Former Crystal Palace and QPR manager Iain Dowie has been named Hull City's new manager, replacing Phil Brown on a short-term contract until the end of the season. He is hardly the big-name manager Hull fans were hoping for, but Hull chairman Adam Pearson joked that Jose Mourinho wasn't available.

A run of one win in 16 games left the Tigers in the relegation zone. Hull chairman Adam Pearson called Dowie's appointment "a nine-game survival plan. We will then reassess the situation in the summer depending on how successful we have been." Dowie will get a bonus of $800,000 if the Tigers stay up.

Dowie left Sky Sports to take his first management job since October 2008. Pearson acknowledged it was hard to attract a big-name coach for the job. "I understand supporters want big names but we wanted a manager who would interact with the players straight away, make tweaks to change unlucky defeats into points. We'd all like Jose Mourinho to walk out of that tunnel but he probably doesn't want to walk out of that tunnel. He is probably quite happy in Milan."