EXCLUSIVE: Cash-strapped strugglers Hull City blew £5.5m on agents

Enlarge Investigation: Jimmy Bullard joined Hull from Fulham in JanuaryHull 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 East Yorkshire 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.' Phil Brown will not be sacked, says new Hull chairman Adam PearsonHull boss Brown heaps praise on 'un-Brazilian' GeovanniHULL CITY FC

Source: Daily_Mail