When Grant McCann first met Frank Lampard he felt like an impostor. The pair were teenage midfielders at West Ham with big question marks about their potential but, back in 1996, only one of them was blessed with self-belief.
“I never thought I was good enough to be there – I always felt inferior,” reflects Hull’s manager as he looks forward to Saturday evening’s FA Cup fourth-round reunion when Lampard’s Chelsea visit east Yorkshire. “I was really young, 16, and I’d left Belfast for shared digs in Barking. It was hard but the experience definitely shaped me into the person I am today.”
That man is a confident, affable, attack-minded, 39-year-old coach on a dual mission to return Hull to the Premier League and reconnect the club with its, until latterly, disenchanted supporters. Outside the training ground in pretty Cottingham pockets of lingering January mist make surrounding country roads hazardous but, occupying a quiet corner of his team’s weekday HQ, McCann’s vision is clear.
He believes the seven-point gap separating Hull from a Championship play-off place will prove bridgeable after his players enjoy “a nice distraction” against visitors managed by an enduring role model once regarded as a beneficiary of nepotism.
“Back in the day, Frank proved a lot of people wrong,” McCann says. “His dad was West Ham’s assistant manager and a lot of supporters thought he only got into the team because of his family [Lampard’s uncle Harry Redknapp was the manager] but, having seen the work Frank did every day, I knew different.
“Frank’s two years older so we didn’t really socialise but he’d probably admit that, when he first went to West Ham, he was behind other players. He had the belief, though. He worked so hard it was unbelievable. Every afternoon he was out there with his dad, practising. As soon as he broke into the first team I could only see him getting better and better.”
Like McCann’s former Barking housemate Michael Carrick, Lampard would play for England, but the Ulsterman’s career followed a lower-profile trajectory. He emerged from those “very strictly run” east London digs – “a bit harsh but it made us grow up” – to complete a handful of Premier League cameos before establishing a solid lower-division career, winning 39 Northern Ireland caps. After cutting his managerial teeth with Peterborough and Doncaster, Hull offered an irresistible challenge.
“I think it’s a tougher job than Chelsea,” McCann says, smiling. “People have said I’m not good enough but that’s motivation; I’ve been proving people wrong all my life. I come from Sandy Row in Belfast and I don’t know if that’s made me tougher but it taught me good lessons about life. My family were relieved I got out because, back then, there were only two ways you could go: get a job or fall in with the wrong crowd.
“It was difficult; there was bad stuff. The Europa Hotel near us was blown up and we missed it by seconds – all the windows of my mum’s house came in. It was mad, the army were walking about the streets every day, but we didn’t bat an eyelid. For us, it was normal life.”
Today violence has been replaced by vibrancy. “I’m proud of Belfast,” he says. “It’s unbelievable, an amazing place. I’ve got three boys and we go back to visit family. My kids see the city’s famous murals and think they’ve got paintings of Fortnite on the walls!”
Harmony is similarly being restored at Hull after seasons of stand-off between the owners, Assem and Ehab Allam, and supporters disillusioned by some controversial commercial projects, most notably the team’s failed “Hull Tigers” rebrand.
McCann has encouraged a mood of mutual compromise and is delighted Saturday marks the KCom Stadium’s first sell-out since 2014, with many in the crowd hoping Hull’s £20m-rated forward Jarrod Bowen can unlock Lampard’s defence. “Selling out means a lot,” McCann says. “We’ve introduced more initiatives and open days. We’ve lowered ticket prices and invited kids into the stadium.
“More players are going into the community. We’re trying to engage and the owners are coming to games after a few years away. I feel we’re beginning to bring everyone back together again. That’s the only way to be successful.”
He was not always so conciliatory. “At the end at West Ham I made a mistake,” McCann concedes. “I had a fiery temper. I’d played about six first-team games coming off the bench when I scored a [freakishly spectacular] own goal in a 7-1 defeat at Blackburn. I remember Glenn Roeder [Redknapp’s successor] saying he wasn’t going to involve me in the next game to protect me from the fans. I didn’t react well.”
A move to Cheltenham swiftly beckoned. “Looking back, I should probably have stuck it out at West Ham,” he says. “But me and Glenn are still good friends. Glenn’s brilliant. We laugh about it now.” Much as he likes and admires Lampard, McCann trusts his Chelsea counterpart will not be laughing on Saturday night.