All of those players got their moves sorted long before Aluko did and didn't miss the start of the season as a result. We ****ed up, I'm not guessing I'm telling.
They all had to wait for FIFA to approve them, some of them taking weeks after they'd done everything they could (Sion at least 3 weeks). They were all approved on the same day. We then did the paperwork on the Aluko deal and had to wait just the same until FIFA got together to rubber stamp it after the SFA also blocked his move.
The paperwork took far too long to long to sort out. Football secratary is a specialist role and the new person, I'm told, has no idea compared to Phil Hough.
The paperwork took the same time as every other club signing from a club where there's a dispute over their contractual position. If the person didn't have a clue what they were doing why didn't we have the same problem with Proschwitz? Barring the contractual dispute the transfer would be completed in exactly the same way.
Any of several reasons, one being the time that Hough was made redundant, which is something I'm unsure of. Anyway, must dash. See you all at ER.
The evidence doesn't support it though. We signed Jakupovic before 11th July - http://www.hullcityafc.net/news/article/jakupovic-pleased-to-be-a-tiger-229751.aspx We signed Proschwitz on 19th July - http://www.hullcityafc.net/news/article/city-complete-proschwitz-deal-249924.aspx We signed Aluko on 25th July - http://www.hullcityafc.net/news/article/aluko-deal-completed-265401.aspx Whether the new guy is as good as Hough or not. The Proschwitz deal shows that we didn't fail as a club in the paperwork department on at least one deal. The Jakupovic deal also taking ages for clearance shows it's not a discrepancy caused by changing staff between Proschwitz and Aluko as that deal was completed first. The fact Aluko and Proschwitz were both delayed due to contractual issues at previous clubs, and every other club signing players from Rangers has had the same delay to their transfers for international clearance as we did suggests that's where the issue lies. Over the course of several weeks Rangers players signed for several different clubs, but all received their clearance on the same day. It suggests that in contractual disputes FIFA has to have people look at the cases individually before giving clearance, and that those people do so periodically rather than day to day so we had to wait for their next meeting to grant it. Aluko also played in the first league game of the season, the cup game was played early at our request. I suggested at the time that inernational clearance being granted on a Saturday morning was a little unusual and we may have just being hiding it despite receiving it earlier to upset Brighton's planning. Who says it wasn't granted in time for the scheduled start of the season? (ie on the Monday or Tuesday after the cup game we'd brought forward)
