Source: Daily_Mail
EXCLUSIVE: Cash-strapped strugglers Hull City blew £5.5m on agents
Enlarge Investigation: Jimmy Bullard joined Hull from Fulham in January[LNB]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.[LNB]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.[LNB]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.[LNB]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 East Yorkshire was never going to be difficult.[LNB]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.[LNB]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.[LNB]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.[LNB] 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.[LNB]Duffen has admitted his tenure at the KC Stadium ended because of his failings in the transfer market.[LNB] New chairman: Adam Pearson[LNB]'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.[LNB]'Whatever the financial constraints, we have been active in the transfer market.[LNB]'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.'[LNB]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.[LNB]'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.[LNB]'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.'[LNB] Phil Brown will not be sacked, says new Hull chairman Adam PearsonHull boss Brown heaps praise on 'un-Brazilian' GeovanniHULL CITY FC
