Why Martin Samuelsen is worth a punt for Hull City in January
According to reports in Norway, as cited by the Hull Daily Mail, Hull City have identified West Ham attacking midfielder, Martin Samuelsen, as an alternative to Barnsley star Mallik Wilks, with manager Grant McCann keen to make some additions to his squad before the January deadline.
The Tigers have already made an offer for Wilks, who played previously played at Doncaster Rovers under McCann, but with negotiations over a potential deal for the attacker stalling, City are apparently prepared to run the rule over their other targets. (h/t Hull Daily Mail)
As per the report, Hull City have now lined up Samuelsen, who is out of contract at West Ham in 2020, as a potential option if a deal for Wilks fails to materialize in the coming weeks.
Born in Haugesund, Norway, Martin Samuelsen started his footballing education at Vard Haugesund in his homeland before moving to England to further his development at Man City. The 22-year-old spent three years in the youth ranks of the Sky Blues before being snapped up by West Ham back in 2015.
The Norwegian made a couple of appearances for the Hammers during the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Europa League during the 2015-16 campaign but has since only featured for the club’s U-23 side in the Premier League 2 while also going through a number of loan spells.
Samuelsen, who initially spent time on loan at Peterborough United in League One, also had brief stints at Burton Albion and Blackburn Rovers in the Championship before joining Dutch Eredivisie side VVV-Venlo on loan in the summer of 2018.
However, things didn’t really work out for him in The Netherlands and having struggled for regular action, Samuelsen returned to his homeland on a loan deal with Haugesund in February 2019.
That paid off handsomely as the highly-rated attacker went on to plunder 14 goals and 5 assists in 39 appearances, with 7 of those strikes coming in a domestic cup competition where he helped Haugesund make it to the finals before they eventually lost out to Viking.
Meanwhile, Hull City are currently placed 9th in the Championship standings, just a couple of points adrift of the playoff spots, and with the race for the four playoff spots still very much open, the Tigers are in with a realistic chance securing a top-six finish this season.
The East Yorkshire outfit didn’t start the campaign as one of the playoff favourites but having accumulated 40 points from 26 games so far, it is hardly a surprise to see Hull City in the promotion mix heading into the crunch end of the season.
With that in mind, however, there is still a long way to go in the playoff race and things can certainly go either way as far as City are concerned. Consistency in the coming months remains the key to their promotion hopes and McCann needs to make full use of the January window to try and beef up his artillery.
The Tigers have already strengthened their midfield unit with a loan deal for Liverpool midfielder Herbie Kane, and links with Mallik Wilks and Martin Samuelsen suggest that McCann is keen to add more quality to his attacking cavalry.
Verdict
To put things into perspective, the highly-rated versatile player like Martin Samuelsen is definitely worth a punt for Hull City should a move for the Barnsley man fail to materialize.
Samuelsen is a versatile playmaker, who can play as an attacking midfielder, a central midfielder, a winger or as a striker.
Martin Henriksen, Daniel Batty, Jackson Irvine, Jon Toral and Kamil Grosicki are all out of contract in 2020 and Josh Bowler is only on loan from Everton.
Plus, with George Honeyman failing to make much of an impact in the Championship, Hull City would eventually need to turn their attention to new players in the creative department.
Samuelsen comes as a player in the right age bracket and the Tigers should look at the prospect of securing his services on a cut-price deal in January, with his contract at West Ham set to expire in the summer.
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Interestingly, McCann was at the helm of affairs at Peterborough when Samuelsen spent time on loan at London Road earlier in his career, and given that he showed strong signs of promise back then, the manager should definitely fancy his chances of unlocking the Norwegian’s potential.
