Mike Phelan offered Hull job - but suggests they've not offered him enough money to say yes

"I've made no secret of what I want to do here but you have to take care of certain issues for yourself," Phelan told BBC radio on Friday, hinting his concerns were over the salary.

"The deal has to be right for myself and my family and be clear we're talking about the Premier League, we're not in the Championship.

"I would have liked to have got it done weeks ago but it's only in this last 24 hours we've ended up in this state of affairs," added Phelan.

"You do want parity with the Premier League and going forward hopefully that's what will happen."

Phelan was Premier League manager of the month for August after taking over when Steve Bruce resigned before the season began, leaving promoted Hull in apparent chaos.

Left with only 13 fit senior players, the former Manchester United coach inspired them to pick up an opening victory over champions Leicester City and seven points from their first four games.

Players and supporters have urged the board to give him the manager's job.

Phelan said he was excited about Saturday's home game against Arsenal, last season's runners-up.

"It fires not just myself up but also the players," he explained. "They won't disappoint anyone who comes to the game. It'll be a great test."

Hull City should be appointing Mike Phelan as permanent boss, and he knows it - which is one of the reasons he keeps going public with the issue. He's putting pressure on the board to give him a better deal than they'd like, while also banking on the fact that local feeling is so against the club's hierarchy that he won't lose the fans' support even if he does rock the boat.

But it's quite a gamble by Phelan to not just take the offer of a Premier League job in what still would be the first full managerial post of his career. It's an incredible opportunity he's being given, so playing hardball with owners who have made no secret of their desire to save money while looking to sell the club is risky in the extreme.

Chairman Assem Allam has had no problem making unpopular decisions at Hull before, but even if he has to offer Phelan an improved offer he must surely realise that he's got a good situation on his hands here. Phelan knows the club, has the trust of the players and - most remarkably - has created a cohesive, winning side at the KCOM.

The only nagging concern with Phelan is his hubris, which occasionally seeps out into the public eye and could open him up to extensive criticism if Hull's season takes a turn for the worse. After all, this is the man who claimed that he was the 'real' first-team coach during Sir Alex Ferguson's last five years at Manchester United...