Tigers Transfer Talk: Are Hull City in for Mason, McManaman and Robson-Kanu?

It's another round-up of Hull City's weekly transfer activity. In short, there isn't any but read on anyway!

3^rd July

The Sun on Sunday say Spurs are willing to let 25-year-old midfielder Ryan Mason leave and City are interested in a £10m deal. Mason is a good player but that’s a lot of money for him, even if a chunk of it will most likely be incentive-based.

Meanwhile, according to the Daily Record, former City boss Phil Brown is in talks with former City keeper Mark Oxley, of Hibs, with a view to him replacing former City transfer target Daniel Bentley at Southend.

4^th July

Dean Windass’s column in the Hull Daily Mail suggested free-agent Wales striker Hal Robson-Kanu would be a perfect signing for City. It’s a view I share having suggested prior to their first Euro 2016 game that he’d be an ideal foil for Abel Hernandez. He’s not a prolific striker but he’s quick, strong, hard-working and versatile enough to play anywhere along the front. I think he’d take the hard knocks allowing a player like Abel to prosper. By close of play on Monday, it was being reported that The Tigers are indeed one of the clubs who’ve made contact with Robson-Kanu’s agent. Swansea and Leicester are also said to be interested.

5^th July

The City players jetted of to Portugal for pre-season training camp with a couple of new faces in the camp. Unfortunately for those craving transfers, they were the faces of youngsters Jarrod Bowen and Greg Olley who joined last year’s debutant Josh Tymon for the trip. It is fantastic to see the young lads coming through and timely as I’d just written this “Rough guide to the Hull City U21s”.

Journalist and Bundesliga expert Fernando Salceda tweeted that City are “in talks” with Augsburg’s Raul Bobadilla, mentioned last week. A story from a rather naff source also suggested Chinese clubs are sniffing around the bulky striker.

Southampton, Watford and Celtic are said to be intered in Hal Robson-Kanu but only by ClubCall.

6^th July

The usually reliable twitter account @TransferCentreL, which is linked to betting account @OddsChanger, suggested City have made Spurs a £7m offer for Ryan Mason. I don’t know what their source was for this story but it’s not come up from any of the other usual routes such as Sky Sports, BBC and local media so I’d doubt its authenticity in this instance.

French outlet Foot Mercato run a story linking Chelsea’s Senagalese defender Papy Djilobodji with a move to City. They also say Werder Bremen are interested in a deal for the 27-year-old who spent the second half of last season on loan there. I’m led to believe that there is plenty of truth in this rumour but that a move was “blocked” internally.

It’s back to @TransferCentreL who report that City, Burnley and Sheffield Wednesday want WBA winger Callum McManaman. The 25-year-old scouser joined Albion from Wigan for nearly £5m as Tony Pulis’s first signing but he’s barely played and looks nothing like the feisty, exciting player he was at Wigan.

West Ham are the latest club to be linked with ex-Tiger Robbie Brady. There were some rumblings of a move back to Hull a few weeks ago but they were without foundation and look ridiculous now.

7^th July

The big news today is that the club have put a deadline of July 11^th on bids for buying the club. This is good news and while my preference would be for the Allams to give themselves a free transfer to a remote island off Cuba, any sort of stability would be most welcome.

Right-back Ryan Taylor, released by City, is training with Rotherham. Exciting, eh?

Italian football website Gazzetta World, which seems to be deliberately named to draw some credence from the iconic Italian newspaper Gazetta dello Sport, claim Abel Hernandez’s agent is in Milan to discuss a move to Sampdoria. This one smells bullshitty.

8^th July

French journalist Manu Lonjon of Foot Mercato, who we’d never heard of three days ago, tweets that City are in discussions with Bordeaux defender Lamine Sane. The Senagalese international is a huge centre half who has been with Les Girondins for seven years and nearly joined Aston villa on loan in January. He was then suspended by Bordeaux in February for a dressing room punch-up with goalie Jerome Prior after a cup defeat to Nantes.

The Hull Daily Mail report that City made contact with Hal Robson-Kanu’s representatives last month but were told that he’d not be making any decision until after Euro 2016. The club will now follow-up on that initial move but the competition is fierce.

Former City forward Sone Aluko has signed for Fulham after being released last month. It’s a good move for him and at his best, he has the ability to light up the Championship. He’s unfortunately infuriating a lot of the time too but I wish him well at Craven Cottage.

A few months ago Steve Bruce expressed interest in signing then-loanee Isaac Hayden permanently from Arsenal. That talk quietened with Hayden’s limited involvement in our promotion campaign but a few rumours did crop up recently, perhaps based on those old comments. However, Sky Sports today report that Hayden will join Newcastle United in the next day or two.