During the game against Manchester United, word began to spread that Hull City had declared that they would listen to offers for Kamil Zayatte.
Now, it's evident the club needs money, and the wage bill is too horrendous for words. But Zayatte has been the club's player of the season. The Guinean defender is hard as nails and king in the tackle, while also possessing a rampaging tendency when in possession which allows him to play also in central midfield.
He has been a major part of the reason why we have only missed Michael Turner as a mere superhuman, not as a God-like figure. And his partnership at the back with Anthony Gardner has been a triumph, thanks also in no small measure to a rare ability on Gardner's part to stay fit.
If the wires state the truth and Zayatte can go next month, then it is worrying for a dual reason. One, it lets others know that City's fiscal situation is serious enough to regard the best players as bankable. However, more worryingly, it means that the players who we really need to sell - Peter Halmosi, Nathan Doyle, Bryan Hughes, Caleb Folan, maybe Daniel Cousin - are either garnering no interest from other clubs or are, at best, only attracting a fraction of the fee the Tigers want for them. And therefore we're having to look at selling players who we'd certainly prefer to keep.
Much of this depends on whether the reduction in wages can alone save the right amount of money or whether transfer fees are also required. Adam Pearson's analysis of the books should now be complete, and he should be ready to tell us exactly what we need to do through January to bring costs down to manageable levels while also, hopefully, maintaining a realistic Premier League ambition.
Selling currently the best defender in the squad seems a rather odd way of proving to the supporters that the club intends to do both. If Zayatte goes then, like Turner before him, someone will need to explain why - and properly this time.
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