Phil Brown is not the world's best singer. He proved that when he grabbed the microphone at the KC Stadium last May and serenaded the crowd after Hull had stayed in the Premier League.

He is not a diplomat as he demonstrated when he gave his team a public dressing down on the pitch when they were losing 4-0 to Manchester City at half-time last Boxing Day. They lost 5-1.

He is not a man who can easily pass a microphone without giving it his full attention.

He has also "not been sacked", as a statement by Hull City announced this week.

And I hope it stays that way.

Brown has made mistakes, of that there is no question. Too brash, too opinionated. Too full of his own importance perhaps.

But he remains the manager who took Hull into the top flight of English football for the first time. And kept them there.

For a city renowned for fishing and the farces of a famous son in Brian Rix, and rugby league and John Prescott of course, that was tantamount to a sporting miracle. Just as players do not become bad ones overnight, neither do managers.

That is why Brown for now deserved to survive the current upheaval in Hull which this week saw the departure of chairman Paul Duffen.

It is rare in football to see blood on the walls of the boardroom. When things go wrong it is usually splattered all over the manager's office.

But the real worry at Hull is not where the next three points might come from. It is more serious than that.

The real concern is the warning from the club's accountants, Deloitte, that in the event of relegation Hull would have to generate £23million to meet existing liabilities.

Even if they stay up it is estimated they will need to raise an additional £16million just to continue as a going concern.

In football we can become inured to figures with endless noughts attached and those figures might not scare Manchester United. But for Hull it tells a story of a club who have gambled with their very existence. A club which reached for the big-time and might now be running out of time.

Brown claimed the departure of Duffen, his greatest ally, was not to do with results but to do with the "business of football".

Hull may have got themselves into a financial jam which could get stickier by the week. They will have to sell players to balance the books, but where are the big characters? The players who were outstanding last season have gone, sold like Michael Turner to Sunderland. Or injured. Or dreadfully out of form.

Stay up or go down, the financial future could be calamitous.

That is not just a worry for Hull. It is a concern for the Premier League which this week also slapped a transfer ban on bottom club Portsmouth who have struggled to pay the wages of the players already on their books this season.

The wolf might not be at football's door just yet but it would be foolish to ignore those signs.

As for Brown he needs to keep a lower profile and get back to what he does best. Managing. You only sing when you're winning.