Bleacher Report - Articles by Lambrettaman TigerNation

What A Difference A Week Makes for Hull City

Lambrettaman TigerNation — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:13:41 -0400

Following a frustrating summer, with Fraizer Campbell, Marc Antoine Fortune, Bobby Zamora, and Habib Beye all rejecting moves to the Tigers, signings have progressed quite dramatically over the past week.

Firstly, we received news that we'd managed to hijack Seyi Olofinjana's £3m move from Stoke to Monaco, with the midfield player claiming that Hull's marina was just as nice as Monaco's, but the fish and chips were cheaper!

Then came news that we had finally secured the services of a striker, with Jozy Altidore joining us on a season long loan (with an option to buy), from Villarreal, a deal that was finalised yesterday, when his work permit was granted.

Following a week's trial, the club announced that it would be making a contract offer to Henri Camara, who obviously impressed Phil Brown in training, as he can't possibly have gauged his talents in 45-minutes we saw him play in a match. He's a free agent, having been released by Wigan, and with a wealth of experience, both internationally and in the Premier League, he should make a useful addition.

Yesterday, as news sites were reporting official confirmation of the Altidore switch, news also started to come though of an offer being accepted for Reading (and Ireland) left winger Stephen Hunt (above).

With Hungarian international Peter Halmosi having not lived up to expectations last season and Kevin Kilbane looking slower than a three-legged tortoise, it was a position that definitely needed to be strengthened. At a cost of £2.5m-3.5m (depending on which news site you believe), he looks good value, particularly as the release clause in his contract stands at £5.5m.

At the same time, news sites started to report that we've agreed terms for the permanent signing of Celta Vigo striker Kamel Ghilas, at just £1.5m, it looks great value for this Algerian international.

Obviously, there's work to be done before these last few deals go through and having been gazumped twice already this season, we know it's not a done deal, until those contracts are signed, but still, it's very encouraging.

Stephen Hunt has left the Irish training camp to come to Hull to finalise the deal and Ghilas is also expected to arrive shortly.

A week ago, the Hull City message boards were full of doom and gloom, obviously generated by the targets missed and the anticipated lack of activity, there's no such mood now.

We still desperately need a right back, as we currently have no right back at all (to anyone about to mention Bernard Mendy, don't, he's no more a Premier League right back than I am), most would suggest we need two, though this is perhaps a little optimistic. We need one signed before Saturday, or we'll be in trouble against Chelski.

In addition, we have still not yet used either of our two domestic loan spots, so there's still an option to bring in loan players. I think we'll look for a half-season loan on a central midfield player, possibly from one of the top four clubs, to use as cover until we hopefully see the injured Ian Ashbee and Jimmy Bullard return.

The mood has lifted, the squad is looking way better than last season and there's even a slim possibility that the bookies may improve our odds of survival. Again!

Hull City Written Off Already, But Why ?

Lambrettaman TigerNation — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:09:29 -0400

So, here we are again, ahead of another Premier League season and being written off as no hopers, despite being only two weeks into an eight week transfer window.

On the message boards across the UK, fans are predicting which clubs will be relegated and Hull City are on almost all of the lists, despite no one knowing who will be in Hull City's squad next season.

I like to pretend that I don't really care what other clubs fans think, but in reality, it irritates me a little.

I appreciate that we were shocking people in the second half of last season.

I appreciate we are once again relegation favorites, and I appreciate that some of the players we've been linked with are less than impressive.

Despite the issues we have, the fact remains that we are a Premier League football club, with great support, in a great city, with a lot going for us.

We know what we did wrong last season and the assumption is that we'll repeat that mistake.

I personally find that hard to understand.

We will sign around six players ahead of next season. Zamora and Murphy will not be our first choice strike force(though Zamora may well be one of our starting strikers) and until we know who will be in our squad, it's hard to judge anything.

We have learned much from our debut season.

We know that we have plenty of work to do, but Hull City AFC is a long way from a write off for next season.

Anyone who tells you otherwise, is probably an Arsenal fan.....................we still have Geovanni

There's too much panic

Lambrettaman TigerNation — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:34:14 -0400

There has a certain amount of panic recently, mainly driven by the amount of signings at the newly promoted clubs, against the lack of activity at City.

I thought it might be interesting to see the schedule of signings last season, they were :

Mendy June(out of contract)

Craig Fagan 2nd July
Geovanni 4th July (out of contract)
Boateng 10th July
Warner 16th July
Halmosi 16th July

King 14th Aug
Gardner 14th Aug
McShane 29th Aug
Zayatte 31st Aug
Cousin 1st Sept

By this time last year, we'd only signed Fagan(who was really already at the club) and Mendy and Geo, who were both out of contract, so required no negotiations with a club.

There really is no need to keep panicing about this, we'd all love to see new signings come in, but we're in a better position than we were last season and there's really no need for us to know what the club are up to, until they're in a position to proceed with a signing.

The signings will come, keep the faith tiger nation !

Loan Signings: Hull City's Untapped Resource?

Lambrettaman TigerNation — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:09:01 -0400

In our promotion-winning season, Frazier Campbell came in on loan and played a very significant part in helping us gain promotion.

Having been promoted, we brought in Paul McShane and Marlon King as our two UK loan signings, along with Kamil Zayatte as a foreign loan.

Once we reached the transfer window, we converted Zayatte to a permanent and lost McShane and King, replacing them all with an untried striker in Manucho, who turned out to be far closer to Kak than Kaka.

But have we learned a lesson?

So far, I've not yet seen us linked to a single loan signing, despite the fact we have the option of two Premier League loans and unlimited (I think) foreign loans.

I think this is a major untapped resource that we're not taking advantage of, as it gives us an opportunity to bring in players that we couldn't normally afford.

If we spend the money on wages rather than transfer fees, we'll get more for our money, at least in the short term, and the chances of prolonged Premier League status will increase.

Had we got hold of Federico Macheda, rather than Manucho, then our season could have ended very differently.

There are plenty of players that are knocking on the door of the first team at the big clubs who are not getting first-team football.

The likes of Ben Foster, Macheda, Jack Wilshire, etc. are players that deserve first team Premier League football but have little chance of getting it.

I think we should be looking at offering that opportunity—after all, it's in the best interest of all concerned.

Should People With No Knowledge Write Articles on Bleacher Report ?

Lambrettaman TigerNation — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:38:43 -0500

I'm English, a football fan, and a Hull City fan, one who felt the need to respond to an article that appeared on Bleacher Report and was fed to my Hull City news feed here in the UK.

The author of that article was less than complimentary on my comments on his article, despite the fact that I have already forgotten more about Hull City than he will ever know.

Hence my article: Should someone post articles on topics they know almost nothing about?

I'd say yes, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Even if it's ill informed, I'm sure it was posted with genuine conviction.

Should I be insulted for pointing out the errors in that article? Probably not, but as the author is a young lad, I'll let him off.

For those of you with an interest in the Premier League here in England, good on you. It's the best league in the world and well worth following. Here in Hull we're doing our best to upset the big boys in our first season in top-flight football, our first season despite 104 years of trying.

We already beat Arsenal at the Emirates, only the second team ever. We almost managed to upset Manchester United with a 4-3 loss at Old Trafford, with United hanging on for the last 10 minutes. Chelsea are the only one of the big four to turn us over this season, and to be fair, they did it in some style.

If you're a neutral and looking for a team to support, you could do far worse than to pick Hull City. We play good football, have passionate support, a great stadium, and are currently the most popular second club in English football.

Anyone who wants to know about the mighty Tigers, please feel free to ask, though I prefer not to be called a twat, if that's okay...