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Hull will be relegated without new signings

David Nugent in Editorial, English Premier League 5 Jan 2017

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Former Olympiakos boss Marco Silva is expected to be appointed as the next Hull boss

According to Sky Sports, Hull are set to bring in Marco Silva as their new boss, having sacked Mike Phelan on Tuesday.

The 39-year-old Portuguese boss guided Olympiakos to the Greek title last season, before leaving for personal reasons in the summer.

Silva will have his work cut out keeping the Tigers in the Premier League this season. The club from Humberside may only be three points off safety, but their squad is thin in quality and quantity.

Hull squad was always small

Hull started the campaign with a very small squad and due to injuries selection options were limited. That meant at the start of the season the Tigers had youngsters filling in on the bench.

Those injuries problems have not really cleared up and the clubs attempts at strengthening their squad in the summer were weak. Spending big money is not always the answer. However, you usually get what you pay for in life.

One of the main examples this season is striker Dieumerci Mbokani. The Congo international arrived on-loan at the club in the summer. The striker has scored goals in Belgium, France and the Ukraine, but the 31-year-old has failed to score in his nine appearances for Hull so far this season.

Last season he was on loan at Norwich and scored seven times in 29 appearances, not exactly prolific. The Canaries were relegated and Mbokani was on the move again.

He works hard the big striker, but he just does not seem to be good enough to score the goals that are necessary to keep Hull in the top-flight. The same theme runs through the Hull side, with only really winger Robert Snodgrass impressing on a consistent basis in the top-flight.

The Scotland international has scored seven times in the Premier League and produced two assists. Snodgrass is out-of-contract in the summer and his exit is now almost inevitable.

Quality players need to arrive in January

Silva is going to be backed in the transfer market by the club according to vice-chairman Ehab Allam who told the club’s official website: “I maintain the belief that the current squad, with two or three key additions during the current transfer window, is good enough to survive in this division.

“I acknowledge that our position in the table will make recruitment more challenging, however, all of our efforts are now focused on enhancing the existing squad with Premier League survival our priority.”

To what extent the new boss will be backed in the transfer market remains to be seen. The above statement suggests that the new boss is probably going to get the same sort of backing Mike Phelan did in the summer.

As Mr Allam stated the Tigers will find it difficult to bring in quality players simply because of their position in the league. However, they will also find it difficult if they continue to avoid spending real money on buying players.

The team have produced some decent performances this season. However, they have struggled to win games. Whether the impending arrival of Marco Silva as boss will change that remains to be seen.

A gamble for both parties

Marco Silva is not a well-known name to Premier League fans. His likely appointment on an 18month deal is a gamble, for both parties. The 39-year-old obviously has no experience of managing in the Premier League.

Many people say that does not matter these days, but in reality, it does. The step up to the Premier League is a massive one from the leagues he has managed in so far.

Silva is highly-rated in Portugal and it is being reported that he sees his future in the Premier League. The Portuguese boss’s contract contains a relegation release clause. That move is understandable because the Tigers are odds of 1/6 to be relegated this season.

He certainly has a challenge on his hands taking the reins at the league bottom club. However, Silva has been tagged as the ‘new  Mourinho’ so maybe he will step-up to the challenge of keeping the Tigers in the Premier League.

Without adding good quality to his squad, though, Silva’s managerial acumen will be put severely to the test on Humberside.

Will Hull bring in enough quality in January to survive the drop?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Nugent


David is a freelance football writer with nearly a decade of experience writing about the beautiful game. The experienced writer has written for over a dozen websites and also an international soccer magazine offline.
Arguably his best work has come as an editorial writer for Soccernews, sharing his good, bad and ugly opinions on the world’s favourite sport. During David’s writing career he has written editorials, betting previews, match previews, banter, news and opinion pieces.

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