Dan : Hull — January, Make Or Break Time…

Hi there!

Welcome to the January update for Hull City AFC. Last time I left you we had finally opened a gap between ourselves and Burnley (the division super-team) and I was quite content to be sitting at the top of the standings come the Winter transfer market. Now, as we all know these markets can make or break a club’s season, we can play it wise and strengthen where needed like teams such as Chelsea or Manchester United do, or we can blow it like Arsenal and Cardiff do (every single year).

So without further ado let’s see who moved on from Hull:

Transfers Out

Some surprising and some not so surprising. Belaid’s transfer was agreed in November after me and him had a falling out, in true Dan style I immediately shoved him in the reserves and offered him to clubs, luckily for me I managed to get £500k for this petulant turd. The next 2 players, Stewart and Fagan were not on my list of players to sell but Reading came knocking with a £600k bid and although Fagan was playing okay he was earning £10k a week and in the last year of a contract I wasn’t going to renew. Stewart was young, full of promise, and lightning quick, the problem was he was a right winger and I don’t play wingers in any of my formations so when Villa offered £300k I gladly accepted. Cooper was farmed out to Kilmarnock since Davenport had pushed him down the pecking order, and Cullen returned from smashing in the goals for Colchester, to then be loaned to MK Dons, to their delight. Cullen is now dubbed the new Michael Owen!

Now onto the bid you guys find most interesting, the players coming into East Yorkshire, so here they are:

Transfers In

Before you say anything, I know, this is severely disappointing. I only managed to bring in 2 players due to reasons such as failed work permits, bigger clubs snatching players from me, players demanding too much money, or players having their heads too far up their backside to even consider Hull. Anyway, let’s take a look at who I brought in…

Mehdi Abeid — £1.5million — Attacking Midfielder (Centre)/Striker

Okay more one for the future than the present but he has 4 star potential and will most likely have a higher resale value so I couldn’t turn him down. Although his work rate, team work, and finishing are a little shy he’ll compete with Fryatt for the trequartista position, mostly from the bench though. His physical stats have great potential if managed right.

Kevin McDonald — £1.9million — Midfielder (Centre)

I needed a ball winning midfielder and I think I found one that can also play an advanced role if need be. We’ll work on his marking but McDonald is quality now, if he can turn a couple of those 14s into 15s then he’ll be amazing. Will compete with Evans and Horava for a central midfield spot (Cairney is untouchable at the minute).

You may recall that I was also after a right back, well his work permit got turned down and I also nearly signed Taufic Guarch only for his work permit to be turned down too, apparently he would have got one on appeal but we ran out of time and the window slammed shut on us.

Now onto results which include our first game of February, I put it there by accident…

January Results

January Scorers

We started the month well, picking up where we left off in December by thumping Leicester, Horava and Simpson netting the goals there. After that it was back to our place for 2 weeks where we registered a disappointing draw against Millwall before beating Leicester in the FA Cup, this time Fryatt the only scorer. With that win it meant I’d completed my season goal in that competition so I wanted out so that I could focus on the league. After cup success we visited Portman Road where Ipswich held their own (somehow) against our relentless assault on their goal line before we moved on to Swansea who were much less equipped at defending. After Swansea we had a big match at Ewood Park in the FA Cup, a chance to test ourselves against what will hopefully be next seasons opposition, it didn’t go too well…

This time it was our turn to do some hopeless defending. Blackburn aren’t exactly a gifted attacking side and yet we found ourselves at odds with Morten Gamst Pedersen. We went 4-0 down before trying to rescue some pride and grabbing 2 goals back thanks to Fryatt and McShane but it wasn’t enough, out of the cup we go.

After that embarrassment I was hoping to restore some confidence against Bristol City but it wasn’t to be and we ended up drawing because of a last minute Bristol City goal. I seems that the inconsistencies of October are back and maybe the tactic needs tweaking again, I don’t know but I’ll figure it out.

Mark Cullen has shot to the top of the rankings after playing just 2 games for MK Dons. Next comes Simpson, no surprise there and Devitt is continuing his good form since renewing his loan at Crewe. Fryatt and McShane follow suit with Cairney, McLean, Dawson, and Chester all doing well. Horava has also finally broken the 7 barrier thanks to recent impressive performances in front of goal. Most disappointing have been Harper and Koren, both will be shown the door at the end of the season.

Player of the Post

This guy has scored some key goals this month as well as his work rate and assists. It was between Fryatt and Simpson and since the latter has already won one of these honourable awards ;) I thought it would be nice to share the joy a little. So, Matty Fryatt, take a bow because you’re player of the post!

So here’s how the league stands come February. Our gap has shrunk to 3 points but we have a better goal difference than Burnley just about. The other worrying thing is the pace at which Doncaster are gaining on us! They’re only 5 points away from Burnley even though they don’t seem to score many. Leicester have now joined QPR outside the play-off places and Sheff Utd have moved up into them along with Cardiff and Nottingham Forest. At the other end Leeds are showing improvements and could soon be out of trouble while Derby and Barnsley are being dragged right into it. The other surprise package is Scunthorpe (who gave us Geordies a right scare last night) who are 16th and have a nice gap between them and the bottom.

Well that’s all for now! I was going to put in a finances screenshot, but you know how it goes, the bank balance decreases a little each month with a number highlighted in red above it. I can say one thing about or finance graph though, it would make one hell of a slide! :D

One more thing before I go, I’m not sure if people recognised it but I’m using the FMCrowd skin. It got me thinking why don’t we have an FMStories skin? I mean I couldn’t make one because I’m useless at that kind of stuff :) but I think it would be a nice touch to the website, I was just wondering what other people thought of the idea, especially Darren and Johnny. If you don’t like the idea then just tell me to shut up :) but I just thought I’d throw the idea out there.

Thanks for reading!