Hull City fans had a message for Joe Cole as they got their Premier League campaign underway at home with a 2-0 victory over Manchester United.The club returned to the top flight on Saturday for the first time since 2017 but found themselves on the receiving end of disparaging remarks from Cole on The Dressing Room podcast, where he said he had turned down an offer to work as a TNT Sports pundit at the game as he would be “stunned if they stayed up”.Joe Cole had made dismissive remarks about Hull's survival chances (Getty)In the 38th minute the Tigers’ Nobel Mendy scored their second goal against United, inspiring an ‘Are you watching, Joe Cole?’ chant to echo through the MKM stadium, which was then repeated as the game drew to a close.The club had their own joke at Cole’s expense after he referenced their play-off win with the claim: “They’ve come here through the back door, they’ve slipped in.”Marking Saturday’s result, Hull posted on X: “Came through the back door. Left with three points.”Hull owner Acun Ilicali addressed the remarks in his pre-match interview on TNT, saying: “I was fed up last season, (people tipping us for) relegation – but not like this year.“This year, everybody’s making predictions. When it comes to Hull, they don’t even talk, just put ‘Hull, 20’ then go straight to the next team.“That’s what we like, I like, our fans like, because we want to be underdogs. If nobody thinks we will achieve something, I like it like this.“When we came, they said it was impossible. One agent, I will never forget this, I said ‘We will fight for promotion’. The agent said to me, ‘How can you think of promotion? It’s impossible for you to get promoted. I want my player to go to the Premier League’.“Of course I ended the conversation immediately and let the player go. But we are coming from these times, so I cannot explain to you how happy I am now to see this beautiful atmosphere. We are playing Manchester United, the fans are here, they are so happy.”PA