Hull City re-signing Tom Huddlestone being frustrated by inability to move players on

After taking a loan from the Football League to help them through the pandemic, the Tigers are under a transfer embargo which means they are restricted to loans and free signings, and then up to a squad limit of 25 senior players, which they are currently at.

Jordan Flores's loan to Northampton Town was made permanent so that Matt Smith could join on loan from Manchester City, but another player will have to leave for Huddlestone to have a second spell at the club.

Huddlestone trained with Hull during pre-season to work on his fitness after being released by Derby County last summer, and even appeared in a couple of friendlies, scoring in one.

"Talks are still ongoing but there’s no progress on that,” said coach Grant McCann when asked where things stood.

"Who knows, it’s not so straightforward for us. We need to get one out before we can bring Tom in and that’s still not got any further (towards a departure).

"At this moment in time, absolutely no progress."

Forwards Thomas Mayer and James Scott seem the prime candidates to try to move on but their underwhelming spells in East Yorkshire make them a harder sell in what is already a difficult market to move on under-contract players with so many free agents available as clubs have cut back in response to Covid-19.

Hull still have an interest in Sheffield United midfielder Regan Slater, who performed well for them last season, but Blades manager Slavisa Jokanovic has given few clues about potential loans for his youngsters, and a pre-season injury has made assessing Slater harder.