The Hull City owner has been assessing the Tigers’ January business
Acun Ilicali, Jared Dublin and Mustapha Yokes with Hull City’s five January signings(Image: Acun Ilicali)
Acun Ilicali has branded Hull City‘s transfer business ‘fantastic’ after a successful window saw the promotion-chasing Tigers bring in five players.
As important as signing Yu Hirakawa, Lewis Koumas, Kieran Dowell, Paddy McNair and Toby Collyer was keeping Charlie Hughes, Ivor Pandur and Joe Gelhardt at the MKM Stadium.
Despite being unable to pay loan or transfer fees for the second successive window, the Tigers were still prudent in the market and made the most of what they could do, ensuring their squad is in a stronger place than it was at the beginning of the month.
Ilicali believes that shows the strength of the club, who are now no longer forced to operate under the restrictions placed on them by the EFL last summer, but sit third in the Championship after 29 games under Sergej Jakirovic’s stewardship.
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“I think it has been a fantastic transfer window for us in January, but of course, this time we will not make any movements on the final day because we finished our job before,” the City owner told Hull Live.
“This is again our magic that we could finish the places we want, we filled them with the correct timing so they could play in the games in January, and it was very helpful.”
City were able to snap up Dowell and McNair without paying a penny in fees, despite those players being under contract at Rangers and San Diego, respectively.
Ilicali says relationships with the players and clubs were absolutely crucial in being able to negotiate their respective departures ahead of the deadline, and in front of their rivals.
“It is a good connection with the players first and then a good connection with the clubs,” he explained. “If you convince the players about your project this time, these players will sacrifice their income, and they will come to us.
“How is it possible? Of course, they have contracts for six months, but after six months, there is nothing certain in their hands. So if you go with the correct project, they’re OK to make their future longer under contract with a good club, which I always told our fans when we’re in our meetings (Hull City is).
“Every player here is so happy that when somebody calls us now, it’s their friends from the football world who played with us (tell them). For example, he (Dowell) played with (Joe) Gelhardt in his younger times. Gelhardt is like an ambassador. If somebody calls Gelhardt, it’s easy for him to just explain.
“Then we talk to them, and they see that all the players are happy here, and they hear from the first month so many happy players, they feel the confidence with our fans, atmosphere, the vibe, and they are convinced. For their clubs, if the players are unhappy there, they don’t want to let them stay for six months more. It’s a good operation done by us. In this case, I have to say again that Jared (Dublin) is our biggest transfer.”
While there has been no shortage of deadline day drama in previous seasons, there was to be no such affair this time round, for which Ilicali offered an apology for those hoping there would be a late arrival.
“I like transfer windows, but this time we started early and finished early, so sorry about the deadline day that we couldn’t deliver for some of our fans, but trust me, there’s nobody at the moment we say that he shouldn’t play. We are strong enough, don’t worry.”
You can listen to the full audio interview with Acun Ilicali via the 1904 Club podcast right here
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