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Altidore’s Hull City debut held up due to swine flu scare

Jozy Altidore 7 (ISIphotos.com) 

                                                                         Photo by ISIphotos.com

 

by TRAVIS CLARK

The unexpected delay to Jozy Altidore's English Premier League career continues this week. The 19-year-old striker was stuck in the United States and was once again unavailable for selection as Hull City was thrashed 5-1 against Tottenham on Wednesday. The reason for the hold up? According to Phil Brown, it's swine flu.

Despite the approval of his work permit Monday of last week, Altidore has missed out on Hull's first two games. The Hull Daily Mail is reporting that Altidore had been under quarantine by the U.S. government after the revelation that Landon Donovan had swine flu. The always colorful Hull City coach Brown had some choice words for the situation.

""I might as well be speaking to Barack Obama. We're bamboozled by the whole process," Brown told the Hull Daily Mail. "I've not seen his 'Twittering' but I believe he should be doing it everyday to make sure people know how frustrated he is."

The always outspoken Brown had plenty to say on the matter, all of which can be read via the link above.

If all goes well in a follow up test, Altidore will be cleared and able to fly out today and rejoin his teammates ahead of a game against Bolton this weekend.

It wasn't all bad news for Altidore. On Wednesday, Real Madrid forward Alvaro Negredo turned down a move to Hull City, a move that could have cut into Altidore's playing time.

What do you think of Jozy's delay? Think the U.S. is being a bit too over cautious? Can Jozy help Hull rebound from a slow start? Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. If Jozy continues to update the media via Twitter, someone should take his phone away and make him run laps around Red Bull Arena. Twitter is the crack cocaine of the ADD generation.

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  2. I’m surprised no one else picked up on the subtle jab at the USMNT…

    David Brent/Phil Brown, despite his managerial ineptness, is a never ending well of unintentional comedy…

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  3. you have to take anything printed in the DAILY MAIL with a grain of salt until its corroborated elsewhere…theres a 85% percent chance those quotes are fake.

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  4. SBI, how good of service do you expect him to get at Hull? Jozy is great but he can’t create on his own. He’s dangerous around the box but if the ball never gets there should we be worried about seeing him stranded? Are Hull’s offensive shortcomings only a striker problem or could they be larger than that? I just hope they aren’t expecting too much from the kid.

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  5. Well said on all accounts, Indie FC.

    This is a good situation for the USMNT. He gets playing time at Hull against the best competition in the world in the EPL ahead of the WC, and then Bob doesn’t have to feel bad about giving him too much playing time in the lead up to 2010 or worry that he’s in poor form come next summer.

    Bet you the double talk coming from Altidore/Hull is because Jozy had H1N1, but didn’t want to tell anybody.

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  6. There’s no story here. It is what it is. I agree that “panic politics” played a big roll here, but that’s simply what’s going to happen in a situation like that.

    He’ll be with the team for this weekend’s game, and all will be forgotten. This is probably actually a good thing, because Brown surely realizes now that he needs scoring punch, and that’s what Jozy brings. If he doesn’t start Saturday, he’ll definitely see minutes, and that’s why this move is so important for him.

    Lastly, for those who are so critical of this move, and call Brown the “joke of the league,” I think you’re all missing the point. Jozy WASN’T PLAYING in Spain, and he’ll play at Hull NEARLY EVERY WEEK, IF NOT EVERY WEEK, against top flight competition. That’s what’s going to further develop his game, NOT NOT NOT riding pine at a more “prestigous” club.

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  7. The story said that Jozy is working out with the Red Bulls while waiting. One of the fans replying to the story hopes that the bad mojo doesn’t rub off on him! LOL

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  8. From the linked article it looks like the US government held him up. I think he just got unlucky with the delay that they were able to put a travel hold on him. The other players probably flew direct from Mexico back to Europe. Landon’s case was not confirmed until after they were already back in Europe.

    Congrats on your new biometric travel documentation Jozy 🙂

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  9. The key word is “bamboozled”. The Hull City manager and Hull City paper’s soccer reporter seem like people who are frequently bamboozled.

    Swine flu gets headlines but it seems the delay was more than likely a result of Altidore’s passport application taking a long time. Post 9/11 bureaucracy.

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  10. Agreed with the consensus on the fact it doesn’t make sense that Altidore was held up while Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey, etc played last weekend. I’m wondering if it had to do with the fact that due to the work permit process they had an actual method to hold up Altidore while the other players already have permits and free travel to there’s no real government mechanism to quarantine them. Does seem a bit odd though. Is it possible to Jozy and Landon may have been roommates in Miami or Mexico City?

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  11. All I know is that Jozy will be getting significant playing time in the EPL starting as early as this week. And that is a very good thing.

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  12. CSD, Jozy had to get a biometric passport and that was being held up as a result of concerns over swine flu. The rest of the guys you mentioned already have all their work and travel documents in order.

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  13. Didn’t see the Tottenham game but watched the Chelsea game. Hull were not half bad at Stamford Bridge and could have easily walked away with a point. I think Brown is desperate for some attacking options. Obviously Hunt has come up big in the first 2 games and maybe Jozy can get some goals if he can link up with Hunt. Once they get Bullard back, if he is half the player he was, they should be a decent side really.

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  14. “Good point, CSD…although I heard Dolo and M. Bradley were held out of Bundesliga games for the same reason.”

    Yes and that is consistent they are both in the same league. If we had a third Bundesliga player on the USMNT that was allowed to play last weekend that would be a point of contention.

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  15. Well, even stuck in swine flu quarantine the game helped Jozy. Daniel Cousin earned himself a permanent spot on the bench, if not outright dismissal in the January transfer window, by publicly dissing his coach on live television. He got pulled in the 21st minute, had yet to touch the ball, his team was getting thrashed, and he had the gall to get pissed at his coach for the move. Cousin isn’t seeing the field again any time soon. Good for Jozy.

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  16. Good point, CSD…although I heard Dolo and M. Bradley were held out of Bundesliga games for the same reason.

    Still – freaking Landon Donovan played last night! If he’s ok to play, shouldn’t that mean anyone else is?

    The upside to this is that Hull has looked pretty flaccid in attack over the first 2 games, outside of a flukey free-kick goal from Stephen Hunt. That will surely get Brown thinking about injecting some new blood into the attack!

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  17. We live in the age of panic politics. This is beyond absurd, it overlaps into the realm of draconian.

    Fact: the swine flu has not demonstrated either a higher incidence of infectious rate (in fact, lower than most influenza) nor has it had anything but average fatality rates. Those who you would expect to die from the flu HAVE died. It’s as simple as that.

    Good luck to Alitidore in the UK, the US certainly hasn’t done him any favors.

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  18. Something about this story makes no damn sense. Why was the Jozy the only quarantined player that wasn’t able to go back to England? Did Jay Demerit, Jonathen Spector, Brad Guzan and Tim Howard (Tim might have been preferred to be in quarantine last weekend)just say they felt fine and Jozy didn’t.

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  19. Phil Brown is a clown. He’s got an ego the size of Texas, which is ironic because he’s pretty much a joke around the league. I wish Jozy well, but….man. I wish he were playing somewhere else.

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