Caleb Folan may have played his last game for Hull City.
He has been left out of Phil Brown's squad for the trip to Sunderland this weekend, though oddly enough he'll still be in the north east as he decides whether to join Middlesbrough or Newcastle United on loan.
If Folan goes, it will be largely welcomed by the Tiger Nation, who have as one concluded that he is simply not up to the task of Premier League football. This was apparent when he was at Wigan Athletic, and so he dropped into the Championship to come to the KC - coincidentally just a few days after playing against the Tigers for Wigan in the Carling Cup. By the end of the same season, he was a top-flight player again after the Tigers won the play-offs.
Yet for all Folan's shortcomings, there is much gratitude to be delivered in his direction as he establishes whether he should go to Teesside or Tyneside. Forever in the club's history books as the first £1 million player purchased by the club, he recovered from a fractured skull on debut to score goals with a deft sense of timing in the Championship, putting away the season-defining winner at West Bromwich Albion which prompted the first mutterings of belief in City's quest for promotion, and then butting home a close-range header in the second leg of the play-off semi-finals which put extra gloss on what became a stunning two-legged victory over Watford.
Then of course, he scored the winning goal against Fulham in City's first ever Premier League game, having come on as a substitute. However, the statistic which follows this goal emphasises Folan's problem - he hasn't scored since.
Folan started all four of City's games - two more starts than he managed in the Premier League all last season - but while showing an admirable (and increased) quantity of work ethic and industry, he simply never found himself in a position to severely test a goalkeeper or cause strife to a decent defender in any of the matches. He wasn't assisted, admittedly, by being a lone striker relying on support from the flanks and from Geovanni in the deep-lying forward role, but even in more potent attacking spells from the Tigers - especially at Chelsea and Wolverhampton Wanderers - he couldn't make a telling contribution.
His laconic nature and tendency to struggle against disciplined offside traps has been showcased to some frustration since elevation to the top tier, while last season Folan was guilty of the most imbecilic of red card offences when he booted a Liverpool defender up the backside as the ball was lawfully and effectively shielded away from him, thereby ending his season just at a time when everyone on (and off) the pitch needed to keep their heads to stave off the drop.
Ultimately though, Folan was only starting games this season because better prospects at centre forward were either unavailable, or unfit, or ineligible. Now Jozy Altidore has his work permit and a few extra kilometres in his system, Kamel Ghilas has settled in with laudable rapidity and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink has joined up, complete with an enviable goalscoring record in most of the places he has plied his trade. With Daniel Cousin still around too, a more uncommitted team player but a far better goalscorer, and even chucklesome rumours abound of Fraizer Campbell's return on loan with tail between legs, Folan's spell in the team was always set to be temporary.
He doesn't belong in the City side any more, but the Tiger Nation has much to thank him for and he deserves the good wishes of us all.
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