Contwition

I'm so sorry about yesterday. Made a stupid, immature and costly mistake. I apologize to hull city and the fans who I let down. I let my emotions get the best of me and lost my composure. Believe it or not this year playing for hull was to date the best trip I've ever been on.

Stupid reaction by Jozy. Nicely taunted by Hutton who also went down quite theatrically.



Hutton was red carded as well, but has since had his suspension reduced to one match.

Vennegoor given all clear

Well, maybe not all clear.

Hull City have welcomed news revealing that Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink has suffered no long-term damage.

The Dutch striker was knocked unconscious after colliding with Richard Dunne during Wednesday's 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa, with the game delayed by seven minutes as he was treated on the field before being carried off.

Vennegoor of Hesselink was immediately rushed to Hull Royal Infirmary for scans, with it feared that he may have suffered major head trauma.

However, medical tests have come back all clear and he has subsequently been released to recuperate at home.

The 31-year-old frontman will definitely sit out the Tigers' home date with Sunderland on Saturday, but could figure again before the end of the season.

I've had N'Gog penciled in as a cheap striker this week. But he's suffered a 24 trip to Madrid to play today and travels to Burnley at the weekend. Perhaps Jozy is a better option? He's cheaper. Hull must win, and they're at home to a poor-traveling Sunderland side. I don't know that I'm ready to ship out DBent from another of the striker positions, but maybe there are goals from both sides in this one.

Or is that just our USA bias talking?

No changes for Villa

Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill is to set to name an unchanged side as his team chase Champions League qualification in Wednesday night's Barclays Premier League encounter at Hull City.

O'Neill is poised to retain the 11 that started last Sunday's 2-1 win at Portsmouth.

Meanwhile,

Hull boss Iain Dowie will not risk defender Anthony Gardner against Aston Villa.

The former Tottenham player, who has been out for two months with an ankle injury, has returned to full training and Dowie is hopeful he will be ready to face Sunderland on Saturday.

Midfielders Dean Marney (illness) and Bernard Mendy (hamstring) are doubtful while Caleb Folan is set to miss out because of a hip problem.

Kamil Zayatte, Amr Zaki, Ian Ashbee, Richard Garcia (all knee) and Stephen Hunt (foot) are out but keeper Matt Duke and teenage midfielder Tom Cairney will keep their places after impressing in the goalless draw against Birmingham at the weekend.

Hull City Season Preview

Hull survived last season due to the incompetence of others despite their own best efforts at relegation. The final insult was their losing 0-1 to Manchester United who all but ran out the youth team WHEN THEY NEEDED A WIN TO ENSURE THEIR PREMIER LEAGUE SURVIVAL! It was unbelievable stuff. Unbelievably dire. The only player, in my opinion, who showed anything that day was Andy Dawson. At least he was trying... and taking kicks. And yes, he was in my fantasy team and did earn me near twenty points, if I remember correctly.

This season Hull City are again being tipped to 'challenge' for one of the relegation places, but again they may survive due to the incompetence and mismanagement elsewhere in the league. They are starting to make a little noise in the transfer market with the signings of Olofinjana, Hunt and Altidore and those are three good moves from our viewpoint. The question is whether or not it will be enough to re-invigorate a team that just completely shut down after Christmas last season. For fantasy purposes it is probably best to just stay away from Hull unless you are backing their opposition. For instance, their opening day trip to Chelsea could get ugly.

Possible Starting XI: Myhill, Kilbane, Turner, Zayatte, Dawson, Olofinjana, Boateng, Fagan, Hunt, Geovanni, Cousin

Players to Watch:

Stephen Hunt - I see the Premier League as a set of four groups...The Big Four, the Aspirants (Villa, Citeh, Everton, and Spurs), the Middle (Fulham, Rovers, Sunderland, West Ham, Wigan, and Bolton), and the Strugglers (the 3 promoted clubs plus Pompey, Hull, and Stoke).  You could argue that maybe Fulham should be included with the Aspirants based on last year and Stoke the Middle but based on what I expect for this year, that's how I'm looking at it.  Hunt gives Hull reason to think they might be able to climb above their fellow Strugglers into the relatively safe "Middle" zone.  Hunt is likely to produce about 6 points/match and if he comes in to the fantasy game after a couple years out of the Prem costing about 6 then he's probably a pretty good deal (sort of like Eth at Stoke).  My only caveat here is that Reading's strong attack may have boosted his numbers in a way that Hull aren't prepared to do.  If you need to take a chance and he comes in cheap, then go for it.  If they're playing ManYoo or you're looking for guaranteed production, then probably best to avoid Hull players altogether.

Geovanni - One of the stars of the early season last year faded as the campaign wore on and in retrospect was that most frustrating of fantasy players - one who occasionally had excellent performances but who you couldn't count on week-to-week to a) be in the line-up and b) grind out the phantom points when the goals weren't flowing.  This sort of player is best suited for being a one week gamble if the price is right but isn't likely to string multiple strong performances together and hence not really useful fodder for the Barn Door.  I'm not sure there's any reason to expect that this season will be any different than last for Hull or Geovanni - he isn't a young guy with upside and Hull haven't added enough pieces to indicate that they are likely to take a step forward and start producing big attacking numbers.

Boaz Myhill - As a "sort of" American (he is or at least was eligible to play for the US Internationally) I've followed Myhill a bit more than the average mediocre keeper on a team struggling to avoid relegation.  He's not bad really but the defence in front of him doesn't do him too many favors and he's not exceceptional enough to make up for those deficiencies.  Unlike Stoke, Hull haven't really established an identity as a grinding defensive team so it's hard to imagine that they'll pile up the clean sheets against lower-half teams.  There will likely be plenty of saves available and Myhill is likely to be inexpensive.  Still, he'd have to be pretty cheap for me to be excited about his prospects in anything other than a desperation situation where I needed the money for other things.

Another Useful Signing at Hull

The F365 Transfer Blog: Tuesday August 11

11.28: Reading expect Stephen Hunt to join Hull City later today - assuming he passes a medical

No, I don't expect that this is going to rocket them up the table to challenge the likes of Everton, Spurs, Citeh, and Villa for a European place but let's face it, with 3 promoted clubs and Pompey all in a lot of danger of relegation anything Hull can do to put themselves closer to the Rovers and Hammers of the world in the low teens as opposed to the relegation zone has to be considered a pretty important move.  I'm not saying that this does it by itself but it certainly helps.

For Fantasy Managers, Hunt is an occasional option if he comes into the system cheap.

Hull do something worthwhile

U.S. National Soccer Team Blog - ESPN

I'm sure his name isn't huge around the world but Hull did themselves a favor in acquiring Jozy Altidore on loan from Villareal. The American striker is from the Drogba/Kenwyne Jones mold and will be a dynamic presence that Hull lacked once he gets his feet under him in the Prem. Probably not an early season pick-up but I'm betting come mid-October he'll start making a bit of an impact and you should keep an eye on him in case it comes sooner.

Around the Premier League

An all-encompassing round-up of the Premier League's weekend action -- on the pitch, in the boardroom and on the treatment table.

Friendlies
Jo at the double for Toffees
Posh slayed by slick Villa
Arsenal held on Rosicky's return
City plundered by Pirates
Owen nets winner on debut
Thomas nets on Tigers debut
Round-up: Spurs ease to win
Cherries suffer Spurs defeat
Grant strike sinks Latics
Round-up: Blackburn hold Roma
Round-up: Stoke embarrassed

Transfers
Adebayor completes City move
Wigan finalise Scotland deal
Manucho heads to Valladolid
Everton reject Man City bid for Lescott
Forest agree Gunter fee
Thomas handed Tigers chance
Villa sign Downing

Injuries
Arteta taking recovery slowly
Ferguson sets date for Hargreaves return
McShane concern for Bruce
Cole has new knee knock

Odd Moves?

Jeremy and I were IMing earlier today about some of the moves that seem likely to be completed in the next day or two. I'll spare you the transcript - Jeremy likes that gimmick more than I do [I sure do... and here it is] - but here are some thoughts:

1. Fulham striker Zamora joins Hull in £5m deal - Huh? I don't object to Hull picking up Zamora for depth, he's an adequate 3rd or 4th striker for a team with aspirations of being mid-table. On the other hand, paying £5M for him seems, well, insanely high. In my opinion this shows how lazy or unable to scout outside the obvious places - those being other people's leftovers, the Championship, the SPL, and maybe some of the other Continental leagues. Steve Bruce may get some flack for non-Argentine/non-Brazilian South and Central Americans but they're certainly better value for the money if you're willing to do the work to find that talent.


2. Sunderland confirm Crouch talks - I don't really have anything to say about Crouch one way or the other with the exception of the fact that he's definitely not a replacement for Cisse as Kenwyne Jones' partner. I assume this move would imply that KJ is on his way elsewhere - seems like a little bit of a downgrade to me but only marginally. Seems like the Black Cats would be better served letting Crouchy head to Fulham and focusing on that Darren Bent rumor.


3. Villa try to clinch Downing deal
   Villa working on Downing capture - I actually like this one a lot more than Jeremy does. One of Villa's biggest problems last season was that the squad was too small. They now have Ashley Young, James Milner, Gabby Agbonlahor, and Downing to rotate between two wing spots and one "small" striker to partner Heskey/Carew. If Petrov fills in Barry's spot as a holding midfielder which he was doing reasonably well when asked last season then they're in pretty good shape outside of the defence. Maybe a little expensive for someone who might not be a first choice starter every week but still a good deal if they can afford it.

---

As threatened, here's the 'blog roundtable' we had over instant message today.

[08:49] JSpitzberg: EJ doing well for FUL in their pre-season
[08:49] JSpitzberg: set up 2 for nevland yesterday
[08:49] Neal J Thurman: wow
[08:49] Neal J Thurman: could be a nice thing for him if he can get some PT
[08:50] JSpitzberg: welcome back
[08:51] JSpitzberg: odd xfer rumours...
[08:51] JSpitzberg: zamora to hull for 5mil
[08:52] JSpitzberg: not odd, but surely overpriced
[08:52] JSpitzberg: crouch to sunderland? thought he was going to ful to replace zamora
[08:52] JSpitzberg: and downing to villa...
[08:52] JSpitzberg: who have the left wing covered, thank you very much
[09:12] Neal J Thurman: the only one that makes much sense to me is Downing - Villa's big problem is squad depth so having a mix and match of Downing, Gabby, BFAY, and Milner (plus maybe Bentley?) for two wings and the "small" striker seems reasonable
[09:13] Neal J Thurman: assuming that Kenwyne heads somewhere (maybe FUL?) if Crouchy goes to SUN
[09:13] Neal J Thurman: Zamora is too expensive at that price

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[12:33] Neal J Thurman: Any chance that Downing to Villa signals that BFAY will be moving along?
[12:35] JSpitzberg: that was my first thought
[12:35] JSpitzberg: but i just don't see that
[12:35] JSpitzberg: who knows
[12:35] JSpitzberg: downing also played through the middle a little
[12:35] JSpitzberg: off a striker
[12:35] JSpitzberg: so maybe they can convert him like barry to a left-sided, central player
[12:36] Neal J Thurman: would fit his pace (err, lack of) a little better
[12:36] JSpitzberg: and if petrov has really found a role holding in mid...
[12:36] JSpitzberg: could work
[12:37] JSpitzberg: but who takes kicks? ;-)
[12:37] JSpitzberg: sure hope it's BFAY
[12:37] JSpitzberg: downing hasn't met a cross he couldn't over- or under- hit
[12:37] Neal J Thurman: lol - excellent question with the worst possible likely answer is that they get split up between Downing/BFAY/Milner/Petrov
[12:38] Neal J Thurman: but agreed on Downing not being an upgrade in that regard
[12:40] JSpitzberg: they also played downing on the right at times
[12:40] JSpitzberg: so he can cover milner
[12:40] JSpitzberg: but not sure i agree with that
[12:40] Neal J Thurman: would work in a pinch
[12:40] JSpitzberg: not sure you can look at anything boro did last season and say "hey, we should really try that"
[12:41] Neal J Thurman: they definitely need some additional cover
[12:41] JSpitzberg: 12million worth of cover
[12:41] JSpitzberg: and someone who needs to play to have a shot at 2010
[12:41] Neal J Thurman: seems to be the price of admission for a decent player these days - see Zamora for 5M
[12:41] JSpitzberg: ugh... that's unconscionable
[12:41] Neal J Thurman: it really is
[12:42] JSpitzberg: and fulham bought him for the same price
[12:42] Neal J Thurman: but in fairness, Hull paid much more than that for someone who only has one leg last January
[12:42] JSpitzberg: 4 goals later and they don't lose money on the deal?
[12:42] JSpitzberg: hull are getting desperate, me thinks
[12:42] Neal J Thurman: agreed
[12:42] JSpitzberg: we'll hear about zamora's work rate and how he helps the team
[12:43] Neal J Thurman: OR Zamora recaptures that WHU form of two seasons ago and Jummy is healthy and they're a much better team
[12:43] JSpitzberg: but i don't remember AJ or duece terrorizing anyone off zamora's work rate either
[12:43] Neal J Thurman: but probably the former
[12:43] JSpitzberg: did that form last more than a month?
[12:43] JSpitzberg: anomaly
[12:44] Neal J Thurman: probably
[13:03] JSpitzberg: melo to juve
[13:03] JSpitzberg: back to the drawing board
[13:43] Neal J Thurman: yup :-(
[13:44] Neal J Thurman: although I had a hard time getting TOO excited about him after Brazil gave up two early goals to the US :-)
[13:44] JSpitzberg: maybe they can get lucio instead
[13:44] JSpitzberg: LUCIO SMASH!
[13:44] Neal J Thurman: :-)
[14:11] Neal J Thurman: I still want them to go after Marco Senna
[14:16] JSpitzberg: old and injured
[14:16] JSpitzberg: jeremy toulalan!
[14:16] JSpitzberg: or if you want an injured player, how about poaching mammadou (sp?) diarra from real madrid?