Hull City owner Acun Ilicali has admitted there is interest in key player Jaden Philogene, although he is not intending to sell.
The 22-year-old joined the Tigers last summer from Aston Villa in a deal said to be worth £5 million. He played a starring role as they finished just outside the play-off places, scoring 12 goals in 32 Championship appearances.
There have been rumours since the turn of the year that the winger was attracting interest from the Premier League, with a clause in his initial transfer granting former club Villa first refusal. This would see Hull gain a £10 million profit on a player that they would have held for just one year.
Their task of convincing him seemingly got much harder when it was revealed that La Liga giants Barcelona had entered the race. Sky Sports Germany journalist Florian Plettenberg claimed at the weekend that the Spaniards had made a loan offer which included an obligation to buy. Everton and West Ham United have also been named as potential destinations.
With two years remaining on Philogene’s current contract, Hull do hold the upper hand. Speaking to talkSPORT, owner Ilicali confirmed that there was genuine interest from the trio. However, he won’t be pressured into selling someone who he believes could be pivotal to the club’s success:
“In order to be more successful, how important is it to keep hold of Jaden Philogene?
“We know about interest from Everton and West Ham as well, is it true that Barcelona would like to sign him?”
“Yes, everything is true but if you ask me, I told our fans that I would sell nobody. My idea in football is not to make money, my idea in football is to make a strong and bigger club.”
Despite that, the situation could change if Philogene expresses a desire to explore fresh opportunities:
“To make a bigger club, sometimes if a player says I want to go, that’s a different case. For me, one player change is not the end of the world, but for any of my players, I never want to ruin their career or their mood by pushing them because of the contract that I have.
“In that case, if Jaden wants to move and he says he wants to go somewhere, this is not something that we can do too much because it is his life. I love all my boys, so I’m responsible for their career as well so they don’t need to play with us if they don’t want to play with us.”
Writer’s View
The lure of Barcelona is a big one, so it will be interesting to see if they make a concrete offer. Philogene looks to be a player with a huge future in the game and it is fair to say that his long-term aspirations will be higher than the Championship.
For Hull though, his acquisition last summer was a stunning piece of business. To sign someone of his quality for such a low fee will see them make a huge profit. Whether that is this summer or next remains to be seen, but Ilicali’s words indicate that he is not prepared to give up without a fight.
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