The mood is surprisingly jovial given that Phil Brown must be acutely aware his scent has reached the pack of bloodhounds otherwise known as Fleet Street. Brown has always been good company, full of banter and levity. But there are definite glimpses of hurt, too – understandable considering the way his stock has fallen since those heady days when Hull City were threatening to become the story of the 2008–09 season and their manager was being talked about as one of the smarter guys in the business.
The change has been swift and brutal and when Hull had their weekly press conference on Thursday it was revealing that, after all the little one-liners and bonhomie, their manager ended it by asking whether he was going to be "stitched up". He was smiling at the time, but there was still the sense of a man under pressure. He did not recognise the Daily Telegraph correspondent and, at one point, peered at him inquisitively. "I bet you're not a big fan of Phil Brown, are you?" he asked.
Afterwards, he led the way to his office, a room dominated by a huge oak table and various portraits of the Humber bridge. On Wednesday, Brown had taken his players on a walk across it to get some "clarity".
"It is easier to talk when you are walking than when you are jogging," he said. Halfway across he gave them a team talk, but his most important words were reserved for a woman who was threatening to jump. "She was considering her future, shall we say," Brown says. "But we saved this girl. Sweet talk, you can say. In the end she tootled off back to wherever she had come from. I think she saw us and realised, 'OK, at least it's not that bad.'"
So he has not lost his sense of black comedy, even if Brown could be forgiven for feeling the strain going into today's game at home to a Wigan Athletic side fresh from beating Chelsea 3-1. Hull are second bottom, with four points from seven games and a goal difference of minus 13. In the corresponding fixture last season they lost 5‑0. "We need brave players," Brown says. "It's not a time for fear, it's a time for bravery. It's a time for people stepping up to the plate. We need players who can stand up and take the challenge." Later, though, he admits to feeling let down and "surprised" by the attitude of his senior players, or at least "certain ones", and has even taken the step of removing the dartboard from the players' lounge.
So, there is a tough question to be asked: does it feel like his 2½ years as manager is in danger of being brought to an end? "No, it doesn't, strangely enough," he replies, very matter-of-factly. "As far as I'm concerned, until I am told differently, no, I am not fighting for my job. And I'm still enjoying it, believe it or not."
Hull lost at Liverpool 6-1 last Saturday and, before that, 4-0 at home to Everton in the Carling Cup. Elements of the crowd have started to turn on the manager, but he is defiant. The dissenting voices, he says, come from people who have started supporting the club since he got them into the Premier League.
"It's very interesting. When you think about the fans who are doing it, I can understand it to a certain extent because two and a half years ago they probably weren't sitting in the stadium," he says. "They probably don't know the history of Hull and they have probably supported the club only for the last couple of years. In which case, they only know success and Premier League football."
Some people, in other words, have short memories. "I remember that, when I first came to the club [as a coach], Phil Parkinson got the sack after two games, one at Colchester when we were beaten 5‑1 and one against Southampton when we lost 4‑2. I took the job thinking, "How far can I take the club in a short space of time?' Well, the answer is there for everyone to see. At the time, we had an average crowd of 13,000 and 10,000 season-ticket holders. It's now 25,000 and 21,000 respectively. So maybe they [the supporters] are not prepared to give me time because all they have known is success."
The decline is frequently traced back to the 5‑1 thrashing at Manchester City on Boxing Day last year, when Brown remonstrated with his players on the pitch at half-time. Did he lose their respect? "It bores me getting asked about that now. It is boring. Listen, it was done for a reason. If I had lost the changing room I would have understood that. But I didn't."
Plus, he still feels he has the backing of most supporters. Brown considers himself an ambassador for Hull, regularly speaking up on behalf of a city that has some of the highest levels of deprivation in the country. He makes a point of having a pint with the locals. Or taking his players to Mrs B's, his favourite cafe.
He also talks of walking his players from the KC Stadium back to Boothferry Park to see the wreckage of their old ground. "The whole club was being closed down. There are people who still work for the club who can tell you what it was like. I wanted to give them [the players] an insight into the history of the club. There's an understanding required when you pull on a Hull City shirt, you see. You're not just playing for your living, you are playing for a club that is close to a lot of people's hearts, mine included. The players need to realise that."
And the idea to walk the Humber bridge? "The bridge was built with modern-day engineering and based on the fact that when an ill wind blows the bridge becomes stronger. The weight of the wind comes down and makes it sturdier." There is an analogy with the club, he told his players. "But I can also see others saying, 'What a load of shite that is.'"
The public perception of Brown has changed over the past year or so. At one point he was seen on television more than his namesake, Gordon. Since then he has been held up for mockery in some quarters. "I can't control it. People say I should become less high-profile, but what you see is what you get with me." Does it hurt? "No, it's just the nature of the game." Even though several of the papers now tipping him for the sack were touting him as a future England coach last season? "No," he says with another flash of that smile, "that was just me saying that."
His team have won only two of their last 29 league games and not scored two in a match since January. Nonetheless, he is encouraged by his strong relationship with the chairman Paul Duffen, in what he feels is an increasingly impatient industry. "Hats off to any manager these days who stays in a job longer than three years. Sir Alex Ferguson had an awful lot of problems in his first three years but he has been at Manchester United 23 years now, so maybe you have to go through these hard times to get to 10 or 11 years at one club. What I do know is there is still plenty to achieve at Hull. We just have to get through this sticky patch."
And if not? He does not want to contemplate that, but a bad October would almost certainly mean having to remove those pictures from his office walls, as well as the signed Diego Maradona shirt behind his desk. "I got that in an auction," he explains. He is laughing again. Maradona, he says, got one of his in return. "I think he wipes his arse with it."