Having seen Harry Maguire sign for Leicester City, Hull City need a smart replacement for the Championship and Aston Villa could have the man.
The start of the Championship season for Hull City could be a smooth transition, if they can source a central defender with some pedigree and great organisational play to replace Harry Maguire. While the club will get a transfer fee of some £17 million for selling Maguire, Sheffield United will have a sell-on clause of 10 per cent of any profit made after the £3m mark, according to the Yorkshire Post. The Tigers will need to bring in another defender with drive and passion with solid Championship experience now, if they are to mount a promotion challenge.
There is a player at Villa Park who has been out in the cold as far as Steve Bruce is concerned, and yet he has the calm authority to lead a side as a captain. Tommy Elphick may have been sidelined at Villa with James Chester and Nathan Baker becoming the regular centre-backs there, but there is still a desire in Elphick to repeat the success he had at AFC Bournemouth when he led the side to the Championship title win 2014-15.
Tommy Elphick of Aston Villa before the game
Elphick is very much a team player. He listens and talks to players as well as encouraging others to learn from their mistakes. The former Brighton man has been linked to Birmingham City and other clubs in the division are tracking him, according to the Birmingham Mail, and that is no surprise with ex-Bournemouth manager Harry Redknapp now presiding at St Andrew’s.
Hull City would have to be prepared to battle the likes of Birmingham for the player, but they won’t find many defenders with the same kind of experience and far from astronomical transfer fee already playing in the Championship. Elphick moved to Villa for around £3m, according to the BBC from AFC Bournemouth at the start of last season and his price won’t have climbed.
Elphick should be fresh having only played half the number of games that he expected to last season with 26 appearances and and 1872 minutes of football under his belt. While his clearance count won’t be near the highest in the division, from a total of 124 clearances, 81 of them were headers – proving his excellence in the air at clearing danger. Elphick leads by keeping the game simple and being an assured passer, while winning knockdowns under pressure in his own box. He’s also quicker than forwards often expect and is very much a battler who wants to win possession back for his team.
Tommy Elphick in his Bournemouth days
He would seem the ideal choice for a side that wants to get back into the Championship, as he will get the dressing room believing in themselves – some Hull City players will need that now that they have dropped down a division.
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