I get the feeling Honeyman doesn’t feel up to fighting for his place in the team and just wants it by default. Good riddance if so. He was **** anyway.
I read it as you were dismissing the idea 'any player' would leave due to increased competition for his place.
It wasn't terrible but the points deductions certainly glossed over how tight to the bottom 3 we should have been. It was a L1 squad in the championship though and usually when you go up you expect 4/5 key arrivals that improve you. We didn't have that so the lads did the best they could and kept us in the league
Completely agree that we didn't improve the squad as we should have and the lack of Championship quality attacking options was a big factor in our inability to progress further up the table.
It all looks great to me The defence last season was fine but short on numbers at one point if Greaves had got injured we had nobody to replace him so bringing in the lad from Forest not only gives us a old head for Greaves to learn from but also much needed cover. Attack we had Magennis and Eaves both Division 1 players and struggled so glad to see them both move on to be replaced by better players. Midfield also did not provide enough attacking options how many defence splitting passes did we see ? 3 International players to replace Smallwood (another Div One player) Huddlestone and Honeyman what's not to like
Hard to argue. I guess I'd just say I'd have rathered seen players like Cannon and Moncur leave before Honeyman.
Also, that midfield relied on 3 centre halves and often 2 holding mids to keep the back door shut where I suspect we will be playing this season with a back 4 and only 1.
I don’t think any of this has to do with ‘heart’. All players have to have determination, belief and a bit of grit to make it in the professional game in the first place. What this does have to do with is team cohesiveness. How willing is the player stood next to you willing to put his neck on the line for you and the team. Honeyman, Magennis, Eaves and Smallwood were definitely part of a collective that were willing to do this to help the team. This can only take you so far - the quality of the footballer will always determine how far you can go - if you can tie team cohesiveness into this then you are onto a winner. Shota is being provided with the quality - his success will be judged on how well he can bring them all together and foster the team spirit which has been a given over the last couple of seasons.
I forgot about Magennis going to Wigan, & them getting promoted. It’ll be interesting to see if Magennis & Eaves can do well at this level, or if it was just our set up.
Acun Ilicali believes Hull City can get the best out of Ozan Tufan by making him feel valued and happy, after sealing a move to the MKM Stadium. The Turkish international endured a frustrating loan spell at Watford in the Premier League last season, seeing his move to England cut short by Roy Hodgson in January. Tufan was heralded as a major arrival by the Hornets last summer when he was signed by Xisco Muñoz, but played just nine times early in the top-flight campaign before Claudio Ranieri was appointed. The Italian left in January to be replaced by ex-England and Liverpool boss Hodgson, who opted to send the midfielder back to Istanbul. City have snaffled Ozan from Turkish giants Fenerbahce in a cut-price deal worth around £4m and the 27-year-old arrived in England over the weekend to finalise his move and link up with Shota Arveladze's squad in pre-season training. The unsuccessful stint at Watford has left Ozan with a desire to prove himself in English football, and Ilicali says the Championship club will work hard to ensure they make him feel valued, and if they can do that, they can benefit from a seasoned international footballer. Forget about Watford," Ilicali tells Hull Live. "I know Ozan, for me, the Watford experience doesn't mean anything. Ozan is a guy who can just go to extremely high levels when he's happy. So what we will do is make him happy and get the best out of him. "Yes, he can have problems in Watford, but there are so many good players in the world that you can only get when they have some problems. For us, his problem was a gift from God Ozan is the second arrival from Fenerbahce, following on from Allahyar Sayyadamnesh, after the Iranian striker saw last season's temporary move to the MKM Stadium made permanent. The cultured operator is one of a host of new signings made by City ahead of their Championship opener against Bristol City on July 30, with Adama Traore and Tobias Figueiredo both signing contracts at the MKM Stadium and Jean Michael Seri closing in on a move after his release by Fulham. Ozan's arrival in England will see George Honeyman complete his move to Millwall, after turning down new contract offers at City. Honeyman was in London Monday to sign for the Lions and will join them on their pre-season training camp in Cork.
Agreed, seeing people giving emotional tributes to 'Gorgeous George' because he's leaving, get a f'king grip. Good riddance for me if he doesn't want to be here and fight for his place. He can take Elder with him too, never rated him. I hope most of McCann's team follow suit and get gone, bottle jobs. Sweep the decks of his piss poor team.
I don't see Elder as a championship left back, though he was very good in L1. As with the likes of Cannon and Moncur, if they're under contract then another club needs to be willing to take them and they have to agree to leave. I guess we'll have to see what happens in the rest of the window and January. Ideally I'd have tried to keep some of that work ethic and determination as we'd still need a squad, but the midfield and forward line do need significant improvement to progress. Another question mark is would our defence have been as good with a flat 4 and a single DM last season? That's the way Shota seems to prefer but they seemed exposed when it was tried with the players we had last year.
