Hull City Promotion Candidates 2012-3. What do we need to do?

The Tigers players have

now returned for pre season training and are currently undergoing

fitness tests at Hull University. They have at the helm a new

management team under Steve Bruce. We have flirted with the play offs

in each of the last two seasons but not good enough to finish in the

top six. Personally I feel that our aim should not be to finish 6th

but first or second and guarantee promotion before the lottery that

is the play offs takes place.

We have so far managed

to retain all the players we wanted to retain from last season so

have the nucleus of a squad capable of being promoted but what does

Steve Bruce need to do in the transfer market to make us a real

contender for the top two spots. Here are my views.

The goalkeeper is the

obvious place to start because currently we only have Mark Oxley who

spent most of last season injured and has only had the experience of

a few games for Grimsby a couple of years ago. I keep reading that he

is an outstanding prospect but no manager has been brave enough to

pick him. Depending on how he is rated by the new management I don´t

think it is contentious to state we need at least one keeper possibly

two. Mannone over the last two seasons has proved himself to be a

more than capable keeper at this level and not too many fans would

complain if we signed him permanently. The stumbling block is the fee

we hear that Arsenal are demanding. There are other keepers available

and another keeper we are familiar with is Brad Guzan who would come

for free. Bruce has to decide whether to spend his money on Mannone

and then not have enough available for other positions. He as always

will be judged on results.

In defence we have

Rosenoir, East, Hobbs, Chester, Cooper, Bradley, McShane, Dawson,

Dudgeon and Townened. Numbers wise we appear covered but Hobbs will

be missing until at least October. East, Bradley and Townend have

played four games between so lack experience. The manager will have

to decide how reliable Cooper is. Although still relatively young

this will be a big year for Cooper as he fights to establish himself.

I would expect that we would need at least one centre back and that

Bradley and Towened will probably continue to learn their trade away

from the KC on loan once the early season fixtures are out of the

way.

We are lacking in the

wide areas. Currently we have Stewart, Devitt and Emerton. Stewart

has undoubted ability and this next season will be big for him too.

Consistency needs to be his aim not great highs and deep lows. We

need a level of performance from him every week and for him to

dominate not just decorate games. Devitt in my view is not good

enough and should be loaned out but if he wants to prove me wrong

then I will be delighted. Emerton is a promising youngster but you

can only be promising for so long and after two years in the Reserves

he needs to show he is good enough to take the next step. I

personally would welcome Josh King back I thought he showed a lot of

potential and has the pace to frighten defenders. Warren Joyce tells

us that we never saw the best of him last season due to injuries and

I would not argue with him. Paul Anderson has been mentioned and I

watched him at the end of last season and he had goalscoring

opportunities against us which he failed to take but is the right age

and has played at this level for a couple of seasons now.

Central midfield with

McKenna, Evans, Cairney, and Olofinjana leaves us well covered again

in numbers. McKenna had a good spell last season but will his legs

carry him for 46 games or should he be phased out. I am a big fan of

Evans and notice the number of times we regain possession due to him

snapping at opponents but like many others he has to push on again

this season. He needs to improve his goalscoring record also. Cairney

improved last season from the previous season and needs to continue

again like Evans he needs to improve in the oppositions box.

Olofinjana was a mystery last season as to why he was not picked more

frequently perhaps Barmby was right not to pick him or perhaps he was

wrong but now Oli has a new master to show that he is better than the

others. He still appears to be living off a game against Stoke in the

Premiership and a few anecdotes from Cardiff now he has to do it in a

Tigers shirt. If reports are to be believed then we are in the market

for a central midfield player also.

The striking positions

are almost as obvious as the goalkeeping position and if Bruce didn´t

want to spend on Mannone to have more to spend on a striker or

strikers then it would be a good decision in my view. In Fryatt we

have a striker who is as good as any in the Championship and given

the right service will score goals but like all strikers will miss a

few also. The good ones though are ready for the next chance when it

comes and Fryatt fits into this category. Other than him we struggle

McLean has a reasonable record in division 3 but has not done it in

the Championship for either us or Peterborough. I keep reading that

he works hard that for me is the minimum and I would worry if he

didn´t. We then are left with Cullen who needs to lose the word

promising from his title. Two years ago we were perhaps guilty of

expecting too much from an 18 year old but now he has to show us that

he has what it takes to score goals at this level or move down to

where he can score. Simpson is a mystery to me. I would not expect a

player to play for Wenger for so long without ability but he has not

shown that for us other than in flashes. He showed a few at Millwall

last season but by the time his loan finished he was not in their

team either. The year before we signed him he played for QPR and did

very well in the first half of the season but failed to score in the

second half. I would hope that he can get himself fixed up with

another club because I cannot see him featuring much next season. We

therefore need at least one new striker but two would be better to

put pressure on Fryatt and to be able to rotate when players lose for

and to cover for injuries. Heskey has been mentioned if he comes then

he comes with a lot of experience I just hope that he still has the

legs to last 90 minutes once or twice a week. I would though like to

see another striker who obviously knows where the back of the net but

also has some pace to run at defenders.

These are my views you

may agree or disagree but it will be interesting to see who Steve

Bruce signs, just before posting this I have read that he has not spoken to Heskey it would be more interesting to know who he has spoken to but if he needs to keep his cards close to his chest then so be it. It is exciting times ahead.