Summer sales disrupted Hull City's preparations, concedes Slutsky

Leonid Slutsky: Saw eight players leave in his first summer in charge of Hull City.

The Tigers head to Aston Villa and a reunion with former manager Steve Bruce tomorrow following a close season that has brought not only those high profile departures, but also plenty of speculation over the futures of Sam Clucas and Abel Hernandez.

“This is new,” said Slutsky. “I worked in Russia with CSKA (Moscow) and it is the biggest club. Each player dreamed of playing for CSKA.

“Every season we sold players, but it was the best players going overseas. Serious players, serious prices. But it was only ever one or two players per summer.

“We had six or seven players that stayed for more than 10 years with the team. It was a very solid team that played all the time together.

“This is my first experience of this, but I understand the situation. Maybe only Newcastle have been relegated in recent seasons and kept all the squad. Usually, like Sunderland and Hull, there is a lot of gossip about players leaving.”

The Tigers chief still wants to bring in several new faces, but he admits that the closing of the window will also come as a relief.

“I am very excited for September,” said the former Russia manager. “Every day I have fingers crossed with this because there is a lot of gossip. Sometimes, it is a distraction. You saw in Portugal (on Hull’s pre-season camp) when every day a player was leaving.

“That was very disappointing and it became a serious distraction for the team. It was difficult to have a good motivation in each training session when you think maybe I am also leaving.

“I understand why, but I have spoken with the owner and I hope the market is closed.”