Hull City coach Shota Arveladze has confirmed the Championship club’s interest in signing Salah Oulad M’Hand from Premier League giants Arsenal this month, speaking to the Hull Daily Mail.
It’s an exciting time to be a Tigers fan. And it’s not often we’ve said than in recent years.
Whether or not the Acun Ilicali era goes to plan – the so-called ‘Turkish Simon Cowell’ hoping to bring the X-Factor to Humberside – the early signs certainly look good. So too do the early signings.
Ozan Tufan, Jean-Michel Seri and Oscar Estupinan already feel like players who would have been well out of Hull’s reach under the previous regime, with one of the Premier League’s brightest young talents seemingly next through the door.
Per reports, 18-year-old Salah Oulad M’Hand is rated very highly at Arsenal, by Mikel Arteta in particular. But he’s been won over by the prospect of swapping a top-flight colossus for a team playing in the third tier as recently as a year ago, having held extensive talks with Arveladze and Ilicali.
Arsenal are about to lose ‘special’ Salah Oulad M’Hand
“Those are the names that are on our list,” Arveladze said today, confirming Hull’s interest in Salah alongside Fenerbahce’s Dimitrios Pelkas and Brentford striker Halil Dervisoglu.
“This is true, like we’ve been saying. (The deals are) at different stages; We have to agree on everything to make a deal.
“It may be that something is 50/50 or 80/20 and things can change in the space of a day. But these are the right names that we’re looking for, and we’ll have to see if it works.”
According to the Hull Daily Mail, Salah has already been offered the number 10 shirt at the MKM Stadium; An indication that he will be utilised in a first-team role going forward by Arveladze. Perhaps the prospect of senior football week-in, week-out was a decisive factor in his decision to leave Arsenal so suddenly.
“Salah is a player I had watched from his time with the Dutch national team (at youth level),” explained Arsenal’s Head of Emerging Talent Yousuf Sajjad
“We knew of his quality. So, once he had left Feyenoord and an opportunity arose to bring him in on trial, we moved quick.
“You could see straight away there was something special about him. He had an injury-hit start last season but has shown his quality in almost every game he has played this season. I don’t even believe he has reached his best yet, there is still more to come.”
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