Source: Eurosport
Brown determined to step up Tigers recruitment
Hull manager Phil Brown is hoping to leave China at the end of the week with not only the Barclays Asia Trophy title but also some positive news on the transfer front.
The Tigers will tackle Beijing Guoan at the Workers Stadium in the Chinese capital tomorrow night with the winner of that game facing either West Ham or Tottenham in the final on Friday.
Hull travelled to Asia without any new signings, emphasising a frustrating few weeks for Brown in the transfer market. Fraizer Campbell, Michael Owen and Marc-Antoine Fortune all opted to sign for other clubs while a £5million move for Fulham's Bobby Zamora remains in the air.
After narrowly avoiding relegation last season, Brown knows a quality striker will be pivotal to the club's fortunes this year.
"The striker is the final piece of the jigsaw," he said. "It is not one we are looking for it is one or two. It is proving difficult. There are vastly-inflated prices and vastly-inflated deals on the table but unfortunately that is the nature of the game at the moment.
"We have our valuation of players out there and the chairman (Paul Duffen) and I will be sitting down and talking long and hard about moving these deals forward as quickly as possible so that when we arrive back in England hopefully two or maybe three will be putting pen to paper."
