Saturday 31 January 2015 18:49, UK
Hull City manager Steve Bruce says his side's 3-0 capitulation to Newcastle United could have jeopardised his chances of strengthening his squad in the current transfer window.
Bruce revealed fees have been agreed for the Tigers' two main targets – Tottenham winger Aaron Lennon and Lokomotiv Moscow's Dame N'Doye.
But after goals from Remy Cabella, Sammy Ameobi and Yoan Gouffran gave the visitors a simple win at the KC Stadium, Bruce said he would not be surprised to find either player having second thoughts.
"Both (the deals) are up to the players themselves, and, with the position we are in at the moment in the bottom three, we are not really endearing ourselves to the two players," Bruce said.
"The fee is agreed (for N'Doye) but there is still a lot of work to be done and that goes for Lennon too – but we hope we can bring the pair of them in.
We simply have to stop gifting people goals like we have done in the game today.
"It would certainly add to our squad, but even if we don't I am still confident the squad we've got can avoid going back down into the Championship."
Bruce blasted his side's second-half performance after an encouraging start in which Michael Dawson and Curtis Davies both came close to putting the hosts ahead.
Individual errors were responsible for gifting Newcastle their first two goals and Bruce acknowledged: "We simply have to stop gifting people goals like we have done in the game today.
"We made an individual mistake from which they scored and up until then I thought we were the better team – then in the second half we have made a catalogue of errors for the second goal.
"We need to show resilience and a bit more determination to try to rectify the situation, but if we're honest after the second goal it turned into one of those horrible afternoons you can all do without."
Meanwhile, Bruce has confirmed that Mike Phelan will start work as the club’s new assistant manager, in place of Steve Agnew, on Monday.
