Sergej Jakirovic has confirmed that he expects two new arrivals before Hull City head to Coventry City on Saturday afternoon, with the Tigers closing in on their 12th and 13th signings of the summer.
Jakirovic, who watched a much-changed side beat Stoke City 5-4 on penalties to progress into the third round of the Carabao Cup for the first time in six years, could see his squad boosted ahead of that crunch visit to the CBS Arena.
Mohamed-Ali Cho’s £13m move from Nice is set to be confirmed, and so, too, is the arrival of Union Berlin striker Ilyas Ansah, with the Tigers on the cusp of confirming a £15m deal with both players penning five-year deals at the MKM Stadium.
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The Tigers are also pushing hard to sign Sorba Thomas from Stoke City, with the winger creating the goal against City on Tuesday evening, but so far, the Potters have rebuffed their advances, though it’s expected progress will be made on that in the next few days.
Jakirovic was in a playful mood with the media at the bet365 Stadium, and would not be drawn on names, though he did suggest Thomas was a terrific performer at Championship level.
“I was on the touchline,” he told Hull Live with a big grin. “I don’t have a mobile phone with me, so thank God I’m rested for two hours. There’s no news. I don’t know. You know better than me.
“We will see when he will come,” he said of Ali Cho. “No, really, I don’t know anything about this, anything, so Ali Cho, Ansah, Sorba Thomas, we are linked with 200 players.
“Every player who is existing, he’s linked with us. He (Ansah) is a player of Union Berlin – zu guter Spieler (a good player in German).
“I know everything about Sorba Thomas from the Championship, he’s a difference maker, and he’s a very good player, and that’s it. From what I know, two (new arrivals). I just don’t know who.”
On the victory itself, which saw City book their place in Wednesday night’s third round draw, Jakirovic was pleased with the performance, having made 11 changes from the weekend win over Manchester United.
“We broke one more record (getting through). Now I have two in a row on penalties (after FA Cup win over Blackburn). It was a good opportunity for other players to play, and after Man United, you know, a lot of excitement, a lot of stress, and a few problems with some players, so I will use this competition to give other players a chance to get into a rhythm because you never know when we will need them and also that we have more depth in the squad for the next games.”
Akintola could have had a bucketful on the night, with Jakirovic deploying him up front in the absence of Oli McBurnie and no other senior options.
“He (Akintola) put in a lot of effort and energy. He tried to press there together with Kieran Dowell, so he did everything that we agreed on, and he just missed at least one goal.”
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