although City equalised before the break, the game was a disjointed affair for both team and Fagan individually, and he was withdrawn after a messy and ill-disciplined display before even the hour mark had passed.
It would be a shame, but not surprising, if a woeful display by Fagan turns out to be his City swansong. His doubters and detractors have always outweighed his admirers, even though his admirers have every reason to talk up their man. Nothing, it would seem, would become Fagan's career with Hull City quite as much as the nature of his impending exit.
.jpg)
