Dan: Hull — A Merry Christmas In East Yorkshire?

Hi there!

Welcome to what will probably be a shorter than usual post due to the fact that I’ve only got December to talk about since my January post will be long enough without December results squashed in there too. I figure doing December on it’s own gives a nice build up to the January transfer market, so here we go…

December Results

December Scorers

Not the best start to the month in our critical game against Burnley but after that we were rampant! You’d think that the Burnley game would be my feature game for the month but I wouldn’t want to bore you guys, rubbish game and they came out on top, that’s about it. The Preston game saw a rare switch to my 4-1-2-1-2 formation at half time to try and gain control of the centre of the park and it worked as we ran out 3-1 winners. Middlesbrough was an intense game, even more so since we had to keep up the pace on Burnley and the game was settled with a goal from Matty Fryatt. After that we played Leeds for the second time this season, after losing 2-0 at Elland Road they would have been hoping for revenge at The Circle, unfortunately for them, this happened…

Before this game Tom Cairney signed a new £7k a week contract and he seemed thrilled, his second goal was a 30 yard curling free kick. Simpson also returned to fine form in this game and bagged 2 goals which was pleasing to see since he hadn’t been the same player since getting crocked, hopefully he’ll return to his pre-November form now.

After the Leeds victory we played Barnsley and as expected they offered little resistance, they were on a low which was highlighted by the fact their key player (Jason Shackell) had  a rating of 6.2 in his last 5 matches, it turned out to be easy pickings.

Now after that successful Christmas period you’d expect my players ratings to have risen, and they did…

Feel free to ignore Matt Duke, he never has and never will play for me, unless we have a horrendous keeper crisis. The top 2 remain the same in Simpson and McShane with Fryatt and Cairney sitting closely behind, and Devitt separating them after continuing to impress at League 2 Crewe Alexandra. As you can see my defence has really picked itself up with Chester, Turan, Dawson, and Cooper all enjoying ratings of 7+ although Davenport seems to be struggling to adapt to the squad. Horava has continued to impress me as well and now has 6 goals and 4 assists which is quite good for his debut season. The biggest disappointment for me has been Robert Koren, he never plays well and may find himself ousted from the club in January if the right bid comes in.

Player of the Post

This was a very difficult decision this time round. My whole team has played well but eventually I decided on 1 player who may just have edged it. That player is Aaron McLean…

Although his technical ability and mental prowess is verging on awful his physical attributes tend to make up for that, although he will probably be dropped if we gain promotion. His month has not been filled with goals but he has provided pace and assists that have constantly worried opposition. He is probably the surprise package of the season, just scroll back up and look at his stats so far, 6 assists, 9 goals, and an average rating of 7.10, not bad.

Now onto the league and since we’ve now reached the halfway point I guess I should start showing the table as a whole, so here it is at the end of December…

We’re top! Courtesy of Burnley screwing up! Hopefully this will signal an end to Burnley’s invincible run and their form will begin to dip so that we can open up a nice gap between 1st and 2nd to relieve some pressure. Elsewhere, I’m still amazed that Doncaster continue to challenge although it would take a massive slip up my either us or Burnley to allow them automatic promotion! Leicester and Nottingham Forest are also up there while Cardiff have pushed into the play-offs replacing Swansea, you can just imagine the tension in South Wales! At the bottom Portsmouth, Leeds, and Preston occupy the relegation zone after Middlesbrough sorted themselves out. QPR have done the exact opposite and are blowing any chance they had of promotion.

So after December the awards came in and we received our first since September!

Tom Cairney won young player of the month and it was thoroughly deserved. Since signing his new contract he has turned his dwindling form around and played brilliantly. The only downside is that he wouldn’t accept the contract unless it had a £7million release clause for higher division clubs.

While we’re on the subject of money you all remember me moaning that my chairman only gave me £400k transfer budget when he had £28million in the bank, yes? Well, on January 1st he offered a change of season expectation and my jaw hit the floor…

…For a while I just sat staring at the message, obviously he didn’t trust me too much at the start of the season but he certainly does now! He would have given me £5.25million just for keeping my expectations the same, but that would have been unambitious and I needed the extra wage budget if I was going to make a couple of signings…

I decided ‘Title Challenge’ would be the most sensible choice since there was only a 2 point gap between us and Burnley so if things went pear shaped I would have ended up upsetting the board had I chosen ‘Winner’. That supplied me with £7.25million transfer budget and an extra £25k wages but I doubt I’ll spend it all, I only want 1 or 2 players to bolster certain positions. I need a Right Back, a Trequartista to rotate with Fryatt, and a Ball Winning Midfielder to rotate with Evans.

Plobdork Request

One more thing before I go, Plobdork asked me to post the profile of Atila Turan so here it is…

He’s great for the Championship and has the potential to be 4.5 stars for Hull. I may have to invest in him next season, whether it be on loan again or permanently, we’ll see…

Well that’s all for now!

Thanks for reading!