If you score against Hull I’ll sign you
Southgate won’t hammer Hart
LEONID SLUTSKY has outlined his new Hull City transfer policy – sign up any player who nets against his team.
Midfielder Jackson Irvine scored for Burton in mid-August before striker Nouha Dicko repeated the feat for Wolves three days later.
Slutsky was so impressed, he signed both players this week before jokingly pointing out to his squad there is only one surefire way not to be replaced.
“If you want to come to Hull City, you have to score. Dicko scored and he’s come. Irvine scored and he’s come,” said Slutsky. “The best option for my players if they don’t want to have competition for their places is to keep clean sheets.” Irvine played in the Confederations Cup for Australia in the summer, and Slutsky said: “I’ve known about both players for a while and I watched how Irvine played for Australia in the summer.”
That event was staged in Russia, host IRVINE: New recruit of next year’s World Cup, Slutsky’s home country and where his playing days were ended at just 19 when he fell out of a tree trying to rescue a neighbour’s cat.
His heart now resides in east Yorkshire, saying he has never felt more at home than at Hull. He said: “It is the first time in my career I have been at a club where the supporters sing a song about me.
“Of course, the CSKA Moscow supporters were special too, but they sang more about the players there.
“I am very proud of and thankful at the same time to the Hull supporters. From the first game, they sang about me. I was unbelievably surprised.
“And when I sit in a restaurant in Hull or CAFE CULTURE: Hull City’s Russian boss Slutsky went into caffeine overdrive in order to learn English Beverley, they come up to me and wish me all the best in the future.
“I’m ready to work even harder for them. I don’t know how that’s possible, maybe working 25 hours a day instead of 24 because I am so thankful to them for this relationship.
“The story about how my playing career ended is a funny one now looking back, but I was in hospital for a year. I knew that climbing the tree to rescue the cat was very dangerous, but I was polite to my neighbour and I couldn’t say no. I fell and my left ankle broke like glass into a thousand pieces. It was very difficult, but maybe I was nothing special as a player and I was born to be a coach.”
Unlike many foreign managers, Slutsky has taken a high-intensity route to learning English, at a language school in London recommended to him by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, and drinking lots of coffee.
“The teacher told me that English culture is about conversations between people and relationships so I really researched your mentality. I watched a lot of musicals in London and I spoke to people everywhere, in hotels, in the street.
“I would go to five cafes in a row and have a coffee in each one. Not for the coffee but to speak with new people and to hear the different accents.”
SKY BET is the proud title sponsor of the EFL. THERE has been plenty of trash-talk about Harry Maguire this week – including from his mum.
But English football’s newest recruit is used to a bit of gentle abuse. After all, he was sitting in the stands among the England fans showing their frustrations in France last summer at yet another tepid performance.
The Leicester defender was called up for the first time at the start of the week and arrived at St George’s Park to check in carrying two scruffy-looking black bin bags, one in each hand.
A video of his appearance immediately went viral, so at odds was it with the Luis Vuitton look favoured by most Premier League stars.
With various news organisations also circulating the touching clip, it finally came to the eyes of his mother back home in Sheffield.
“I saw the stuff on Twitter with me and the bags,” Maguire said. “My mum texted me later on to ask what on earth I had in there! It was a bit of fun.
“They were just full of boots and shin-pads that I had to give to the kit man. I will try to treat myself to some proper luggage if I am called up again.
“In the meantime, I try my best to keep my feet on the floor and stay as humble as I can and let my ability do the talking.”
The journey to St George’s has been so swift that it is perhaps no surprise that the 24-year-old has not had time to pack properly.
Just 15 months ago, the closest Maguire was to the England senior team was as a fan. He paid to join his mates in France to watch Roy Hodgson’s side in the 2016 European Championships, and was in the Stade GeoffroyGuichard in Saint Etienne when the tepid 0-0 draw with Slovakia set England on an ill-fated path to meet Iceland in the knockout stages.
“It is strange to think that last year I was sat in the stand in France watching them against Slovakia and now I am in the squad,” said Maguire. insisting that, at international level at least, he still does not see him as a central midfielder.
The England manager has deployed him there twice in his tenure, against Lithuania at home and France in Paris, and both times the result was a disappointment.
“I know where Liverpool see him but I won’t share that,” he said. “But no, I don’t see him [as a central midfielder]. He could play as a No8 in certain systems, but we really like him as a wide player. We tried him in a couple of games to look at a different profile, but the explosive power and pace, ability to go on the outside and cross the ball, means he is more productive there.”
Southgate will name a full-strength side against Malta, an island smaller than the Isle of Wight who are four places in the world rankings behind the Cook Islands. “Within the squad of players we’ve got, we’ve got real competition for places in every area of the field,” he said, “so you have to earn the right to get in the squad, and then get in the team. The selection process is important.”
England full-back Kyle Walker said: “Every game is massive and we’ve got four coming up.
“It’s never going to be easy. When everyone plays against England they always seem to give that extra 50 per cent.
“So we have to raise our game and match that, and our quality should shine through with the players we’ve got.” P W D L ENGLAND 6 4 2 0 10 Slovakia 6 4 0 2 12 Slovenia 6321 6 SCOTLAND 2 2 Lithuania 6 1 2 3 Malta 6 0 0 6 6 2 A PTS 4 3 11 15 12 11 5 0