Jakirovic Makes History as Hull City’s Manager of the Month
Sergej Jakirovic has turned Hull City’s Premier League return into a statement, and now he has the award to prove it.
The 49-year-old has been named Barclays Manager of the Month for August after guiding the newly promoted Tigers to a perfect start: two games, two wins, no goals conceded. For a club back in the top flight after nine long years, it feels like a jolt of electricity.
This is not a routine gong. Jakirovic becomes only the third Hull manager ever to claim the prize, following Phil Brown in September 2008 and Mike Phelan in August 2016. He also steps into the record books as the first Bosnian to win the award, adding his country to a list that now stretches to 21 different nationalities on the Premier League touchline honours board.
Hull arrived this season through the tension and chaos of the Championship playoffs, a route that often leaves promoted sides emotionally drained before a ball is even kicked in the top division. Jakirovic has flipped that narrative. He has ridden the momentum instead of fearing the step up.
The tone of Hull’s campaign changed on the opening weekend. At the first time of asking, Jakirovic sent his team out to face Manchester United and they didn’t just survive the occasion, they owned it. Hull produced a sensational 2-0 victory, a result that echoed far beyond the city and announced their return with a roar rather than a whisper.
That alone would have been enough to turn heads. But the real test for any promoted side is what happens after the big scalp, when the adrenaline fades and the grind begins.
The answer came against Coventry City, another of the season’s newcomers. It was tight, nervy, the kind of match that often exposes fragile belief. Hull didn’t blink. They edged it with a late winner, the sort of moment that hints at resilience as much as quality.
Two games, six points, and a manager standing at the centre of it all, shaping a squad that has leapt from playoff tension to Premier League poise.
For Jakirovic, the personal milestones will be noted and then quickly parked. For Hull, the implications run deeper. A promoted side with an unbeaten start, a historic award on the manager’s shelf, and the sense that this is more than just an early-season surge.
The Premier League has seen Hull City before. Under Jakirovic, it may be about to see a very different version.
