Window lean

The transfer window has closed and Hull City have signed a replacement for Michael Turner, albeit perhaps only positionally.

Ibrahima Sonko has joined on loan from Stoke City - where he can't get a game - and joins Anthony Gardner, Kamil Zayatte, Steven Mouyokolo and Liam Cooper in the Tigers centre backs' club. It's a useful but underwhelming signing when one considers the phenomenonal shoes Sonko is expected to fill.

But he isn't the worst defender in the world and at least there is now a straight choice of two from four - not five, as Cooper still has some learning to do - once Gardner regains his fitness. To have two from three or even two from two would have been laughable and unworkable. If Gardner is unable to play by the time City travel to, of all places, Sunderland a week on Saturday, at least team selection isn't hampered by the knowledge that Zayatte and Mouyokolo have to play, irrespective of how they have shaped up in training.

The fallout over Turner's sale continues. As the dust began to settle, it became clear that Turner was in favour of the move even though he never asked for a transfer. Obviously he has received a substantial wage rise but has also spoken warmly - for the benefit of the official Sunderland website - of the ambition, facilities and also an admiration bordering on the obsequious he has for the manager Steve Bruce, a fine centre back in his own day. Arguments about exactly how much City will end up with, and how much of that will actually benefit the club instead of the directors, will continue forever and a day. The club's finances have been called into question of late, with still little information on Paul Duffen's backers and the revelation that the club's accounts for the promotion season have not been filed and the parent company's own accounts, due more than six months ago, have also not yet been submitted.

Duffen did seem overly-enthusiastic about selling Turner, offering little to soothe people frantic about the team's chances of staying up if a player of such obvious importance was pointed in the direction of the A19. He never seemed to accept that the move was controversial or divisive, and seems to be overtly confident about the club's future on the pitch. What is interesting is that Phil Brown, the manager and a football man, has been remarkably philosophical on the subject.

The chairman and manager of Hull City have often been accused, with some justification, of being a little too close, too pally. One can't help but wonder if the Brown who did back the move when publicly pressed, has in reality expressed doubts behind the scenes and been forced to absorb the finances in order to be convinced the deal was necessary. The fact that a large sum of money has come into the club and he didn't get chance, or permission, or both, to spend any of it may just be a misfortune. Or maybe Turner was sold at a deliberate time to make sure the money stayed within the club - or was used for other things.

Meanwhile, one looks at the Hull City squad that will compete until January and hopes, very simply, that Gardner gets fit quickly and someone up top starts scoring goals regularly.