Caleb Folan looks certain to be the first player to depart the KC Stadium in this transfer window. The player who became Hull City's first £1 million acquisition in 2007 is said to be the subject of a bid from Queens Park Rangers.
The Tigers have accepted Folan's request to leave and, if this move does pull through, it should be a good one for all concerned. Folan was useful and stylish in the Championship without ever being prolific, and were he to replicate at Loftus Road the playing habits that he managed in his first season with the Tigers, then it will be more than enough.
QPR have come in for Folan before, a little more than a year ago, but the story was different then and City rejected the overtures. Folan had just scored the winning goal in City's first ever top flight game and was big news, a talking point within a club of talking points. It seemed harsh and unnecessary to let him drop down a division again after notching such a historic goal, and we had yet to see whether he could repeat the scoring act again and again.
He hasn't managed a goal for the Tigers since.
This is Folan's trouble. Beyond his laconic, poseurish manner on the park, he simply isn't anything like a scoring centre forward. And despite his height and athleticism, he doesn't provide anywhere near enough of the worthy attributes that make non-scoring target men more forgiveable. Pace, strength, bravery and sheer effort don't regularly appear in Folan's make up. Too often, frankly, he looks like he couldn't give a damn.
This happened to him at Wigan Athletic, the club to whom we gave that famous million. He joined them after bagging a fair few in League One for Chesterfield and then spent his time at what was then the JJB Stadium proving distinctly underwhelming, not up to the task.
Even upon joining City, it never really proved an entirely convincing season for the expensive new signing. He was immediately ruled out with a head injury that lasted three months and took a long time to get started upon his return to action. In the end, he mainly played second fiddle to a fine partnership of Fraizer Campbell and Dean Windass and, although some of his goals were crucial - winning strikes at home to Coventry City and especially away to West Bromwich Albion spring to mind, as well as the third goal in the play-off win against Watford at the KC that fully settled the tie - there simply weren't enough of them.
Folan exited for Middlesbrough on loan this season after being given ample opportunity by Phil Brown to prove his worth as a Premier League player. A goalscorer of frequency he was never going to be, but through the opening month of the season he never looked like scoring and rarely even looked like partaking in the build-up to a goal for someone else. Sometimes the formation left him exposed and sometimes he showed the effort needed, but any disgruntled observer will tell you, with some justification, that effort is only laudable when complemented by talent.
As he turned up on Teesside, he aimed a broadside at Brown, who for once didn't seem to deserve a public flogging from an uppity player. Still, it made sure he wouldn't be seen in a Tigers shirt again even if he did come back. Now he is back and instantly he seems to be off again, this time for good. He won't be the biggest earner off the wage bill but within Adam Pearson's cloth-cutting regime, it is a start.
Only a churl wouldn't offer good cheer to Folan if and when he makes the journey to London and to a level of football that is quite clearly his limit. He is in the club's history books forever - for the fee and for the winning goal against Fulham - but he is one of those centre forwards who will be remembered for the goals he couldn't score rather than the ones he could. And heaven knows we have enough of them right now.
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