Hull Hijack Birmingham Move for Gelhardt
Birmingham City appear to have missed out on Joe Gelhardt after Hull City made a late move to bring the striker back to the MKM Stadium permanently. The 24-year-old had reportedly been close to joining Blues before his former loan club intervened and changed the direction of the deal.
Gelhardt scored 15 goals for Hull during their promotion-winning campaign last season, including in the play-off semi-final victory at Millwall. It was his second loan spell with the Tigers, taking his overall record for the club to 20 goals from 60 appearances.
Hull had apparently considered waiting until later in the window before making their move, but the prospect of losing Gelhardt to Birmingham forced their hand. Their intentions were summed up in the report, which explained:
“Gelhardt was on the cusp of signing for the Blues and the second city was his destination until the Tigers stepped in.”
It is an interesting one from our perspective because Birmingham are among the sides we will be measuring ourselves against this season. Missing out on a striker who scored heavily at this level last term is certainly no bad thing for the rest of the Championship.
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