Friday 2 September 2016 13:13, UK
Curtis Davies says he would "100 per cent" back Mike Phelan to take the Hull City job on a permanent basis following their excellent start to the season.
The club endured a summer of uncertainty with former boss Steve Bruce resigning, a pre-season being taken with a threadbare squad and continued questions over the owners' future.
Things have improved since then with caretaker Phelan guiding the side to two Premier League wins from two, including a season opener against champions Leicester, before a last minute defeat to Manchester United, as well as the squad being bolstered with new signings.
However, while Davies admitted that it was a shock to see Bruce leave the KCOM Stadium, he would like to see Phelan carry on his work at the club.
"It was a shock, I wasn't actually there the day that the manager left. The day before the manager actually pulled me aside and told me to rally the troops and make sure they knew he was going to try his best to get players in," he told Sky Sports News HQ.
"Obviously my phone was going ballistic and I found out the manager had gone. It wasn't nice, the grass isn't always greener on the other side and I was sad to see him go.
"It was just the fact that I had spoken to the manager after training the day before and he said he was going for his meeting to try and get us some help, as he said. It was frustrating that meeting went downhill and ended up with the manager leaving his post.
"I think the continuation [of Phelan] has been a big thing. He obviously takes the training, he has been our first team coach for a year-and-a-half now and the fact that he has continued with that, he has kept his style going and also he has brought a relaxed mentality to us.
"I think early on in this we didn't know whether he was going to get the job or not, whether he was going to be here for a couple of days, a week - it is looking more likely that he is going to take the job."
Asked if he would give that his full endorsement, Davies said: "100 per cent, because he has been relaxed with us, the way we have played we have tried to be positive, we have tried to go into games to try and win."
Davies has been instrumental in Hull's positive start to the season, and has been nominated, along with Raheem Sterling, Eden Hazard and Antonio Valencia, for the Premier League's Player of the Month award for August.
"I think it was actually playing in all the pre-season games," he said. "I played in seven pre-season games, which obviously takes it out of your legs and maybe along the line I might regret that but, because we had no one, I had to play seven pre-season games therefore I was match-fit. That's what has helped me hit the ground running this season and my form has been OK.
"It is good, the way they do it this year captains and managers pick it [monthly awards] so, obviously, to be nominated for that award is a big thing. I always like to do what I can to help the team and they have helped me along the way and Mike Phelan has been key to the way we have started the season."
While pre-season has helped Davies start the campaign on the front foot, he also used it to simultaneously show the togetherness of the thin squad and poke a little fun at the situation at the time, sending out a picture on Twitter with eight of his team-mates, captioned "Hull City squad photo 2016/17".
He added: "We had a day out, a break basically from training where we went up the mountain, did some tobogganing and saw someone and asked if they could take a picture and as a laugh we thought we'd do a proper photo formation and after we all tweeted the picture and I've put it up as an actual squad photo.
"It is just one of those things, at the time it was a bit of doom and gloom with what's happening with the club, and it was just to put a little bit of a smile on the fans' faces and let them know at least we are here and we are ready for the fight."
Hull showed that fight in their 2-1 win over Leicester, despite having just 13 senior fit players going into the Premier League season opener and Davies says, despite their good start, avoiding relegation is still the priority.
"It's a very close squad, I've said on numerous occasions it is a close squad anyway, whether we have 24 senior fit players or the 13 we had, we are very close," he said. "When we had the huddle [before the game] we said this is all we've got but I wouldn't want to go to war with 10 other players other than you lot."
