It is an hour after the full-time whistle and Acun Ilicali has retreated to a quiet corner of the chairman’s lounge inside the MKM Stadium. Hull City have produced an opening day for the ages in East Yorkshire after overcoming Manchester United and Ilicali believes he can point to the root of the upset.“The secret today was that our boys were dying to win,” Hull’s owner tells The Athletic. “I didn’t see Manchester United in this mood. That was the separation of these two teams. You look at the tackles in the game and you could understand which team was wanting more.”A team widely written off after winning promotion through the Championship play-offs had found too much for an opponent that will return to the Champions League under Michael Carrick this season. Two first-half goals from set pieces were behind a 2-0 victory, Hull’s first in the league against United since 1974, but the three points owed nothing to fortune.Ilicali saw a blueprint for survival captured within those opening 90 minutes of the campaign.“We have three advantages this season,” he adds. “First we are the underdog, second everyone thinks we are weak and the third advantage is that we play with heart.“I see in many teams that they don’t have that. It doesn’t matter how rich you are, you can go to a comfort zone and sometimes your priorities can change. For our players, our success is the only priority.”And so it appeared on Hull’s return to the Premier League. A first top-flight fixture since 2017 revealed no nerves or anxiety, only a momentum carried over from their dramatic promotion in May. Three points, up and running in style.Hull City fans celebrate their side’s second goal against Manchester United (Annabel Lee-Ellis/PA Images via Getty Images)The Athletic joined Ilicali to watch one of the MKM Stadium’s greatest days play out. “It’s too early to celebrate,” he said in his post-match assessment. “But I can guarantee that all day we will talk about the game. Again and again.”Ilicali will not be alone.The fixture list could have been kinder to Hull in an opening month that will see them face Aston Villa, Chelsea and Newcastle United but the first weekend handed them a special reintroduction to the Premier League.Eighty family members and friends had joined Ilicali in travelling to watch Manchester United’s visit from his native Turkey, where he has created a media empire and the funds needed to purchase Hull in 2021. “At Wembley it was 300,” he explains. “I had to bring a plane. A Boeing.”Acun Ilicali, at the back, with some of the friends and family who travelled for the opening game (The Athletic)That was to witness the moment that brought Hull back to the top table of English football. A 1-0 win over Middlesbrough in the Championship play-off final in May added a full stop to the Spygate saga written by Southampton and completed the club’s fourth promotion to the Premier League since 2008.Perhaps the most improbable, too. Sixteen months ago Hull were avoiding relegation to League One on the final day of the season, a disastrous campaign that saw Ilicali fire two managers, Tim Walter and Ruben Selles. The following summer brought an EFL transfer embargo that halted spending and concerns for the direction of travel but also Sergej Jakirovic, the imposing architect of last season’s promotion.Ilicali expects to see a new three-year deal signed off by his manager, a title winner in Croatia with Dinamo Zagreb, next week. “We are agreed in all terms and we are renewing the contract,” he says. “For us, this conversation was not more than five minutes. Really, I am not joking. In five minutes we did this.”