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Is Hull City’s 24-Year Old Deadline Day Deal To Sign Australian Midfielder A Good Or Bad Move?

Jackson Irvine

Is Jackson Irvine’s Arrival Good Or Bad For Hull City?

Hull City have completed a deal for Burton Albion midfielder Jackson Irvine, but is the Australian’s signing a good move by the Tigers? Both Irvine and his club had excellent seasons last time around in the Championship and the 24-year-old Melbourne-born player is definitely on the up and up – always a good thing when looking to sign a player.

After what was arguably an unsuccessful spell at Celtic between 2013 and 2015, Irvine began to improve, enjoying good spells at both Kilmarnock and Ross County in Scotland before his move to England and it would seem another slight climb up the ladder is appropriate about now.

Burton paid only around £300,000 for Irvine when he signed for the Midlands club last summer but his stock has risen considerably since then, with some excellent displays in the middle of the park for the Brewers, though his discipline is still in question.

Irvine finally represents a good replacement for Tom Huddlestone and Sam Clucas, along with Kevin Stewart of course. Though the four players are not completely comparable, at least they have now filled the gaps in their squad.

Despite selling some top talent, money has been tight at the KCOM and so Irvine appears to provide just the right balance of quality and value. His year in the Championship has proven to the club that he knows how to handle things at this level and that’s a pretty big deal.

Local media in Hull seem to think that they are still promotion candidates, having been relegated from the Premier League but frankly, they really needed this signing just to remain competitive in this division.

Losing their highly-rated manager before selling Curtis Davies, Tom Huddlestone, Harry Maguire, Andy Robertson, Sam Clucas and others meant that their new signings would have to have been legendary for them to think of challenging the likes of Boro and Wolves for top-two positions.

Irvine is a player on the up and that is always a good thing to take into consideration when thinking about signings and there is little doubt that he represents good value. That said though, I sincerely doubt he’s the man right now to drive Hull City up into a top two or three position but if he keeps his head he’ll do fine.

The answer to whether Jackson Irvine is a good signing for Hull is probably not a straightforward question in itself.  If you are willing to concede that players like Huddlestone and Clucas had to leave, then yes he is a decent replacement.

If you are of the opinion that the club could have kept hold of such talent then no, he simply does not match up right now.