Hull City are making a push for the playoff places under head coach Liam Rosenior but could be set to lose a defensive option at the back, according to the latest reports.
During the summer, the Tigers made some astute acquisitions, signing the likes of Jaden Philogene from Aston Villa for a reported £5 million, James Furlong from Brighton and Hove Albion for an undisclosed fee and Ruben Vinagre on a season-long loan from Portuguese giants Sporting Clube de Portugal.
Having spent several weeks inside the top six this season, Hull City now find themselves in ninth place in the Championship and on a dreadful run of form, having lost four of their last five league outings, with a huge clash with Sunderland still to come on Friday night.
One player who has been missing from this turgid spell is Vinagre, having suffered a reoccurrence of a hamstring problem. The former Wolverhampton Wanderers fullback has been ruled out of action since mid-December with no return date in sight.
Now, Tuttomercatoweb are reporting that the 24-year-old may have already played his last game at the MKM Stadium for Hull City as Serie A side Hellas Verona are looking to secure his signature before the end of the January transfer window.
The outlet are claiming that Verona’s Scottish defender Josh Doig is close to completing a £5.1 million switch to Sassuolo and that Vinagre has been identified as a possible replacement given his lack of game-time under Rosenior this season.
The ex-Everton loanee has played just 536 minutes in total since moving to Hull during the summer, spread across 11 appearances in all competitions so Sporting CP may be considering his future before the month draws to a close.
Writer’s View
It would make a lot of sense for Sporting to recall Vinagre from his loan at Hull City before the window slams shut as the Portuguese fullback has played very little game-time since moving to the Humberside club six months ago.
In fact, this is Vinagre’s third spell with an English team and he has failed to impress at any of them so it may be time for him to try learning his trade in another country, whether that be in Italy or elsewhere. Losing Vinagre certainly won’t be too big a blow to Hull’s chances of earning promotion back to the Premier League.
Deputy Head of Writing
