Birmingham City: Hull City transfer "needed to happen" as early exit confirmed | OneFootball

FLW's Hull City fan pundit has given his view on goalkeeper Ryan Allsop's departure to Birmingham City.

Highlights

This article is part of Football League World’s 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

A new era is underway at Hull City following the appointment of Tim Walter as the club's new head coach.

The Tigers made the shock decision to sack Liam Rosenior last month, despite finishing seventh in the Championship table this season, and Walter has been announced as his replacement.

Walter had been out of work since being dismissed by Hamburg in February, but he did a decent job during his two-and-a-half year spell in charge of the Bundesliga 2 side, and he will be hoping to guide Hull to promotion next season.

The German made his first big decision since taking over at the MKM Stadium last week as he sanctioned the departure of goalkeeper Ryan Allsop to League One side Birmingham City.

Allsop was the Tigers' first choice goalkeeper this season, and he kept 10 clean sheets in 38 appearances in all competitions, but he came in for criticism after making a number of mistakes in the second half of the campaign.

Hull signed Ivon Pandur from Fortuna Sittard in January, but despite Allsop's poor form, Rosenior did not give the Croatian a chance, and the goalkeeping situation caused tension between him and owner Acun Ilicali.

After Rosenior's exit, Ilicali revealed that Pandur will now become the club's number one goalkeeper, although he later clarified that he would not tell Walter who to play.

Hull City fan pundit: Ryan Allsop departure "needed to happen"

FLW's Hull City fan pundit Ant Northgraves believes Allsop's departure to Birmingham is a good move for all parties, and he believes he should have been dropped for Pandur in the second half of the season.

"I think the Ryan Allsop transfer was something that needed to happen for both the club and the player," Ant said.

"He's a nice guy, we wish him well for the future, but he played because he was good with his feet and he fit the play out from the back system that Rosenior wanted to play.

"There were question marks over his goal prevention.

"As fans, you want your goalkeeper to prevent the ball going in the back of your own goal, and we didn't see that often enough unfortunately for Allsop. "There were regular mistakes, especially in the second half of the season, and we've got someone like Ivon Pandur who is highly-rated and was really good at Fortuna Sittard the season before. "I thought that maybe when his form dropped, we were going to bring in Pandur to maybe just alleviate some of the spotlight that was on Allsop, and then we would get to see what Pandur can do and what he can offer, but we didn't see that. "It led to a point where the fan base was growing to get a bit annoyed with Allsop, so I think it would have been best to take him out of the limelight for a bit, but it didn't happen. "Then the chairman came out and said perhaps he should have been dropped in the moments where he played badly in the evening with the fans, so as a player, it's probably best for him to move on.

"He's going to get regular game time at Birmingham after dropping down to League One and potentially a (league) winners medal, so it made sense for both parties just for him to move on."

Acun Ilicali is under pressure after Ryan Allsop exit

Allsop was a solid goalkeeper for Hull, but he did make a number of costly errors this season, and it is difficult to disagree with Ant that it was the right decision for the club to allow him to depart.

An upgrade between the sticks is needed if the Tigers are to challenge for promotion next season, but it remains to be seen whether Pandur will be an improvement on Allsop.

Pandur is yet to make his debut for Hull since his January arrival, and Rosenior did not believe he was good enough for the Championship, much to the frustration of Ilicali.