DESPITE BEING PART of a side that hasn’t won in its last 11 games, Irish defender Sean McLoughlin has enhanced his own reputation since breaking into the team at Hull City.
McLoughlin has featured in five of Hull’s last six Championship outings, with the Tigers just three points clear of the relegation zone following last weekend’s 4-0 loss to Leeds United.
According to former Hull City defender Peter Swan, the performances of McLoughlin are among the few positives that can be yielded from the current travails of Grant McCann’s side.
Swan has likened the 23-year-old centre-back to Manchester United captain Harry Maguire, who was a Hull player until he was snapped up by Leicester City in 2017.
“Grant McCann often talks about wanting to see his Hull City side play with bravery and by that, he means both confidence on the ball and not being afraid of going into tackles,” Swan writes in the Hull Daily Mail.
“McLoughlin has all of those credentials and because of that, he reminds me of a young Harry Maguire and I can only see him continuing to get better and better.
“When you are a young kid and go into a struggling team, it goes either one of two ways. You either play with confidence and bravery, having self-belief that you are deserving of a chance, or you can buckle under the pressure.
“He has so far relished in the chance that McCann has presented to him and he has already risen above Ryan Tafazolli in the pecking order at the KCOM Stadium and rightly so.”
Just days after moving to Hull from Cork City on a three-year deal in July of last year, McLoughlin was sent on loan to St Mirren to gain more first-team experience.
He played in every minute of the club’s Scottish Premiership campaign – 21 appearances in total – before being recalled from the loan spell at the end of December.
Swan added: “McLoughlin is a player that fits the mould of player that [Hull] City have been looking to bring in recently. He is young, unknown and someone that the club will hope to develop into a real prospect to sell on for big money in the future.”
A native of Cobh in East Cork, McLoughlin previously turned down offers from several UK clubs in order to attain a degree in Business Information Systems at University College Cork.
Cork City were the beneficiaries, with the former Republic of Ireland U21 international selected in the PFAI Team of the Year in 2018.
Hull will be seeking their first Championship win since New Year’s Day when they travel to play fellow strugglers Stoke City on Saturday.
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