Saviour?

There is a plaque on the wall of the main reception of the KC Stadium which was unveiled as a lasting tribute to Adam Pearson's work for Hull City after he left the club.

Now this greatest of great men is back.

It was hardly a secret, even though everyone involved at Hull City followed stringent embargo instructions until the official statement was released this morning. For the second time in a decade, he is striding into the club to make sure it stays alive.

Immediately, we also know that Phil Brown remains the manager. The fixture list is kind to the Tigers in that as Pearson sets about analysing where the restructuring of the club is most required, there is an international break imminent. Once this weekend's televised game against Stoke City at the KC is complete, then there are two weeks of furrowed brows and long, caffeine-powered meetings to be had as the new, austere era of the Tigers is mapped out.

Brown needs to beat Stoke to save his job, however. He might need to beat them conclusively, too. Nobody has said this in so many words but defeat to a side who have adapted to the Premier League so brilliantly, in a sharp and uncomfortable contrast to the Tigers' own time in the top tier, would be too hard to swallow. Stoke came up at the same time as the Tigers and have stuck to their principles, spent wisely, stayed together, eschewed the criticism and have not sought to inhale all of publicity's oxygen supply. And with feelings between the two sets of fans not at their most loving, it allows them a good laugh at our expense too.

And yet even a conclusive win still might not be enough.

Pearson appointed Brown just before Christmas in 2006 and relinquished control of the club six months later. Another two and a bit years have passed and he is back at a very different Hull City. The dreams he kickstarted have been fulfilled by others, but the prudence and means-testing he insisted upon during the club's quick but manageable progress under his stewardship has been flung aside. He has to find a way to cut costs - ie, sorting out a mighty wage bill, the size of which is not justified by the level of talent it recompenses - while also making sure that current and missing ingredients to Premier League survival are in place as a collective as soon as possible.

And one of those ingredients is a manager who can provide the inspiration and nurture to doughty, middle of the range footballers to perform above themselves. This is what Stoke are still doing right now. But here, Brown can't do that any more. He has taken on a persona so grand that good players, albeit limited ones, are being cast aside or sent out on loan for not falling under his spell enough. He has lost some of his nerve when using real quality on the pitch and is astonishingly negative in games where winning is both necessary and possible.

Pearson and Brown get on fine. Pearson appointed Brown to keep the Tigers in the Championship and that was exactly what he did, although his long-term mandate for progress to the Premier League was drawn up by Paul Duffen after Pearson sold up. The two men have no secrets and no professional tension.

But Pearson is how a chairman has to be, ruthless in his decisions and absent from the screen when it comes to his own ego. He was never self-protective during his first spell at the helm but always got prickly and argumentative if Hull City as a business was given a bad press. Criticise him, fine. Criticise the club and you were on shaky ground. The local newspaper suffered from this with some frequency.

He has similarly a scarce need for self-survival when dealing with failing managers, readily taking his share of the blame for appointing men whom he then needed (rightly) to sack three months later. This happened twice, and neither were up to the task. Pearson got rid with regret for them and himself but none whatsoever for the club as he had got the decision right, correcting his own mistakes in doing so and taking his share of responsibility. So, irrespective of what happens against Stoke, it will come as no surprise if Pearson warmly shakes Brown's hand the next morning while chillingly pulling a severance cheque out of his back pocket at the same time.

Brown may well see this coming. Pearson has offered only a qualified assurance in public, stating that Brown will take training and select the squad for Stoke's visit on Sunday. He also, however, claims to be unable to make any big decisions until he has looked at the books and generally taken in the state of the club he rebuilt from (almost literally) nothing. He has time to do this with reasonable thoroughness thanks to the break in fixtures and if Brown has to go after the Stoke game, there will be ample time to get his successor appointed and on the training ground in good time for West Ham United's visit to the KC on November 21st.

What Pearson has said to Brown in private we'll never know. Brown's comment after defeat to Burnley on Saturday -that he expects to be in charge of Hull City in the Premier League next season - sounded like a hollow spot of bravado. You can't blame Brown (on this occasion) for talking himself up because his security blanket has gone from the boardroom and replaced by someone who will back the right man all the way but quickly jettison the wrong one, putting personal relationships firmly to the side. Brown has to prove himself as the right man all over again, but with Pearson needing to cut costs and possessing the attitude that the fans matter most in all this, the manager may not have time to do that.

Meanwhile, this week Brown remains with his squad and Pearson can begin his second grand plan for Hull City. His record when it comes to running the club, financially and structurally, is immaculate, and that he is a rare hero of the Tigers' boardroom (the three regimes that preceded him when he took over eight years ago were one of incompetent, spiteful or bent) will guarantee him the unconditional trust of every City supporter, whatever he decides to do. What will be will be.