The Tigers ended a frantic month with a chaotic deadline day on Friday
Barry Cooper-Hull City correspondent
The challenge facing Hull City in the transfer market this summer was always going to be an uphill battle given some of the work the club did last season.
City’s eye-catching capture of Fabio Carvalho set the bar ludicrously high and that level was unlikely to be reached this summer, not least because last summer coupled with the recruitment in January was a big financial burden, and so the dial had to be adjusted this time round, and also, a player of his calibre was unlikely to become available again.
Expectations were raised after signing a player of his calibre, and whatever followed was always going to feel a little bit after the Lord Mayor’s Show, which is a tad unfair to those who would inevitably follow.
That said, after selling Jaden Philogene and Jacob Greaves fairly early in the summer, City have left it late to assemble a squad capable of competing at this level, but it’s still some way behind the level that finished last term, and that squad wasn’t able to get into the top six, albeit the league was distorted somewhat by the top four having those places boxed off from fairly early on.
Now the dust is beginning to settle on a window which saw more than 20 players leave and 15 arrive, the club’s recruitment staff will be having a debrief, and so too, will the supporters, as they look to grade the work done. Understandably, messages from the club’s hierarchy about certain profiles of players coming in raised those expectations, and ultimately, some of those have not come to fruition which will cause frustration on both sides.
Maybe it’s because fans were spoilt last season, with the likes of Liam Delap, Tyler Morton, Fabio Carvalho, and Jaden Philogene all arriving at various points in the season, and things felt a little more settled under Liam Rosenior’s stewardship. Change can always be unsettling and unnerving, not just for fans, but players as well, while there have been changes behind the scenes with Jared Dublin replacing Lee Darnbrough.
A slow start to the summer didn’t help the sense of nervousness, with only Ryan Giles and Cody Drameh arriving before a frantic August has seen things ramp up dramatically and Walter given a flurry of new signings that will naturally take time to bed into his style, all but two of City’s 15 arrivals have come in the month since Marvin Mehlem kicked things off on August 1 to Kamara becoming the last.
Some fans perhaps feel the window has felt a little underwhelming, though there have been good signings. Charlie Hughes is a terrific capture and a player who has a high ceiling to develop given time. Liam Millar is another fine signing if he can find his feet and replicate the form we’ve seen elsewhere. Abu Kamara is a heck of a talent and if he can reproduce the form we saw at Portsmouth last season, albeit at a higher level, then he could be a real asset. Mason Burstow is one with pedigree as a youngster but is yet to show it at Championship level and he’ll need to find his feet quickly and Chris Bedia showed glimpses at Elland Road, but the need for those to chip in with goals is paramount, given the lack of top-class options up front.
The squad now has a better balance after the additions of Millar, Mohamed Belloumi and Kamara which will allow Abdus Omur, to flourish in a more central role. Hughes is a positive addition and has a bright future, once he settles into life at a Championship club, and there have been other positive arrivals.
Carl Rushworth is one of the most highly-rated goalkeepers in the country, and he is a brilliant arrival. However, what does that mean for Ivor Pandur and Anthony Racioppi, or Thimothee Lo-Tutala who hasn’t played a single senior game since signing a three-year contract in 2022, a big financial burden on the club’s resources?
Gustavo Puerta arrives with pedigree while Oscar Zambrano has shown in his two games so far glimpses of his capabilities, however, with a potential ban hanging over his head, it remains to be seen how much we’ll see of him and what protections the club have in place regarding that rather tricky scenario.
The key thing about those three players is that they’re permanent additions and it will go some way to halting the major level of churn we’ve seen this season, you’d hope in 12 months time, there won’t be the need for 15 new arrivals, and it will be a little less chaotic, which is a major positive.
Unfortunately, the lack of a striker feels pivotal. City have gone through a host of targets throughout the summer, and have missed out on every single one. From Kieffer Moore to Róbert Boženík to Tommy Conway to Tom Cannon, and there are others. Burstow and Bedia have come in, but that doesn’t feel like enough, and once again, as was the case in January, the lack of firepower feels pivotal because it’s hard to see where the goals are coming from.
Hopes of signing David Fofana on a permanent deal from Chelsea fell down late on Friday evening when it became clear the player preferred a move to Hoffenheim, though that didn’t materialise either, and then a last-ditch attempt to bring in Deivid Washington from Stamford Bridge also came to nothing.
Few could genuinely claim that City are ending this window stronger than they finished last season – which was an impossible task given what they’ve lost and where those players have since gone – and with all that quality at their disposal last term, they still missed out on the top six. It’s hard, with the best will in the world, to make a case for this squad to challenge the top 10, let alone the top six, at this stage; hopefully, in time, they can prove the doubters wrong.
Walter has not yet hit the ground running, he’s yet to win any game as manager and the term ‘work in progress’ is absolutely fitting for his tenure so far. Ultimately, if you take away all the guff about the style of play, it’s fundamentally about winning football matches and every manager knows that, and so far, he hasn’t got close to doing that, and there remain questions about how things will pan out.
Two weeks on the training pitch following Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Leeds United will help, but he’ll know in the five games he’s got until the next break, he’ll some results from somewhere.
Here’s hoping the pessimism proves to be unfounded, and Walter can get this team knitted together and attacking the Championship with gusto over the next few weeks and move up the table, but the jury will be firmly out until we see some of the obvious talent in action and having an impact.
What have you made of City’s window? Have your say in the comments below…
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