Hull City manager Nigel Adkins reckons that he can keep hold of his trio of on-loan Chelsea defenders with the transfer window looming on the horizon. Some sources claim that the Tigers’ boss expects to retain his prized defenders when the January transfer window opens next month. Hull City recently suffered a narrow 1-0 loss at Cardiff City on Saturday but they are already making plans for the upcoming transfer window. It is being reported that the Tigers’ head of recruitment Lee Darnbrough has held meetings with club manager, Nigel Adkins this week to review their squad that has just won five out of the 22 matches in this campaign.
January seems to be an “important” month for the club and might provide a nice opportunity to build and inject some quality into his squad. Hull City recently sacked Adkins’ predecessor Leonid Slutsky, who is a close friend of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. This development had created doubts over the futures of their defenders Ola Aina, Michael Hector and Fikayo Tomori who are all on loan from Chelsea. However, Nigel Adkins remains confident that he will be able to oversee their season-long loans at East Yorkshire.
When asked about the futures of Aina, Hector and Tomori in a recent interview, Adkins said:
“As far as I’m concerned, they’ve trained really well and I’ve had good conversations with them,”
“As far as I’m aware, the way the contracts are when they were brought in, they’re here for the rest of the season. As far as I’m concerned, they’re with us and we’re working hard with them. One, to develop them individually and two, to make sure they’re part of the group to help Hull City win games of football.
“I’m concentrating on them being part of the group we’ve got, helping them to develop and being part of this group.”
It is believed that Adkins still expects to bring in one centre-back in January along with a fresh attacking option but he’s refusing to judge his squad that he has only assessed for a week. There has been no clear indication with regards to the size of his transfer kitty for next month’s transfer window but the manager will be desperate to keep hold of his star players which include the likes of Kamil Grosicki and Jarrod Bowen.
Chelsea should be in no hurry to recall their trio of young defenders who haven’t developed enough to fight for a place in Antonio Conte’s starting eleven. It only makes sense for all parties if they could stay and grow as footballers at Hull City under new boss Nigel Adkins.
It remains to be seen whether Hull City’s new manager is right about his assessment with regards to the futures of his on-loan trio of Chelsea defenders.
