Transfer Rumours City transfers - Summer 2017

Questions growing at Hull City as club looks in disarray ahead of new season

Senior players searching for an exit and money not being spent has left fans again asking questions of approach

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A penny for the thoughts of Leonid Slutsky. In his 39 days as Hull City’s head coach he has witnessed player after player head for the exit at the KCOM Stadium.

Harry Maguire and Eldin Jakupovic have skipped off to Leicester City, Josh Tymon to Stoke City and Tom Huddlestone to Derby County.

Curtis Davies was already gone, another lured away by the Rams, before Slutsky even had chance to put pen to paper on his deal. Shaun Maloney was another to prefer the appeal of a fresh challenge, despite the Tigers’ offer of a new one-year deal.

And then came the exit of Ahmed Elmohamady yesterday. For the third day in a row, a member of Slutsky’s threadbare squad packed their bags and returned a key to the reception of City’s training base at the Cascade resort on the outskirts of Lagos. Andy Robertson is another not expected to last the week amid strong interest from Liverpool.

Kamil Grosicki had taken to Twitter in conversation with David Meyler on Sunday afternoon to playfully enquire “who is next?” At least the Poland international had an answer inside 24 hours.

If only City’s disenchanted supporters could say the same. All they have are questions as they countdown to a new season beginning against Villa and, in all probability, Elmohamady on August 5. And lots of them.

City look to be in total disarray as they prepare to face Bristol Rovers this evening. Although departures were inevitable in the wake of relegation from the Premier League, the constant stream of players moving on points at a wider epidemic.

Experienced figures no longer want to stay at the KCOM Stadium. That much is as clear as the Algarve sky. Agents have been instructed to engineer moves this summer and most are getting their way. Few would be surprised to see Sam Clucas, Kamil Grosicki and Abel Hernandez join the exodus in due course. City, at present, no longer resemble a sound career choice.

But back to Slutsky, the charismatic head coach tasked with preparing City for a promotion tilt in the Championship.

It was only a fortnight ago, during his unveiling to the media, that he suggested the Tigers boasted a “core” to rival any in the division. Plenty of rivals would disagree with Slutsky’s claim but even he could not stand by it now.

Tymon left on that same afternoon as the Russian’s charming introduction before Huddlestone, Jakupovic, Elmohamady and Robertson all formed an orderly queue to leave this current warm-weather training camp in Portugal.

Slutsky will have suspected at least three of those players would be departing but all five? Surely not. The very notion of an immediate return to the top flight has started to feel fanciful in the past 72 hours.

The picture is instead one of chaos with 18 days remaining before the season begins. Ola Aina is still the only new face (not including trialist goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin, a free agent after his release from

Burton Albion) and City could have as few as 18 players available for tonight’s friendly with Bristol Rovers. Some of Tigers’ under-23s might just be getting a call from their nearby training camp near Vilamoura.

Slutsky simply cannot have imagined his landscape looking quite so barren midway through July. The optimistic assessment of City needing “six or seven” new signings must have climbed into double figures after the exodus was accelerated in recent days.

Ten signings feels the minimum now but faith in his employers to deliver could be forgiven for wavering.

City wanted new players in before pre-season training began on July 3 and failed to deliver. Then they suggested breakthroughs would come in time to travel to Portugal. Aina eventually completed his season-long loan from Chelsea an hour before the club’s chartered flight left Humberside airport.

That Aina remains the only new signing is cause for inevitable concern. Supporters could live with losing certain players, especially after the form shown by Elmohamady in the last 12 months, but the failure to replace is the source of irritation. The parallels with last summer are unshakeable.

All eyes, including Slutsky’s, are now in the actions of vice chairman Ehab Allam. Only on Saturday night Allam said he “expected additions” early this week and a fan base waits with dwindling optimism.

Thoughts are also drawn back to Slutsky’s assertion recently that he would receive financial backing in the transfer market.

“I have spoken with the president about this and yes, we have money,” he said on July 5. “We are ready to buy some players. Each situation will be individual. If we understand one player is really important to us then we will buy him.”

That would infer Slutsky was given certain assurances about his spending power, promises that funds from players sold would be reinvested.

There is every chance money will still be spent but as the coffers at the KCOM Stadium keep on being swelled by sale after sale, Slutksy has every right to join supporters in feeling uneasy with the direction taken by the club so far this summer. The tide simply has to turn.

http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/questions-growing-hull-city-club-209080

 

That article is highly critical, the owners won't speak to them, nor will anyone else at the club by the looks of things.

It's our owners who won't spend any money, our Communications Manger who never communicates and our Head of Recruitment who hasn't recruited anyone that deserve the grief, not the people reporting on it.