Gareth Ellis Column: A quiet deadline day for Hull as we look to finish on a high

AS HULL FC football manager, I didn't find myself taking too many calls in the run-up to Friday's transfer deadline day.
Lee Radford.Lee Radford.
Lee Radford.

That’s because, due to the position we find ourselves in over the course of the year – in particular the last couple of weeks – it’s made things very difficult to get into the top-four.

But we’re also still safe in the top eight and not at risk of relegation via the Qualifiers.

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All of that meant we weren’t as desperate to add to our squad as some other clubs might have been last week.

But I did get a few phone calls on the back of a couple of injuries we’ve had, a few agents offering players given the situation arising at other clubs.

That’s not just those fighting against relegation or going for the top-four but like the case of Derek Beaumont at Leigh.

Essentially, they conceded they weren’t going to get into the Championship top-four and made decisions off the back of that.

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He’s allowed players to move on, sort their futures and a lot have chosen to crack on elsewhere.

With that in mind, I don’t think there’s been a transfer deadline day where there’s been quite so much action.

There was a lot of deals done ahead of the weekend. I’m not sure if that is a reflection of how shallow the talent pool might be but you can’t fault players for choosing to go out and have a crack elsewhere.

At Hull, when it comes to recruitment, it’s quite a big team effort.

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There’s Adam Pearson at the top, chief executive James Clark, head coach Lee Radford and myself who all have an input into what’s going on and it is a big decision to make.

Our players in this squad have been very successful over the last few years.

Admittedly, it’s hard to judge them on this season because of the injuries we have seen.

When looking elsewhere, we have always had to ask would the players available that we might bring in actually be any better than those we might let go?

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But it’s not just that. The other factor is at what price are those deals done?

In the end, we didn’t think there was anything better out there than what we had.

But, still, I think we can all agree it has been a disappointing season for us finishing sixth in the regular table after Friday’s loss in the derby.

You could blame injuries but what we have to do, as a football department off the field, is look at how we can freshen up things in a different way for 2019.

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We won’t have two or three big players coming in; we have to find a way of doing that off the field, to challenge the players for next season, and that’s what we’ll be doing with this squad.

There was a lot of re-signing news last week and that is a big part of what we do. We announced new deals for the likes of Scott Taylor and Josh Bowden and there’s been plenty of retention in readiness for 2019.

We had hoped we’d get many of our injured players back for a big push for the top-four. We did get a lot back the week before against Wakefield but – and I know this – it takes a while to get back not just your fitness but your touch back. Hopefully we’ll see that in the coming weeks.