It may have gone to the wire, and there may have been a few thousand frayed nerves across East Yorkshire but Hull City’s transfer window closed with some late night fireworks. As deadline day wore on, fans became more and more twitchy that the £5m deal to sign Jaden Philogene – in the pipeline for so long – would not go through, and that the late sting in the tail would be a painful one.
Thankfully for City fans, head coach Liam Rosenior and all those behind the scenes in Cottingham, the green light was given on the most complex of complex transfer dealings, and that’s a story to be told another day.
Philogene’s arrival is a marquee one, and the biggest single outlay on a transfer fee since Acun Ilicali bought the club in January last year, and he joined Tyler Morton, James Furlong and Bora Aydınlık on what turned out to be a captivating final couple of hours.
The addition of Morton was known and a prime target of Rosenior once it became apparent Max Bird’s injury would rule out any move this side of January, it just needed the green light from Jurgen Klopp, though it was the signing of Brighton’s Furlong that surprised one or two, and a deal to sign Jesurun Rak-Sakyi was on until Crystal Palace put a stop to it after a deal of their own fell through late on.
READ MORE: Hull City complete Jaden Philogene signing as winger arrives in big money deal from Aston Villa
His arrival allowed Brandon Fleming to join Shrewsbury Town on loan for the season, that announcement coming hot on the heels of Ryan Longman’s move to Millwall on similar terms, while Xavier Simons joined Fleetwood Town for the duration of the campaign. That flurry of deadline deals added to the six made in advance of deadline day which makes City’s window far busier than it was expected to be at the start of the summer when Rosenior suggested four or five incomings would be enough.
City have gone steadily about their business, building to a crescendo of noise in the final days with Philogene’s big-money arrival and an ultimately frustrating pursuit of Keinan Davis, who, after long deliberation, decided to move to Udinese in Italy’s Serie A. Liam Delap started things off just hours before the Tigers jetted out to Istanbul for their pre-season trip, and he was closely followed by Jason Lokilo and Ruben Vinagre.
Aaron Connolly was next through the door and after a pursuit lasting longer than 12 months, Scott Twine joined on a loan from Burnley and the goalkeeper situation was remedied when Ryan Allsop arrived from Cardiff. There were moves for a host of other players that didn’t come off, some of which were made public, many that were not, such is the nature of the transfer window.
If last summer was a supermarket sweep of players, some of which worked out and some didn’t, this summer was a far more targeted, collaborative approach between manager, coaching staff, recruitment team and ownership, which is how it should be. Losing last season’s leading scorer Oscar Estupinan will come as a blow to some, but the Colombian didn’t want to warm the bench and under Rosenior, just wasn’t going to get the minutes he felt he deserved.
While on paper it looks like with only Delap and Connolly as recognised strikers Rosenior’s squad is light, he will feel in Twine, Ozan Tufan, Philogene, Allahyar, Lokilo and Traore, he has enough cover if needed, and there’s a growing feeling Henry Sandat could have an impact as the season wears on, and the signing of Aydınlık is one to keep an eye on.
Perhaps one of their biggest pieces of business was not a new arrival, but keeping Jacob Greaves. Earlier in the summer, there was a general feeling, almost an acceptance that Greaves would leave the club.
Rosenior, however, made it clear he wanted Greaves to stay at the club and Ilicali backed him with that, whilst backing him with significant funds to sign Philogene, a player he’s admired for a period of time.
How successful this window’s business has been can only be judged over time, by results and performances, but on paper at least, it looks very positive, and there is no doubt the squad is in a far, far better place than when the window officially opened on June 14, 79 days ago.
All’s well that ends well.
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