Just found an old piece I wrote for The Times a few years back when I was their Hull City blogger...things could be worse (or could they?)... Hull City: Can anyone lend us a striker? Here at Hull City Towers, this writer is doing his very best to remain chipper and upbeat about City’s lack of action in the transfer window thus far. Well, perhaps “lack of action” isn’t entirely accurate – “lack of success” would be a little nearer the mark. There has certainly been action, and in actual fact we have been “linked” (whatever that means these days) with 76% of the world’s still-living and currently-playing footballers. Early signs were good, with rumours we were after Newcastle United’s Kevin Nolan prompting respectful nods of approval all round. As well as Nolan, the signing of Fraizer Campbell was obviously nailed on – wasn’t it? And then there was the pursuit of Marc-Antoine Fortune, in which City were – according to Fortune’s own agent – in “pole position”. Of course those three would all have been fantastic purchases and would have helped us build up some decent momentum in the transfer bun fight. Did we get them? Did we heck. Nolan remains stuck inside the massive Black Hole that is Newcastle United (or at least, we assume he does), a club in such utter turmoil that intervention by an actual Messiah (rather than one of the imaginary ones they regularly roll out up there) might not be enough to stop the rot. Rumour has it Alan Shearer’s already expressed a desire to manage Leyton Orient instead. As for Fraizer Campbell... well, like all City fans I’m still apoplectic with rage at the little upstart’s duplicitous and rather shabby behaviour, so let’s just say he signed for Sunderland instead and leave it at that. Because of this sorry affair I now have high blood pressure. And a restraining order. Marc-Antoine Fortune, then? We must have got him, surely? Er, no. Displaying a wonderfully laid back (translation: couldn’t give a flying one) attitude to our pursuit of him, the striker continually told us he would make a decision “within 48 hours”. Unfortunately, he never said WHICH 48 hours, so we had the dubious privilege of waiting a number of weeks for the decision, only to see Fortune sign on the dotted line... for Celtic. The list doesn’t stop with those three, unfortunately. Michael Owen went to Manchester United, though in fairness once the Reds came in for him there was no competition; Daryl Murphy went back to work at the Ego Superstore (no loss on that one); Phil Brown seems to be ignoring Marlon Harewood’s blatant “come and get me” plea; and now it looks like Bobby Zamora might be staying at Fulham. Hey, at least he’s not signing for Sunderland though... Cardiff duo Joe Ledley and Ross McCormack remain high on the wanted list, though both clubs say no offers have been made. Hmm. Now, I may not be Sir Alex Ferguson, but I do know you can’t sign players if you don’t put an offer in. So come on Brown/Duffen – what are you waiting for? Starting waving some cash under Cardiff’s nose; and get serious about these two prodigiously talented young players. If rumours are to be believed then the pair of them can be had for a combined £10m, or thereabouts. We had £6.5m on the table for Fraizer Campbell, whose pedigree is no greater than McCormack’s – so would this really be any more of a gamble, for two highly-rated players? I think not. Despite my obvious cynicism, I really do remain relatively positive. After all, there is still a long way to go in the transfer window, and plenty of transactions to be done. Panicking is not what we need to be doing at this moment in time. We need to be keeping the faith, getting behind the team (and management), and waiting patiently. Without a doubt, the work going on behind the scenes will be more intense than any of us could know, and whilst it might not bring us global superstars (a business we are not in), it will undoubtedly bring additions, and improvements, to the current squad. Eventually...
