Hull City are closing in on a move for Watford’s Adlene Guedioura after the horrific injury to Ryan Mason last week left the Tigers with a huge gap in their central midfield. And following Marco Silva’s transfer trend, it is yet another largely unused and unproven prospect.
The 31-year-old has had 12 appearances, just 9 starts, for the Hornets this season getting only one assist and Mazzarri bringing in Tom Cleverley clearly indicates that he has no plans for the Algerian international in his team anymore.
Reportedly, Watford have given the 31-year-old permission to hold talks with the Tigers despite the player having 18 months left on his contract at Vicarage Road. And a deal is expected to go through before the transfer window closes, which will be Silva’s fifth signing in January.
Guedioura played in all three group games for the national team in the African Cup of Nations as he saw the team getting eliminated early. Upon returning, he featured in Watford’s embarrassing 1-0 defeat to League One side Millwall last weekend, which was possibly his last involvement with Watford.
Given his stint in England, it is safe to say that the Algerian never quite got a hold of English football. Hull will be Guedioura’s tenth club of his thirteen-year footballing career. He arrived in England back in 2010 when he signed for Wolves and spent two years at Molineux before making a move to Nottingham Forest. The Algerian then moved to Crystal Palace after their promotion to the Premier League, where he spent two seasons managing just 16 appearances. After spending a year on loan at Watford, he made a permanent switch.
It clearly indicates that Guedioura is an average player and it will totally depend upon Silva, how he make the best use of him. And given how effectively he is deploying FC Porto loanee Evandro in the central midfield, Hull fans have a lot to be excited about.
The Algerian midfielder will no doubt bring chunks of experience with himself to KCOM stadium and will be a fruitful addition to the midfield of David Meyler, Evandro and Tom Huddlestone. Although Guedioura is not much domineering in the air at 178cm, he is a disciplined box-to-box player, whose role becomes effective when the team is doing well as a whole.
Now with the FA Cup out of the way, Hull have only one target to achieve- to survive the relegation. The Tigers are just two points short of escaping the relegation zone and with things pretty tight down the table, Silva has a realistic chance of getting the job done
