Why Hull City’s Latest Signing May Yet Prove To Be The Most Crucial Piece Of Business They Do All Summer

Why Michael Hector Is A Good Addition To The Hull City Squad

Hull City have announced the year-long loan signing of Jamaican international defender Michael Hector from Chelsea.

The 25-year-old, born in East London, finally replaces the departed Curtis Davies who joined Derby County along with teammate Tom Huddlestone and the move may prove to be an inspired one by boss Leonid Slutski.

Hector has plenty of experience in this division, having played 80 times at this level for Reading and he’s certainly been around a bit in his time. Spells at Dundalk, Barnet, Shrewsbury, Aldershot, Cheltenham, Aberdeen and most recently Eintracht Frankfurt meant he was in danger of being marked as somewhat of a journeyman.

As a defender though, he is just nicely coming to the boil and his experience could prove crucial. Across all league and cup competitions in the four countries in which he has played, Hector has appeared 225 times and certainly knows his way around.

Although he managed 22 games in the Bundesliga last season; a very good level of football, his best season arguably came during the 2015/16 season at Reading, when his 30 league appearances (26 starts) produced a great impression on the defender.

He’s come on a bit since then. So we can expect a much more rounded Championship defender, and that is something the Tigers badly need.

Hull’s squad has been weakened since relegation last season and the loss of a fine manager, who they had for such an achingly short time, didn’t help things either. So they are not really among many fans’ favourites for promotion, like they would have been in previous years.

What they have in Hector is the sort of quality player that big spenders Derby County, Middlesbrough and Wolverhampton Wanderers would have been happy with. Although they have a long way to go to match those squads overall, it’s a step in the right direction.

I won’t go as far as to say Hull are on the back foot before a ball has even been kicked in the Championship. To be fair, Davies did need to be replaced. But when things are heading in a backwards direction, you rather need to batten down the hatches and ensure the floodgates don’t open.

Without Davies, Hull’s defensive options were looking decidedly thin on the ground. So this may yet prove to be the most crucial piece of business they do all summer.