Having had at least two bids rejected for Jordan Rhodes, Steve Bruce has reluctantly accepted Hull City will need to look elsewhere for reinforcements.
The Tigers agreed to sell Republic of Ireland international Shane Long to Southampton earlier this month, when an offer of £12million was deemed too good to refuse. Bruce immediately set his sights on Rhodes, who was a regular goalscorer in League One with Huddersfield Town and has continued in this vein whilst in the Championship with Blackburn Rovers.
However, Hull failed with an opening bid of around £6million, and also received short shrift when they returned with a second offer in the region of £8million. It has also been claimed that a third offer was rejected in recent days, but despite receiving the initial impression that a deal could be reached, Bruce has now accepted Rovers will not sell Rhodes.
“It’s dead and buried,” he told Sky Sports News HQ. “It’s their prerogative and as I’ve said we got an indication from Blackburn that they were willing to do a deal. That obviously changed within 24 hours and that’s their prerogative. If they had said that to start with – that he wasn’t for sale, no matter what we wanted to do – then fine, we’ll walk away. But unfortunately it gets a bit protracted and as I said last weekend, we thought it was close and then all of a sudden things change and he’s not for sale, so we’ll move on to the next one.”
Despite this disappointment, Bruce has been able to make some impressive additions since the end of last season. Jake Livermore has been signed on a permanent basis in an £8million deal from Tottenham Hotspur, who this week allowed the Tigers to take Michael Dawson for £3.5million. Robert Snodgrass, although now facing a lengthy layoff with a knee injury, joined from Norwich City for £7million, and Tom Ince linked up from Blackpool.
Although it now seems highly unlikely Rhodes will be teaming up with the above at the KC Stadium, Bruce remains optimistic he can do more business before the window closes at 11pm on Monday evening. He added: “We’re close to one or two things, very close to one in particular, which will be another fantastic addition if we can pull it off. But until it’s really been rubber-stamped, I’m not going to say anything.”
Hull fans, if Rhodes is no longer on the agenda, which striker would you like to see Bruce go for? And what do you think of your summer business so far? Let us know what you think by joining in the discussion below!
