A good measured article by Baz IMO.
Hull City's reality check as size of transfer task laid out amid Acun Ilicali's ambitions
Realism is required amid Hull City's major summer rebuild
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Hull City owner Acun Ilicali (Image: PA)
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Naturally, at this time of year, social media is awash with the good, bad, and ugly of society and in particular, the very different extremes of football fandom.
A cursory glance at any club's Twitter feed will give you a very quick flavour of that, and no doubt within 30 seconds you'll be able to get all manner of views from the sublime to the ridiculous and everything in between.
That was certainly the case on Wednesday when news emerged that Jean Michael Seri had seemingly opted against a move to the MKM Stadium, preferring instead to ply his trade elsewhere in Europe. As is his right, of course. He's an individual who has the power to decide where he believes is the next best move for him and his young family.
READ MORE: Acun Ilicali sends key message to Hull City supporters
Naturally, there will be an element of disappointment for
City fans hoping to clinch a very good Championship player and one who played 33 times for a team who won the league at a relative canter. Perspective, however, is required here and for that matter, throughout the remaining two months of the transfer window.
Yes, you heard that right, there are two whole months left of this incessant scramble to get through before we can all pause for a day or two and focus on the actual football, that is until January comes into focus.
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While some fans may not want to hear it, City are coming from a low base this summer. They're a club that has just finished 19th in the second-tier of English football having been in League One the year before. But for points deductions, the outlook may have been even gloomier. And it's been well-documented year after year that clubs in certain parts of the UK can have difficulty in attracting players, especially the further away you get from London.
Not just speculation, these are genuine concerns raised by players this summer.
If we take Seri as an example, his salary was in the region of £60,000 per week at Fulham - suffice to say, pre-takeover, the average weekly wage in the Tigers' dressing room was about 10 percent of that. To come to Hull City would have needed the Ivory Coast international to take at least a 50 percent pay cut, and possibly more.
These may well be footballers on big (huge) salaries that the rest of us can only dream of, but they're also humans with families to support and it's all relative, isn't it?
City are now trying to do their shopping at a very different level, certainly to what they were a year ago. Twelve months ago, Grant McCann, Lee Darnbrough and the rest of the staff at the club were working under a transfer embargo, with money tight and the impact of Covid still very real - insert respectful joke about shopping at Poundland here.
Andy Cannon, George Moncur and Randell Williams were all brought in on free transfers, there were a host of loan players added to the League One squad in a bid to make it Championship competitive on a budget worthy of the bottom three. This summer, following Acun Ilicali's takeover in January, there's a different ambition at the club, it is, however, fraught with risk.
Attempts to sign Seri, Scott Twine, John Swift and others prove that Ilicali's ambition is genuine, it's not soundbites to gain popularity or sell memberships (which are ridiculously cheap, by the way). He wants to bring this calibre of player into the club to see it challenge at the other end of the table.
That, however, is not an easy task in convincing players that City will suddenly go from 19th to third or fourth, to challenge at the top end. You're asking players to buy into a new project, to take a leap of faith and that is not for everybody. Twine spent time with Ilicali and was impressed by his vision for the club, but ultimately decided Burnley - fresh from the Premier League coupled with the vast amounts of cash that brings and supremely smart training facilities - was a safer option, and you can entirely understand that.
While to you, me and everybody else that cares about this football club, Ilicali's project is an exciting one, Burnley and Vincent Kompany is a safer bet for being involved in a promotion tilt.
Come the end of the season, the table may offer a different outcome, but few with a reasoned viewpoint could argue against it right now, and that's why Twine will be facing City at Turf Moor on August 16 instead of wearing the black and amber.
None of us are patient, we all want news and signings yesterday, but this is a transitional period for Hull City and it's going to be one that needs time, and it will see frustrations as well as delight along the way.
The likely departure of Keane Lewis-Potter will annoy and anger one or two, however, the club are almost powerless to stop a young player from wanting to progress his career at the top level, to ply his trade in the Premier League at a club that have been desperate to sign him for over a year. Significant income will arrive should he depart this window, and a substantial amount of it will be invested back into the squad.
This summer still has plenty of tales to tell and Ilicali will continue to beat the Hull City drum across Europe as he and Arveladze look to build a squad capable of not just competing, but being successful in this division - and it is going to take time.
https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/hull-citys-reality-check-size-7271012
