George Boateng says Hull City's demise was sparked by former manager Phil Brown's infamous rant at halftime at Manchester City last season.

With the Tigers trailing 4-0 at the interval at Eastlands on Boxing Day 2008, Brown marched his players into the penalty area in front of the travelling fans and conducted a fierce finger-wagging dressing-down.

Hull have won just seven Premier League games since, a slump which Brown's departure and Iain Dowie's arrival failed to arrest. The Tigers were officially relegated yesterday.

Boateng told Sky Sports: "After the situation with the team-talk on the pitch at Manchester City, everybody tried to stay together and say that it wasn't a problem, but it was.

"After that we found it difficult to have confidence in the manager at the time, Phil Brown. That killed the confidence of everybody in the team

"People will say 'why did you not say anything?' but he was our manager."