Hull City manager Sergej Jakirović has admitted that he will have his eye on the Croatian to flight this summer as he eyes signings for the Premier League.
Sportske Novosti have an interview with the Hull City manager today in which he discusses his summer plans for the Tigers.
Hull’s busy summer transfer window
Hull are expected to be extremely busy across the summer as they reshape their squad for life back in the Premier League.
Having come up through the play-offs, in surprising fashion to say the least, Sergej Jakirović and his team are already behind the likes of Coventry City and Ipswich Town when it comes to planning.
Both of those sides have also been pushing for the Premier League for a while, while Hull were only planning for mid-table at best in the Championship this season.
Jakirović has already admitted he wants 12-15 signings to bolster his squad. He’d quite like to copy Sunderland’s busy summer, which ended with them in European football next season.
Their success came from smart scouting around Europe, and Jakirović admits he could look at a league he knows well, the SHNL.
“I’m looking, of course,” he said.
“There are players in our league that are interesting to us, but we still need to see what their price will be and whether we will have players in their positions who might be more acceptable to us.”
Two targets named
Reports last summer already linked Hull with Arbër Hoxha at Dinamo Zagreb and Rijeka’s Toni Fruk. The Hull manager is willing to look at those two again, believing they’re ready for the Premier League.
“It’s true, Hoxha was our target, but due to the ban we couldn’t pay the compensation and Dinamo didn’t want to let him go,” he added.
“I also wanted to bring (Rokas) Pukštas from Hajduk and Fruk from Rijeka, but you can’t if you don’t pay the compensation. All of these are players who would be reinforcements for us in the Championship.”
“I believe so, they’re great players,” he concluded, when asked if they can be Premier League reinforcements.
“I know Hoxha well from Dinamo, Pukštas has fantastic predispositions, Fruk is brilliant in the finals. They will certainly all be part of our analysis and discussions, but it is too early to draw any conclusions. We need to see how much money we will have available and who we will be in a position to bring in.”
“The ones I have listed certainly can (play in the Premier League). Otherwise, why doubt the quality of the players who dominate our league? Those with real ambition always find their way.”
