Acun Ilicali sacks Pedro Martins warning as Hull City continue talks with Tim Walter

Hull City owner Acun Ilicali remains hopeful of completing a deal to see Tim Walter become the Tigers’ new head coach within the next week, but has warned fans it is not yet done.

Ilicali have been locked in talks with the German in the days since Liam Rosenior was sacked, holding meetings on Zoom as well as in person in Munich and Monaco, and are keen to bring in the former head coach from Stuttgart and Hamburg.

Despite being close to completing a deal for Walter to take over at the MKM Stadium, Ilicali tried to calm expectations before the ink on the contract dried, having been burnt before.

READ MORE: Tim Walter at Hull City as Tigers continue talks with ex-Hamburg boss

The Turkish businessman believed he had a deal in place to see Pedro Martins take over from Shota Arveladze in October 2022, ahead of Rosenior’s appointment a month later. The Portuguese has verbally agreed terms and was even at the MKM Stadium to see Andy Dawson’s inner-city City beat Wigan Athletic 2-1 after being at the training ground earlier in the day.

Despite agreeing terms with Martins and his agent, the former Olympiacos head coach returned to Portugal with the expectation of collecting a few personal belongings before returning to be unveiled and train at the training ground of the Cottingham club, just to make a comeback. and move to Al Gharafa in Qatar, and after going through that experience, Ilicali says he won’t take anything for granted.

“One of the things I’ve experienced as an owner – the Portuguese, Pedro Martins, we shook hands, then someone messed with his mind and he went to Arabia,” the City boss said at a fan Q&A event. “I think money was the reason at the time. I was glad he didn’t come to us because someone would have preferred the money in his career to go to Arabia at that time and not challenge for the Premier League, I think we’re not on the same page from the first minute.

“For me, I won’t be disappointed at all. It’s a good indication that we’re not on the same page. I respect him, he (Martins) can go and work there of course, no disrespect. At our club, we need a fighter and a fighter (Walter) will most likely come.”

Ilicali remains “95 per cent” sure Walter will agree to become City’s new head coach in the coming days, having already assessed the squad, but remains wary of going overboard.

“If everything goes well, there is a chance – next week is our target, hopefully we will finish,” he continued. “Don’t think that everything is done, if everything goes well like this (we will complete). We went through many obstacles, other clubs are interested in him so we talked to him about our plans, he was very happy.

“He checked our squad and he came to us saying that this team has very good players. The loans – he knows which ones will go, but the permanent ones are very good, he said, which is very optimistic. With the new recruitment, the mind his. on football, the recruitment will be done entirely on the basis of his approval”.

After falling out with Rosenior over transfer activity this season, Ilicali says recruitment will be led by the club’s transfer committee, but with the manager having a key input on the pursuit of a target.

“I want to mention something; I will never let any coach do recruiting because I have full experience that recruiting coaches is always problematic,” he explained. “You will find the player, the coach will approve him and say yes, I want him and then you will get him.

“Coaches are so focused on their team that they don’t have time to compare a few players in their world. We have a 10-man recruiting team that travels all over the world, Europe and Africa, watching a player. live five times .How can your coach be followed by our recruiting team, we will ask the coach “do you like it”, then we will finish (the hill).