Relegation from the Premier League often brings along the problem that your top signings, those internationals that you collected during your stay in the top flight aren’t prepared to play in a second tier competition. They arrive for big bucks and then you have to look at recouping what you can get for them. Parachute payments go some way to alleviating the shock of demotion, but losing star players always hurts a team. That’s what Hull City are feeling right now, hurt and shock and it is defintely a rescheduling of priorities for Steve Bruce as he looks at preparing the club for a climb back to the top table.
However, as reported by The Hull Daily Mail, Steve Bruce could very well be in for something of a transfer bonanza in the run up to the Championship season that starts on August 8. Having released nine players on free transfers and sold Tom Ince (to Derby £4.69m), James Chester (to West Brom £7.9m) and Robbie Brady (to Norwich £7m), Hull would be tidily placed in the transfer market with around £20m to spend on replacement players. Some of that amount, reportedly £1.26m, has been spent on Chesterfield’s Sam Clucas. However, the remaining £18.7m or so could very well be added to with news that Torino are set to finalize a transfer of Abel Hernandez, Hull’s record £10m signing. The Hull Daily Mail report that The Tigers are looking to claw back around £5m of their original club record outlay with The Hull Daily mail saying that Gazzetta.it have reported that a fee of €8m has already been agreed between the two clubs.
With that in mind, Steve Bruce may want to look for a bigger wallet because, with £23m plus in your pocket, there’s a lot of money there to entice good players to play for you, even in the Championship. The Hull Daily Mail have said that The Tigers are in the market for “four-to-five new faces”, something which was confirmed by Steve Bruce in a recent interview with BBC Sport. If Steve Bruce does make that kind of outlay on bringing quality into the club to replace what has left, then the fans might be looking towards promotion back towards the Premier league once more.
Transfer values taken from Transfermarkt
Featured image credit: Paul (Wikimedia Commons)
