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Football Extra's Dream Signings: Hull City

Jacob Murphy

There's no point sugar-coating it: Hull City are up against it next season.

The Tigers were promoted through the playoffs as a statistical anomaly, one of the worst-performing sides to have ever made it to the top flight according to a number of metrics.

They had the sixth-worst xG differential in the Championship last season, conceded 168 more shots than they took – only two sides had worse shot numbers – and went up with the second-worst goal difference ever (+4), behind Huddersfield (-2) in 2016-17.

However, the Terriers defied similarly gloomy expectations to stay up the following season – and Hull will be looking to do likewise. Whether they will or not is likely to be defined by what happens over the next three months in the transfer market. A 10-year-old club record transfer fee of just £13m will need certainly need to be broken – several times.

I've seen some supporters suggesting chairman Acun Illicali might be able to pull some strings to bring his Turkish countryman Arda Guler to the KC Stadium on loan for a year. Back in the real world, I've got another solution for the right wing position that will be so crucial to providing Ollie McBurnie with the service he needs.

Murphy might not be the shirt-selling marquee name fans are dreaming of but the 31-year-old has proven himself to be a steady operator at this level.

Since the start of the 2024-25 campaign, he's picked up 25 goal involvements in 68 games. He's a willing runner who'll whip crosses into the box all day, which is exactly what Hull's play-off final hero McBurnie will want from his winger.

On top of that, he forms part of the leadership group at Newcastle, acting as stand-in captain on occasion during the season just gone. Having those sort of skills in the dressing room during a survival campaign would be invaluable.

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