Tufan will have point to prove
Ozan Tufan will arrive at Hull City this summer with a point to prove, having struggled to make an impact in English football last season with Watford, who eventually went on to suffer relegation to the Championship.
The Turkish international has been capped 65 times by his country and remains a highly regarded figure at home, albeit a precocious one.
In England, however, his stock is not quite so high given the disappointing spell at Vicarage Road which saw him manage just nine appearances before
Roy Hodgson terminated his loan in January sending him back to Turkey.
In mitigation, Tufan was signed in mid-august by the Hornets, who agreed to buy the midfielder at the end of the season, providing they remained in the top flight before going on to endure a pretty torrid season.
Tufan’s struggles in England were not down to a lack of quality, but fitness and ability to get up to speed with the demands of Premier League football, according to Watford’s second of three managers who the Turkish international worked under in his short-lived spell in Hertfordshire.
“I try when I have the chance to put him [in], because he needs to take the Premier League performance level, and then for me it’s important,” said Claudio Ranieri after an FA Cup defeat to Leicester in early January, prior to the Italian’s sacking.
“He has the skill, and is a high [quality] player, but he needs to take the rhythm of the Premier League.”
Omer Riza, Watford’s academy coach added: “I feel he needed more time on the pitch to adapt to the Premier League. I think the pace of the Premier League caught him off guard. If a player wants to play in the Premier League, he has to work hard, constantly improve and you have to be disciplined.”
Sometimes a player just doesn’t fit a club and the move doesn’t work out, and Tufan’s to Watford was just that. Playing in the Premier League isn’t easy, particularly at a club that opted to change manager three times in the space of nine months and eventually went down, but this is a player with pedigree at international level.
Wanted by other Premier League clubs and those in Europe last summer, Tufan is a player the Tigers would not be able to sign, had his move to Watford worked out well. City are paying a relatively nominal fee for the 27-year-old, though it could rise towards £4m should promotion be secured.
Had Watford survived last term instead of suffering their dismal relegation, the Hornets would have been expected to pay £6m for Ozan, irrespective of whether or not he was still at the club, so that shows the calibre of player the Tigers are getting and one that Arveladze will need to work hard with to ensure he gets the best out of him.
Clearly, there were concerns over his fitness, and the Championship is demanding in its own right. Forty-six games which almost equates to a couple every week ensures its tag of relentless is entirely justified, and if Tufan isn’t ready for it, he’ll be found wanting.
Pre-season will be key for him, something he didn’t get in England last season, and if he’s to be a success in East Yorkshire and indeed the Championship, having a really fruitful few weeks ahead of the league opener will be absolutely paramount and set him up for what lies ahead.
Importantly, sources close to the player have told the Mail he’s determined to come to the
MKM Stadium and be a success, that he feels he has a point to prove given the way things worked out at Watford.
City have, without doubt, got themselves a player here, but it’s now down to Tufan to prove that he’s capable of making the grade in England, just as he has done on the domestic and international scene.