Hull City manager Sergej Jakirović believes they need 12-15 signings this summer to compete in the Premier League next season.
Sportske Novosti have an extensive interview with the Hull City manager today, in which he lays out his plans for the summer transfer window.
Hull City summer plans
Sergej Jakirović has become one of the most interesting coaching stories in European football over the last year thanks to his immense, unexpected success at Hull.
He took charge of Hull last year with the express remit of staying in the Championship or at least securing a comfortable mid-table finish. Instead, he defied expectations, leading them to the playoffs before beating Middlesbrough in the play-off final.
The means he is now a Premier League manager and facing the difficult task of keeping the Tigers in the top flight. And to do so, he thinks they need a big summer transfer window.
“We calculate that the skeleton of the 12 main players who performed this season will remain, which means we need 12 to 15 reinforcements,” he said.
“The owner and I talked, but he didn’t say anything about the money, we still have to sit down seriously.
“However, we know some information. Coventry, as the winner of the Championship last season, plans to invest around €40m in reinforcements, but they have already had an expensive and strong team with which they have attacked the Premier League for two years.
“Ipswich is reportedly preparing around €80m. For some comparison, Sunderland, as a newcomer to the Premier League last summer, invested around €120m in reinforcements and immediately finished seventh, winning the Europa League.”
€120m spend like Sunderland?
While Sunderland may be the shining of example of how to do it, Jakirović does not believe that Hull will have the same kind of spending power this summer.
“Sunderland is my guiding principle, the club has excellently identified, conditionally speaking, cheaper, but very good players, mainly in Belgium and France,” he added.
To get €120m reinforcements… That is already a dream, I do not believe that we will have that much money at our disposal, but we will see. Basically, there are no more restrictions, we can pay compensation.”
