Koren is signed until the end of next season, Stewart and Chester are signed until the end of the 2014 season.
This is a situation where our owners lack of football knowledge could really payoff for us though. They're likely to look at the fact we still have Olofinjana, McShane, Ghilas etc on our books and knowing they need to keep our best players from a PR point alone decide "if we have to honour their contracts then Chester etc can honour theirs" without any allowance for the footballing thing about not wanting to keep an unhappy player around.
Is there any truth to the rumour that the Hull owner wants to sell off all the assets then bugger off with the cash? Technically he can do that as it is like what is happening with Leeds - money is going to Ken Bates pocket first to repay the loans he put into the club before it goes anywhere else.
I doubt it. There's about £40M less in assets than they've put into the club, and that's probably up to nearer £50M by now because we'll have lost money this season as well. They might have thought they could do it, but I think the reaction they've seen in the wake of events this week would have made them sit up and realise that if they tried that they'd end up with us all boycotting games, so no matter how much they cut costs and sold off they wouldn't be able to get their money out. By their own admission they know nothing about football, but they definitely know that a business with no customers isn't going to make them £40M profit in a hurry. The only way we're ever going to generate the kind of revenue needed to repay it is if we get promoted and pocket at least some of the cash each year the way Blackpool and Burnley did. It might mean yoyoing for a bit like Bolton, Charlton, and WBA did, but if it happens I'd actually prefer us to split the money 3 ways - 1/3 on strengthening the squad, 1/3 on infrastructure right from the youth setup to the stadium, and 1/3 on repaying them, give or take depending on what we actually need in each section.