IF WE GO UP WE’LL ASK TO KEEP JADEN
ILICALI DISCUSSES FUTURE OF CITY STAR PHILOGENE
HULL City owner Acun Ilicali remains confident Jaden Philogene will stay at the MKM Stadium if the Tigers secure promotion through the play-offs.
City have nine games remaining and sit just three points adrift of Norwich City who occupy the final play-off spot, but Liam Rosenior’s men do have a game in hand on the Canaries and were only leapfrogged when the Carrow Road outfit beat Stoke, while the Tigers did not play before the international break.
Philogene has been a revelation at City since his £5m summer move from Aston Villa, scoring eight and clocking up six assists in a Tigers side that have been in and around the league’s top six all season.
His fine form has led to speculation that he could move away from the MKM Stadium in the summer, irrespective of whether the Tigers win promotion or not.
Villa do have the option to bring their former academy graduate back to Villa Park for £15m, but that deal can only be activated once the two clubs are in the same division, and there are no guarantees Unai Emery would seek to do that deal, given he sanctioned Philogene’s departure last summer, and has since signed Morgan Rogers.
City remain relaxed about the situation and Ilicali says he expects the 21-year-old, who is currently away with the England Under-21s, to stay if promotion is secured having impressed in his 23 games so far.
“The buy-back option is only available if we get promoted.
“If Jaden wants to play with us and he doesn’t want to go to Villa, with the good relationship with the club we will ask for their permission to keep him.
“I believe that every player should be where they are happy. If Jaden’s decision is to stay with Hull City if we go to the Premier League, I’m confident Aston Villa will not make us disappointed,” Ilicali told the Mirror.
“We are very, very happy with him. Again, if you look at our transfer history, convincing Jaden to join was very important last summer.
“We took maybe one month to finish the business but as I said, we are such determined people, crazy people that run the club that we show this ambition to the players.
“Jaden is one of the players I talked to and I think I affected his decision.
“When I saw him getting loaned to different clubs, I felt like he needed to feel like he belonged to a family.
“Instead of loaning, we offered Aston Villa a buy-option to sell him to us and in the end, we thank the Villa family for giving us this young talent.
“It took us one month but with good success.
“What we do in the last part of the transfers is to give the players confidence that we aren’t like every other club.
“The owner spends his time with the players giving full energy to the team.”