Hull had a second brief stay in the top flight and despite fighting hard until the very end the Tigers were relegated again. In the summer Steve Bruce left with a scandal just two weeks before the start of the new season, he was denied a transfer budget by the owners who are still trying to sell the club, his assistant Mike Phelan was in charge for the opening two games on an interim bases. Hull looked badly prepared for the start of the campaign with just 15 senior field players, but somehow Phelan achieved back-to-back wins and landed the permanent job as manager.
This proved to be a rushed and very wrong decision though as Phelan definitely used outage tactics and formations, which saw Hull winning just one more game in the next 18 rounds. However, the Tigers reached the League Cup semi-finals in the autumn and it was only this good run in the side competition that kept Phelan in the job. On top of the small squad Hull had three players that spent the entire campaign sidelined, plus four more joined them on the long-term injury list from very early on.
The patience with Phelan expired after the first week of 2017 and he was sacked only for Marco Silva to take charge. Hull were in deep trouble as the new gaffer arrived, but very quickly he showed good management and added serious depth and class to the squad with seven new signings, five of which were quality players that became regulars. The Tigers played poorly on the road all season, their only away win of the campaign was achieved in round 2, but Silva turned the home ground into a fortress and thanks to 19 points collected from 21 on offer at home Hull jumped out of the relegation zone in April.
The gaffer was pleased that all of his winter signings Ranocchia, N’Diaye, Niasse, Grosicki and Markovic were playing very well in the spring and when beating Watford 2:0 at home in round 34 Hull looked to be safe as they had a four-point lead over the drop zone. Unfortunately the key match that changed everything came in the penultimate home fixture when an inexplicably poor display from everyone saw Hull suffering their first home defeat under Silva when the already relegated Sunderland beat them 2:0. This defeat saw Hull collapsing back in the bottom three with a must-win away clash vs. Palace coming next, but the confidence was squeezed out of the players and they lost 0:4 in London to suffer relegation even before the last game was played.
