Newcastle activated a £4.5m release clause in Diame’s contract over the weekend, but Hull responded by offering to better Newcastle’s wages in an attempt to keep the Senegal worldwide.
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Diame expressed his disappointment at the departure of Bruce, who left the club last month reportedly over concerns about the lack of investment in new players this summer.
Diame has plenty of experience of English football having starred for Wigan Athletic, West Ham and the Tigers after moving to the Premier League from Rayo Vallecano in 2009.
And they hope 29-year-old Diame, who secured their promotion with a superb victor in May’s Championship play-off final and trained with the club on Monday, flies out to join up with the squad on Wednesday as scheduled.
City manager Stuart McCall was keen to strengthen a defence that has lost Reece Burke since the end of last season following the Player of the Year’s return to parent club West Ham United.
Jake Livermore, Tom Huddlestone, Abel Hernandez and Shaun Maloney could all feature in the Tigers’ penultimate friendly after recovering from minor injuries but losing Diame, who had featured in all but one of the six pre-season games to date, will further weaken the club’s slender resources.
“He looked after us like a father, to be honest, and to see him go is really sad. I think we need some players”. In his 63 first team appearances, Jese scored 13 goals and missed the entire 2014-2015 after tearing his ACL in a Champions League match aginst Schalke 04 in March of 2014.
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And they could be signed in time to make the squad for Friday night’s Championship season-opener at Fulham.
