The inside story of City's impressive Herrington capture under rivals' noses
Hull Live · Barry Cooper · 2026-08-17T11:30:56+00:00 · nguồn gốc
Lucas Herrington's move to Hull City in the Premier League is a risk worth taking, according to the Australian's agent, who brokered the deal with the English club.
Herrington made his debut in the second half of Saturday's 0-0 draw with French Ligue 1 side Nice at the MKM Stadium, and looked composed alongside fellow new arrival Nobel Mendy.
The teenager shot to prominence at the World Cup this summer, impressing for Australia, and though many will think City have reacted off the back of that, a host of top European clubs have been interested in him for a while.
A host of suitors had been watching, including Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Paris FC, Copenhagen, Rangers and more, but it was the Tigers who were able to agree a deal that both Colorado and the MLS agreed on.
His agent, Buddy Farah, has given an insight into the decision-making process, with Herrington joining City for a fee in the region of £10m from MLS side Colorado Rapids, and he could make his league debut against Manchester United this weekend when the Premier League kicks off.
“His desire was to possibly go to Barcelona, and that was obviously real," he told Football 360. "They obviously had flown over and met myself and his family, really presented a project to us that we felt, okay, well this kid could be amongst the world’s elite, playing out of La Liga or playing at least for the interim, maybe at another La Liga club if Hansi Flick (Barca boss) didn’t think that he was ready.
“When that didn’t transpire due to the fact that the levels of money Colorado wanted at the time was not a small figure… And this was prior to the World Cup.
“So we went into the World Cup, and he obviously got the opportunity and credit to (Tony Popovic, Australia head coach), who didn’t really care about the number next to the kid’s name; he had just seen the quality and gave him that opportunity.
“Now, when that opportunity came, and he played against Paraguay, and then he backed it up against Egypt, we already had quite a number of clubs present.
“And there were projects amongst them where they wanted Lucas to play; however, when the opportunity came to play in the Premier League, and most Australians watched the Premier League, and when Hull City came to the table, and we looked at their squad, and we felt: they’ve just come up from the Championship, they will recruit…
“When they presented that they would only be signing two new centre-backs, one being Lucas and one being Nobel Mendy…we just felt, backing Lucas and Lucas backing himself, and the way that the coach and the sporting director (Okan Ozkan) had presented to us, we just felt this was a unique opportunity for him to be challenged week in, week out."
Ahead of the season getting underway, City have already been written off by many pundits, who believe Sergej Jakirovic's men will go straight back down. Farah, though, is not quite so sure.
“People have speculated that Hull will probably go back down," he continued. "I think it’s a bit premature to make that statement…we just felt that even if he was challenged week in, week out in a team that maybe played a low block or maybe was under pressure defensively, he could only grow from being that type of player.
“And if he was able to do it under the eyes of the Liverpools who also traveled over to Colorado and met with his club and spent a few days there watching him, dissecting him, having conversations with myself; Newcastle, Chelsea, some really big clubs in the Premier League, we certainly felt that if Lucas was able to produce what we know he can produce and what these clubs know he could produce, then he would be better off for it.
“And it could be within 12 months or 24 months that he ends up making a move to one of those clubs because now they are convinced that he’s able to compete at that level, right? Obviously, when they had first come to the table and presented to us, they still felt that he might have been one or two years away from being able to play for their football clubs.
“It was an easy decision in the end for us because when a club is presenting the opportunity to play, and your qualities as a footballer were good enough to be able to possibly start in their back four or back five or even in a back three, we felt this was really the opportunity for us.
“And then watching the game (against Nice)…he certainly will get quite a lot of minutes this year as long as he stays fit and healthy and he continues to work hard.”
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While moving from Australia to America and then to England in the space of a few months could be daunting for some people, Farah says Herrington has taken it all in his natural stride.
“It’s not phased him," he explained. “Prior to a World Cup and during the World Cup, with the level of interest that was circling around the kid – I should probably say young man, but I still look at him as a kid. He’s 18 years of age.
“Every time we had a conversation about clubs approaching and the different levels of leagues that he could potentially play in, he just took it on, and it really never deterred him from his job. Now that we’re here, I certainly feel that this is really going to inspire him to really take this to the next level.
“He’s obviously grown up watching the Premier League. He watches the likes of (Virgil) Van Dijk. He wants to be in that elite company, and I have no doubt if he continues on the trajectory and he continues doing what we know he can do, Lucas’ career can take him to heights that we’ve probably never seen.”
The influence of Jakirovic was also crucial, with the Croatian not concerned about the age of Herrington, only his quality and the type of character he is.
“The coaching style was something that was very key to this as well," Farah continued. "He was a people’s person, and he wasn’t deterred from the fact that Lucas was eighteen, nineteen years of age this year. He really didn’t care about the age as well, and it was very similar to the take that obviously Tony Popovic took. It was more about the human; it was more about the quality of the individual, more so than the age. So for us, that was very, very important.
“And ultimately, we don’t have a crystal ball to say this is going to work. Every decision that you make in life, regardless if it’s football or anything else, it’s a risk…but we took a good feeling out of…the environment around this football club.”
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