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Mohamed Diamé, left, is one of the dwindling number of Hull’s senior players fit enough to play, but could now be sold to Newcastle.
Mohamed Diamé, left, is one of the dwindling number of Hull’s senior players fit enough to play, but could now be sold to Newcastle. Photograph: JMP/Rex/Shutterstock
Mohamed Diamé, left, is one of the dwindling number of Hull’s senior players fit enough to play, but could now be sold to Newcastle. Photograph: JMP/Rex/Shutterstock

Newcastle chase Mohamed Diamé to spell more woe for troubled Hull

This article is more than 7 years old
Senegal midfielder has £4.5m release clause in contract
Mohamed Diamé believed to favour move to Championship club

Hull City have become embroiled in a transfer tussle with Newcastle United as they try to avoid losing Mohamed Diamé to Rafael Benítez’s side.

A lack of senior signings this summer allied to an injury crisis has left Hull, newly promoted to the Premier League but without a manager since Steve Bruce’s resignation last month, with only 13 fit senior players and the news that Newcastle had met Diamé’s £4.5m buyout clause did not go down well at the KC Stadium on Monday.

The board responded by offering the Senegal international a new, long-term deal, but Newcastle understand the player is strongly attracted by a move to St James’ Park where Benítez has earmarked the 29-year-old as the ideal successor to Moussa Sissoko. Having impressed for France at Euro 2016, Sissoko is wanted by a queue of clubs, headed by Real Madrid. Newcastle are also closing in on a deal for the Brighton winger Anthony Knockaert and are believed to have also met the release clause in the contract of the Aston Villa defender Ciaran Clark.

Hull, meanwhile, are preparing to leave for a pre-season training camp in Austria on Tuesday. They will be without Diamé on the official flight but club officials say that is down to a court appearance rather than an imminent diversion to Tyneside.

In regards to a new manager, Ehab Allam, the vice-chairman who is running the club in the absence of his seriously ill father Assem Allam, is believed to have whittled his shortlist down to three names: Roberto Martínez, Chris Coleman and Gianfranco Zola, with an appointment scheduled to be made this week. For the time being, Mike Phelan remains in caretaker charge.

Bookmakers have reported significant bets being placed on Zola – the former Chelsea player who was sacked by Al-Arabi of Qatar in June – to be Hull’s new manager, while Martínez, sacked by Everton in May, is said to have impressed Ehab Allam at his interview, but may prove too expensive for what he fears may be too high a risk role. Meanwhile Coleman, who led Wales to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 and signed a new two-year contract with the Welsh FA in May, would not be released easily by the national association. So far, there has been no official approach.

“The simple fact of the matter is that there is a contract in place,” said the FAW president, David Griffiths. “He shouldn’t be speaking to anybody else and they most definitely should not be speaking to Chris without coming to us first for permission.

“I know Chris very well, have done for many years since he was coming through the ranks with Swansea, and we fully expect him to be in charge through the World Cup qualifying campaign. Chris is our man for the next two years and knows he still has a job to finish with us.”

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