Robbie Earle: Adams act was masterstroke
MICKY ADAMS and Phil Brown are both managers who don't mind grabbing the headlines – but there's no doubt which one will fear the sharpened pencils this weekend.
Vale's Adams will find out whether he's won the League Two manager-of-the-month award, while Brown doesn't appear to know if he will still be Hull City boss on Monday.
Both are managers who enjoy the grand gesture, but their respective fortunes reflect the wisdom of their most memorable acts in charge.
For some people, Adams's headline-grabbing act of transfer listing the entire Vale squad fell into the same category of Brown infamously marching his players back on to the pitch for their half-time team talk at Manchester City on Boxing Day.
I never saw it that way.
Adams was a new man at the Vale, who used the so-called stunt after the 3-1 defeat at Notts County in September, as a way of letting his players know that he wasn't going to settle for the miserable standards they had set over the last two seasons.
They owed him performances more than he owed them respect.
It wasn't nice for the players, but Adams judged the mood.
Vale's seven games unbeaten since then show he got it spot on.
Whether or not he lands the Football League honour this month, he deserves huge credit for restoring belief to Vale fans who have suffered enough in the last couple of years.
In Brown's case, you didn't have to wait for results to see he'd made a major blunder at the City of Manchester Stadium.
The manager insists that had no effect on results. But I can only put myself in the position of the experienced Hull players... and there's no doubt I would have been hopping mad to be treated like that.
Some of the players humiliated on the pitch had helped Hull rise through the divisions, including Ian Ashbee, who had been with them since their League Two days.
They deserved more respect after helping Brown take Hull so far.
Had I been in their position, I would have been banging on the manager's door on the Monday, asking why he had treated honest pros like school kids.
That must have affected morale and played at least some part in the collapse in form which appears to have put the Hull boss on the brink of the sack.
However, that doesn't mean any of Hull's players won't be trying when they entertain Stoke on Sunday for what could be a make-or-break game for the boss.
Some players will like the manager, some won't, but players just don't set out to lose.
However, Hull's problems will work in Stoke's favour if Tony Pulis's side can make a decent start at the KC Stadium.
That doesn't mean Stoke will go gung-ho for an early goal. The pressure is going to build on the home side the longer the game stays 0-0.
If Hull are to stay up, they will look on a home game against Stoke as a match they should win, so expect the crowd and the players to become increasingly nervy if they don't take the lead.
Hull's new chairman Adam Pearson hasn't guaranteed Brown's future beyond this game.
Despite my criticism, I hope the manager survives, whatever the result.
He made a mistake at Manchester City, but overall, he should still be in credit for his work at the KC Stadium.
After all, he led an unfancied team to promotion from the Championship, and kept them in the Premier League last year.
There aren't many young English managers operating in the Premier League, and there aren't going to be if the likes of Brown aren't given a chance to learn from their mistakes.
His problem is the enormous pressure on the Hull board to keep the club in the Premier League at all costs.
If they went down, I don't think Hull would have the set-up to follow the example of Newcastle, Middlesbrough and West Brom by challenging for promotion straight away.
More likely is they would follow former Premier League sides Norwich, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Nottingham Forest and Charlton by falling all the way into League One.
That means the pressure will be on the board to be ruthless with Brown, rather than give him time to prove he can keep the Tigers up.
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