The window closed two weeks ago, with a couple more arrivals
Hull City head coach Sergej Jakirovic has praised the club’s transfer business during a frantic summer which saw the Tigers sign 12 players despite working under strict conditions imposed on them by the EFL.
Not only were City able to add the likes of Oliver McBurnie, Joe Gelhardt, Joel Ndala and John Lundstram, the Tigers managed to keep hold of Charlie Hughes amid a £10m bid from Coventry City.
Darko Gyabi, Enis Destan and Amir Hadziahmetovic all made their debuts on Saturday as City battled to earn a deserved 2-2 draw at Swansea City on Saturday, thanks to John Egan’s 97th-minute equaliser.
Jakirovic has declared himself content with what City owner Acun Ilicali, sporting director Jared Dublin and head of recruitment Martin Hodge have been able to do working only with free transfer and loan deals.
“Everything is good,” the Croatian told Hull Live when asked to sum up the club’s business. “It’s very good because I knew that Charlie and Ivor would stay. It was not easy because maybe in the last game (at Bristol City) you saw, you felt that they are not one hundred per cent in the head, you see that, but they are human beings.
“This is normal. Your phone rings all day on game day, you cannot have full focus. This is not easy, but now I see they are here at least till January, but I think they will be here all season. Now it’s a much better picture now the transfer window is closed.”
City maintained their stance throughout the summer that they would not sell Hughes, despite the Sky Blues’ persistence, with a belief that his next move should be straight into the Premier League, and Jakirovic admits the club showed ambition in turning down such offers.
“Yes, of course (show of ambition in keeping Hughes), but also you can kill your own group, your own team. I spoke directly with Mr Chairman, and I explained my reasons why he needed to stay in the club, and my opinion is that Charlie needs to go to the Premier League from our club.
“This is our target and I hope, if he will be healthy, it will be for the future; for sure it will happen. If we sell Charlie, we will have bigger problems. We will have big problems because you need the green light from the EFL for who will come (as replacements).
“Alfie Jones and Sean (McLoughlin) have left the club. OK,we brought some players, but they got injured. Alfie and Sean, they played almost 30 games last season, especially Sean can play in three positions. This for us also is a big impact.
“You need to swap players. Abu Kamara needs to go so that we can bring one player in, so this is very difficult. It’s the first time in my short career, but you need to adapt, and that’s it.”
Owing to the situation the club were in, they missed out on numerous players, but were still able to attract a high calibre of performers, giving the head coach signifcant options at his disposal.
“I spoke with a lot of players,” he continued. “We had a lot of Zoom calls. I tried to convince the players because the players’ agent, they’re afraid of the situation in the club. When you read something in the newspaper on the internet, and I explained to you the totally opposite side of the story, it’s not easy to convince the players, but we had success with some of the players we brought here. This is good, and we have many more options now in some positions for sure.
“In the end, we did a good job or a very good job thanks to Jared (Dublin), Hodgey (Martin Hodge), also Mr. Chairman and all the people involved here.”
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