This season has finally seen an upturn in the fortunes of Hull City AFC. Not only on the pitch but on it also. City have ambition, there is no doubting that, over £850,000 on transfer fees in the summer and breaking the clubs record transfer fee for Leicester striker Lawrie Dudfield.
I’d heard of Dudfield from when he was at Chesterfield although I he wasn’t exactly a player that was well known to me. A friend of mine said “I can’t believe that we’ve spent money on a player I’ve never heard of!” Fair point, Dudfield hadn’t really scored many at The Cheats and was playing as a winger rather than the forward role we had purchased him for. £210,000 is an awful lot for an unproven player. However Dudfields’ pre-season performances expelled any fears about him, it was clear that he’d been playing at the top level, his touch and control along with his off the ball ability was of a higher division player.
A goal and a hard working performance against Exeter on the opening day was the perfect start for the youngster. Even when the team has been miss-firing he has proved to be a threat e.g. Mansfield and Maccelsfield away. Not only is he a full on box striker, he will sweep out to the left and right sides and cut inside the box or whip in a cross for partner in crime Gary Alexander, Dudfield probably won’t score as many as his partner this season but he’ll create more.
Brian Little claims that superb Dudfield/Alexander partnership is down to the players great friendship, good to hear both players are big parts of the the clubs future not only to get of the 3rd Division this season but also to push toward the 1st Division.
Dudfield will have doubled his value by the end of the season, in-fact he probably has already. Depending on injuries and suspensions he will be worth somewhere in the £1million bracket by the end of the season, I expect. Peter Taylor sold Dudfield and look what happened to him when he played Dean Sturridge, Lawrence Dudfield is the future of Hull City. Thing is, why did we come up with such a god-awful chant for him? |
