Ex-Leeds United man offers Joe Gelhardt to Hull City transfer verdict
Joe Gelhardt should be chomping at the bit and desperate to succeed at Hull City as he looks to reignite his career with the Championship strugglers.
That's according to former Leeds United midfielder David Prutton, who believes Gelhardt's loan move to the MKM Stadium can work for both parties. City are desperate for goals and the 22-year-old is keen to play games, having played just nine minutes of Championship football this season for the Whites.
Gelhardt's temporary switch from Elland Road to the MKM Stadium has been finalised with the striker expected to train with City on Tuesday. A formal announcement is expected on Wednesday with the ex-Sunderland loanee going straight into Ruben Selles' squad for Saturday's game at Millwall.
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Since bursting onto the scene at Wigan, making his senior debut at the age of 16 and then earning a big move to Leeds under Marcelo Bielsa, the Liverpool-born forward has struggled to play regularly. And Prutton believes if that can happen at City under Ruben Selles in the final 20 games of the season, the move has the potential to be a success.
"The thing with Joe is he's a player who will be as frustrated as anyone else with the amount of game time he's got under his belt for someone who is 22 and turns 23 in May," Prutton told the 1904 Club podcast. "It's a conundrum. If you look at the Leeds teams that he's been part of - and there was always that question whether he would be someone under Marcelo Bielsa that could be relied upon to play a certain way and be elevated like a lot of other players were in that system to become Premier League players - but that hasn't quite worked out.
"You've got to look at the fact you've got a player there who burst onto the scene very early on at Wigan and elected to go out on loan at Sunderland to try and these games under his belt, but once again, for some reason, it hasn't quite clicked. I can understand, and City fans are allowed to be reticent to a certain degree.
"Then it boils down to the two things that are going to develop him. How good Ruben deals with him as a player and a person, and Joe's approach to his own career because careers can ebb and flow, they can have high points and low points, but fundamentally, I always think in 99.9 per cent of cases barring serious injury, a player's career pans out the way that player deserves. Joe's next port of call has to be one that sticks, and if that's at City and City sees the best in him, then great.
"I was chatting to a few people at the (FA Cup) game against Harrogate on Saturday; we were discussing Joe. They liked having him around the place and being part of the squad but quite simply, Joe needs to get more games under his belt. He needs to be in a team that allows him to flourish and hopefully, when you see that with City, it becomes mutually beneficial because you get a player that's right at it, ambitious, chomping at the bit and a club, and team, in Hull City, that need players like that to drag them away from trouble."
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