Katlego “The Killer” Mphela still maintains a presence in the rumour mill surrounding Hull City’s new season’s signings and it has not yet been confirmed for sure whether it’s a possible or probable. There is a two way selfishness that links a deal in that Bruce will pay a lot less for Mphela pro rata than he would for any other localised signings of a player of the same calibre and on the other side, Mphela will see his international selection possibilities raised due to the prestige of playing for a top flight European club.
The big question is…Is Mphela right for Hull City or is it on the fringes of panic buying that Bruce promised not to get involved in. Mphela has a history of injury problems and has only recently returned to any form of serious training.
His club Mamelodi Sundowns are keen for the deal to take place as they do not want to stand in the way of the striker’s progress but you have to wonder that a low transfer fee could possibly come with a further payment to the Sundowns in the form of a sell on or appearance clause which would help the coffers of Phela’s present side no end and at the same time put a dent in City’s transfer budget. After all, Mamelodi Sundowns have full contingency of strikers after signing Cuthbert Malajila and Rodney Ramagalela back in June and seem keen to move him on.
If there is one lesson to be learned from signing injured or injury prone players it has surely got to be Jimmy Bullard. My opinion is (If the rumours are true) that Steve Bruce should give Mphela a pass despite scoring 23 goals in 52 appearances for Bafana Bafana because as we all know, the premiership is a world away from any other league outside Europe. Would he cut it?...Doubtful, but as we’ve seen in the scrutiny placed upon Austin’s transfer criteria, Bruce crosses all the `T’s` and dots all the `I’s` and at the end of the day he seems to be putting City’s wellbeing first despite personal upsets and disappointments.
At the end of the day Mphela’s trial at Celtic came and went over the period of a week without raising any eyebrows and Steve would do well to at least speak to Niel Lennon to get an insight before wasting everybody’s time and money