Opinion: News emerging from Italy suggests Hull and Swansea may have dodged a bullet with unsuccessful Aston Villa transfer chase | OneFootball

Opinion: News emerging from Italy suggests Hull and Swansea may have dodged a bullet with unsuccessful Aston Villa transfer chase | OneFootball

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Football League World

·12 September 2023

Opinion: News emerging from Italy suggests Hull and Swansea may have dodged a bullet with unsuccessful Aston Villa transfer chase

Article image:Opinion: News emerging from Italy suggests Hull and Swansea may have dodged a bullet with unsuccessful Aston Villa transfer chase

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It is the nature of the transfer market that no club is ever going to sign every single player they are linked with or move for during any one window.


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With clubs often looking to strengthen in the same areas of the pitch, certain players will inevitably attract attention from multiple clubs, all of whom are keen to bring that individual in to do the same job for their respective sides.

That, of course, means that all clubs will likely have to deal with some form of disappointment over the course of the summer or January window, as they miss out on a potentially important target.

It is, of course, interesting to see whether that actually translates into disappointment as a result of what a missed target may or may not do on the pitch for the club they either stay with or sign for instead, once a window closes.

While in some cases, that can rub salt into the wounds of those that missed out, in others, things can quickly start to look as though those that failed to make the signing, may in fact have dodged a bullet.

Now it seems that for Hull City and Swansea City, when it comes to one player the Championship duo missed out on over the summer, the early signs are that it may in fact have been a bullet dodged.

Where is Keinan Davis playing his football?

As ever, centre forwards were high on the agenda for the vast majority of clubs over the course of the transfer window, and for Hull and Swansea, that led them to the same target from Aston Villa.

Both sides were linked with the signing of Keinan Davis from Villa during the summer, with Hull boss Liam Rosenior even admitting he was confident of signing the centre forward at one point.

Swansea, meanwhile, were also reported to have held talks with Villa about the potential signing of the 25-year-old.

Ultimately though, both Championship clubs would be unsuccessful in their attempts to sign Davis, with the striker instead heading to Italy, joining Serie A side Udinese on the final day of the window for an undisclosed fee, signing a four-year contract.

With both Hull and Swansea seeing their top scorers from last season, Oscar Estupinan and Joel Piroe respectively, depart over the course of the summer transfer window, missing out on the additional firepower that Davis would have provided them late in the window, initially looked like being something of a blow for these sides.

Now, however, the latest reports coming out of Udinese and Italy could arguably suggest that, for now at least, the Championship duo may have dodged a bullet by not agreeing a deal with Villa for the striker.

Keinan Davis injury latest

According to reports from Italian outlet Il Messaggero Veneto, Davis has now suffered a potentially serious calf injury, before he even made his debut for Udinese.

It is therefore thought that the centre forward may now be absent until around November, meaning had he signed for one of those Championship sides, they would have had to wait for quite some time to get a return on their investment, with a fee of £2million having been suggested as the asking price for the centre forward.

That, of course, would also have meant they were missing out on actually gaining anything from the signing on the pitch for quite some time, and being out for so long after a move, could make it harder to integrate Davis midway through a season, when he is coming into a side already up to full speed and in a particular rythym.

Admittedly, there may be some argument that he would not have suffered this injury had he joined Hull or Swansea, rather than Udinese.

However, the report does go on to point out that even without the injury, Davis was apparently still not in a good condition physically when he made the move to Italy, and would likely have been out of action for some time regardless.

Such an issue is not something that would have changed with a move to one of these Championship sides, meaning there would always have been an element of waiting around for him, had they got a deal done.

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