Brown: Hull City almost signed Cavani

Posted Monday, July 22, 2013 by Goal.com

The Southend United boss claims he sent his chief scout and assistant manager to watch the Uruguay international at Palermo and were also in talks to sign Alvaro Negredo

Former Hull City boss Phil Brown has revealed the club almost signed Paris Saint-Germain new-boy Edinson Cavani during his reign.

The prolific Uruguayan completed a €64 million (£53.8m) move to the French capital earlier this week, with his 104 goals in 138 appearances for Napoli having earned him a big-money switch.

Cavani was widely reported to have been a long-term target of Chelsea prior to joining PSG, but Brown has explained that he had planned to bring the 26-year-old to England years earlier.

"We were in the Premier League and full of ambition under chairman Paul Duffen," he told the Daily Star Sunday.

"My chief scout Bob Shaw and assistant manager Brian Horton went to watch Cavani, who was available at Palermo.

"They recommended him and we offered £2.5m. I remember the negotiations and it was a deal with a number of clauses in the contract.

"When it didn't happen, we switched to Negredo, who at the time was at Real Madrid. That was going to be a loan for the season.

"We were going to pay £12m (€14m), plus his wages, then Real were going to buy him back for €15m, but Cavani eventually went to Napoli and Negredo signed for Sevilla.

"Why didn't they come to Hull? The club was not big enough. In Negredo's case, you were talking about going from Real Madrid to Hull City.

"But the important thing was that we were ahead of the game in terms of spotting these players. That's where we were at with Hull City."