Guardian writers' predicted position: 20th (NB: this is not necessarily Paul Doyle's prediction but the average of our writers' tips)

Last season's position: 2nd, Championship

Odds to win the league (via Oddschecker): 7,500-1

Steve Bruce is facing a bridge, and not just because Hull's season starts with a trip to Chelsea. Last season the 52-year-old rediscovered his love for management, which had been weakened by a decade of dealing with the intrinsic inequality of the Premier League, where during his tenure at Birmingham City, Wigan Athletic and Sunderland he felt there was never a realistic prospect of challenging for the top spots.

"There is a gulf between clubs like Manchester United, City and the rest, where you're just fighting to stay up and you have to make your team difficult to beat," he said, explaining that the Championship was more fun because the even playing field gives managers greater scope to make a difference.

That was his view in April, before Hull were promoted, and when asked how he would avoid another joyless damage limitation ordeal if he took the club back to the Premier League, he shrugged and replied that he would cross that bridge if he came to it. Well, he has spent the summer preparing for the crossing. He might make it, he probably won't, but Bruce and Hull are determined to ensure that if they fall they will do so without regrets.

Their success or otherwise this season will be determined by how versatile they can be. Bruce has no desire simply to cling on for survival. Obviously he knows Hull will have to defend well but he aspires to doing more than that and, similar to Ian Holloway at Crystal Palace, he will try proactively to threaten opponents. Last term he got the best out of the resources available to him, devising a 3-5-2 formation in which the chief creator, Robert Koren, excelled, the three centre-backs provided solidity and the wing-backs, Ahmed Elmohamady and Robbie Brady, delivered impressive dynamism and danger.

It proved an inspired system, enabling Hull to finish second in the league despite being deprived of their injured strikers, Sone Aluko and Matty Fryatt, for virtually the whole campaign. The only problem was that on the occasions when opponents rumbled their plot, as many Premier League sides will, they lacked the wherewithal to adapt. They won a division-high 21 of the 23 matches in which they took the lead but lost 14 of the 18 in which the other team scored first, and they fairly crawled over the line as the Championship race creeped to a climax.

Hull's transfer activity this summer has been aimed at giving the manager more options – but without spending too heavily, as owner Assem Allam is not about to let the club relapse into the financial decrepitude from which he had to rescue it after their last Premier League relegation in 2009.

Bruce has proved a capable bargain-hunter in the past and his recruits so far this summer look sensible – but not yet sufficient. Acquiring Scotland goalkeeper Allan McGregor for a reported £1.5m from Besiktas seems canny business, and there are few more experienced back-up stoppers than Steve Harper, signed on a free from Newcastle.

Maynor Figueroa also arrived for free and offers the merit of being well known to Bruce, having played under him at Wigan, and being familiar with the role of wing-back, which will prove handy for those times when Bruce deploys last season's formation. In pre-season the manager has switched between that shape and an attacking 4-3-3 designed to exploit the speed of the fit-again Aluko and the centre-forward Yannick Sagbo, the Ivorian international who looks a useful acquisition at under £2m from Evian.

Shorn of their strikers, Hull scored fewer than any other team in the top half of the Championship last term, when Koren was the side's leading scorer with nine league goals – Sagbo could improve on that tally. Whether Danny Graham can is another matter but as a loan recruit the forward represents a minimal risk and offers a certain savviness in dealing with Premier League defences. Although he might not offer supreme sharpness, his 15 goals in a season and a half with Swansea City, before his Sunderland drought, is not to be sniffed at.

Hull will have to score more goals than last season because they will surely concede more. Bruce has been ruthless as he seeks to reinforce his defence – letting go Corry Evans (to Blackburn) and Jack Hobbs (on loan to Nottingham Forest), both of whom performed well for him last term, but he could do with adding more than just Curtis Davies, who has been brought in from Birmingham City for £2.25m.

Paul McShane marshalled the back-line well last season and, at 27, may now be equipped to cope with the top flight better than he did on previous visits. But relying on that possibility is not a particularly comfortable position to be in, much like hoping that Abdoulaye Faye's dwindling pace is not exposed too often. The centre-back James Chester, who was rewarded for a fine last campaign with a new three-year contract in the summer, will likely have ample opportunity to show that he can be as assured in the Premier League.

In midfield it will be interesting to see whether Koren can exert the influence he did last season. Ditto George Boyd and Stephen Quinn, who has long been one of the niftiest schemers in the lower leagues but is rarely mentioned as someone who could make a big impact in the Premier League, possibly because his small size makes him under-appreciated. Quinn is tougher than he looks. Nevertheless, while Hull's recruitment has already ensured they will have more speed in the side, they could probably do with more power in midfield, where David Meyler looks set to be the enforcer.

Irrespective of what Bruce does in the transfer window or the training ground, he is unlikely to get much joy from Hull's first two away matches, at Chelsea and Manchester City. But their first few home dates – against Norwich, Cardiff, West Ham and Aston Villa – are as benign as they could have hoped for and gives them a chance to convince that their fate has not been already decided.

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