League to Investigate Hull to Sunderland Sale

Report in no obvious link post shock

World ends next Thursday meanwhile R's still need leftback

I thought the world was meant to end in 2012??

;D
And finally...

Mail - EXCLUSIVE: Cash-crisis Premier league strugglers Hull blew £5.5m on agents By Matt Lawton
03rd November 2009

Hull City are believed to have spent a staggering £5.5million in agents’ fees in the two years Paul Duffen was the club’s chairman and chief executive.
New executive chairman Adam Pearson launched an investigation into Hull’s transfer dealings - such as Jimmy Bullard’s capture from Fulham - on Monday when he officially took over from Duffen, who left the KC Stadium last week after the full scale of the club’s financial crisis was revealed.

The majority of the bigger deals were done through leading London-based agency The Stellar Group, who received a fee of around £500,000 when Hull paid a club record fee of £5million to Fulham for Bullard in January.

Pearson, sources say, cannot fathom why such a high fee needed to be paid when the terms on offer - a £10m, five-year deal - meant luring Bullard to Humberside was never going to be difficult.

The figure of £5.5m would amount to approximately 20 per cent of the total transfer fees paid in the period Duffen was in charge. This is an alarming amount, especially for a club now in such deep financial trouble.
The internal investigation being led by Pearson will try to establish why, under Duffen, so many of the deals, in particular the bigger ones, involved one agency.
When Pearson, who saved Hull from administration in 2001, handed over the reins to Duffen the club had £1m in the bank and a relatively modest wage bill of £3.5m a year.
Little more than two years later Hull are said to have debts of £27m and an astonishing wage bill of £40m a year, among the highest in the Premier League.
Duffen has admitted his tenure at the KC Stadium ended because of his failings in the transfer market.
New chairman: Adam Pearson
‘I come from an industrial background where if things aren’t going very well the buck stops with the guy at the top,’ he said last week.
‘Whatever the financial constraints, we have been active in the transfer market.
‘We have been running the club in a certain way, which is the way I believed it would be successful. While Phil Brown is ultimately the man on the pitch, I believe it is my responsibility to oversee the transfer market.’
Pearson promised yesterday that Brown will be in charge for Hull’s home game against Stoke on Sunday, adding: ‘Phil is the manager of Hull City and he still will be next Sunday.
'It’s a results business but he retains my full support. I’ll be there to provide as much support as is possible for the manager.
‘I’ll bring a fresh pair of eyes to it and hopefully, in conjunction with the manager, we can turn things around on the pitch.’


www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1224812/EXCLUSIVE-Cash-crisis-Premier-league-strugglers-Hull-blew-5-5m-agents.html#ixzz0VmbiMKMv

Didn't the Camp and Blackstock transfers to Forest, raise suspicions during the summer.

Big sell on percentage clause for Camp owed to Derby, relatively low fee agreed compared with some of the figures quoted in Jan. Blackstock deal not announced until some time later (even though 'the word' was that it was a done deal) with the transfer fee quoted at the higher end of expectations.

Or maybe we should all keep schtum for fear of an investigation!

Telegraph/Rob Stewart

Hull City deny wrongdoing over Michael Turner sale
New Hull City chairman Adam Pearson has insisted a Premier League investigation into the club's sale of Michael Turner to Sunderland is "wholly unfounded" because "nothing untoward" had taken place.

In the spotlight: Premier League is to investigate the transfer of defender Michael Turner from Hull City to Sunderland Photo: PA
Pearson spoke out as the league decided to scrutinise Turner's move to the Stadium of Light following complaints from his previous clubs Charlton Athletic and Brentford.

Concerns have been raised by the League One clubs about the transfer fee involved because Hull City's prized asset was allowed to move to Sunderland for a meagre £3.5 million which had an adverse effect on sell-on clauses negotiated earlier in his career.

But, speaking for the first time on the issue since he succeeded Paul Duffen in the KC Stadium chairman's office, Pearson has claimed the struggling Yorkshire club had no cause for concern over the deal.

"From what I can see, an investigation is wholly unfounded," Pearson said. "We're entirely comfortable, there's nothing untoward as far as I can see.

"I think the two clubs have seen inflated figures in the press but the only thing we could be accused of is not maximising the fee at the best possible time."

Pearson, who left the chairman's post Derby last week to come to his former club's rescue, took a swipe at Duffen for failing to cash in on Turner whose transfer fee has not been officially disclosed by either club.

"Under no circumstances was it a financial necessity to sell Michael Turner," he said.

"I can only second guess what people were thinking but there was probably a feeling that the player wanted to go and that was the best possible deal available for him.

"All I can say is that there's no requirement to sell players we want to keep."

There have been suggestions that the value of Turner's transfer could rise to £8 million but Pearson has refuted those claims.

"It's not incremental; the total amount of cash we will receive for Michael Turner is £2.8m. Those are the facts.

"The cash generated from that deal after paying Brentford and Charlton is £2.8m and in light of what we've been spending on players, I would tend to suggest that it's a disappointing return for the player.

"With hindsight, I'm not sure that Aug 31 was the best time to sell Michael Turner and certainly not at that price. We've had to pay a transfer fee for Paul McShane of £500,000 but that's a separate deal."

The Premier League investigation into Turner's move will be heard the week commencing Nov 30.

Meanwhile, Pearson is setting his sights on moving 15 players out of the KC Stadium in the near future as he tries to cut a crippling £40-million wage bill that is threatening to send the club into financial meltdown.

It means Pearson will try to ease out the likes of Daniel Cousin, George Boateng and Bernard Mendy who all pick up in excess of £24,000 per week while Peter Halmosi and Craig Fagan have also emerged as potential fall guys.

"We have too many players; it is as simple as that," Pearson said. "There are 40 at the club, plus all the kids, and I would envisage that number having to come down by 15 or so.

"In a way, the club has been a victim of its own success as it has come a long way in a very short space of time. As I know from my time here when we won back-to-back promotions, it is easy to accumulate players on your way up.

"Clearly, the number has to come down. But what I will say to supporters is this club is miles away from having to sell the players it wants to keep.

"The departures I am talking about concern those who are not in the team."
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/hullcity/6493751/Hull-City-deny-wrongdoing-over-Michael-Turner-sale.html