Hull vs West Ham: 5 Reasons Why Tigers Can Pull Off An Upset

4. Steve Bruce

Hull have themselves a manager with a wealth of Premier League experience in Steve Bruce. Many will know Bruce from his time at Manchester United where he captained Sir Alex Ferguson's side to victory in a score of competitions, however he also had good spells with Gillingham and Norwich prior to this. Since hanging up his boots he has had a very solid managerial career taking both Birmingham and his current club from the Championship to the Premier League. Ignoring a poor spell at Sunderland (with a dismal win ratio of 29%) he has fared rather well at the teams he has had the opportunity to manage, keeping Wigan in the top flight for two seasons prior to Martinez taking over and won over 100 games whilst in charge of Birmingham over a 6 year span. Bruce makes sure his teams play good, honest football which is an attraction in the modern day where until recently with the likes of Southampton, Norwich and Swansea, promoted teams sat back and played for draws in most of their games. In the rare examples of teams 'going for it' in the first season up, the likes of Blackpool and West Brom (under Mowbray) were often butchered home or away and didn't survive the drop the next year. Hull have a very good 50% win ratio under Bruce which will hopefully stand him in good stead for the coming season and in the northern battle this weekend.