Tigers’ summer deals rise to much higher level with Bruce

Whether hanging around in departure lounges en route to Europa League ties, watching training from the sidelines or even while supposedly taking a holiday with the family, the Hull City manager has been in a near constant dialogue with agents, managers and players.

Some calls have paid off, many have not. But, as of 11 o’clock last night, Bruce’s summer spent working through his book of contacts had paid off handsomely with the Tigers’ squad looking far stronger than it did when the summer got under way.

Ten new faces arrived, many of whom were British, as the Hull manager continued to put together a group with a decent balance of youth and experience.

Along the way, club records were shattered – twice for incoming transfers and also when Shane Long left for £12m – as Hull splashed the cash in unprecedented fashion.

With the KC coffers bolstered by the current television deal, they spent around £38m on the new arrivals and banked £15m.

To put this into context, a year ago saw a little over £13m spent by Bruce with just £300,000 coming in from Blackburn Rovers for Corry Evans.

In January, the Tigers invested a further £13.5m in Shane Long and Nikica Jelavic to bring in the goals required to keep the club in the Premier League.

That combined outlay dwarfed the £3m Hull spent in 2009-10, while the club’s only other Premier League season saw a little over £15m – including £5m on record signing Jimmy Bullard –spent by Phil Brown.

Compared to those two seasons, Hull have been operating at a much higher level with many of their signings being proven at Premier League level.

There is also a depth to the squad that, even allowing for the run to the FA Cup final that saw second string sides fielded in the earlier rounds, was not evident last season.

A quick glance at the personnel Bruce used during that run to Wembley shows that Matty Fryatt, George Boyd, Robert Koren and Abdoulaye Faye all played several times, while Nick Proschwitz and Aaron Mclean had the notable accolade of scoring the first of Hull’s two goals in the Cup.

Perhaps Fryatt – who was always going to leave on a free in the summer due to rarely featuring in the Premier League – aside, none of these departures can be argued as having weakened a KC squad that has seen the defence, midfield and attack bolstered at great expense.

In midfield, for instance, Mohamed Diame will bring strength and craft to supplement former Spurs duo Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore.

The latter, at £8m the Tigers’ record signing before Abel Hernandez’s arrival yesterday afternoon, may have started slowly this time around, though it was noticeable just how much the midfielder came to the fore during the late rally against Aston Villa on Sunday that but for a flying Brad Guzan save would have yielded an unlikely point.

Another White Hart Lane old boy whose arrival has excited fans is Michael Dawson. His debut may have been a major disappointment at Villa Park but there can be little doubt that, at 30 years old, Dawson is an excellent addition and someone who fellow new boy Harry Maguire can learn a lot from in training.

So, too, is Andrew Robertson, the left-back from Dundee United who has slotted in admirably to fill what last year was a problem position for Bruce.

The Glasgow-born full-back was playing amateur football with Queen’s Park as recently as May last year. However, his progress last term was such that, by the end of 2013-14, Robertson had been named the PFA Young Player of the Year north of the border.

Still just 20, Robertson’s early showings for Hull suggest he could be one of the window’s true bargains.

As for Bruce’s other signings, Tom Ince could have a big role to play with Robert Snodgrass, who arrived as Norwich City’s Player of the Year, out for six months with a dislocated knee.

Losing the Scot for such a lengthy time was rotten luck so it came as something of a relief when Bruce’s 11th-hour move for Gaston Ramirez came off last night.

As exciting as the addition of the Southampton midfielder was, however, there can be little doubt which piece of business done by Bruce is the most fascinating.

Hernandez, a 24-year-old Uruguayan international, arrives with an impressive pedigree after netting 14 goals in 30 appearances for Palermo in Serie B.

But he has to hit the ground running, with Sunday’s loss to Villa showing that Hull need a front pairing that click straight away after Ince and Nikica Jelavic, admittedly while feeding on scraps, struggled.