Did Anyone See This?

Premier League at 20: Looking down on Leeds United gave Hull City supporters extra joy

By Richard Sutcliffe


HANGING on the wall of Dean Windass’s home is a framed photograph of the moment Hull City’s 104-year wait for top-flight football came to an end, complete with an inscription that reads, ‘The £60m goal’.

Just four years have passed since the former striker wrote himself into Hull folklore by clinching promotion with his volleyed goal but if Ricardo Vaz Te had chosen to immortalise his own Wembley winner in a similar vein over the summer then the accompanying caption would have to reflect the 50 per cent increase in value of a Championship play-off final triumph.

As inflation rates go, it is enough to leave Sir Mervyn King and his colleagues at the Bank of England pleased with their own efforts to keep the cost of living under control during the same period

For one-time Tigers chairman Paul Duffen, however, the increased riches on offer to promoted clubs – as welcome as they are – have done little to alter his belief that the current set-up makes establishing a place among the elite nigh on impossible without the support of a generous benefactor.

It is a topic the 53-year-old knows plenty about after a 26-month spell in charge at the KC Stadium, during which time Hull initially prospered in the promised land of English football before the dream turned sour as financial problems began to envelop the club.

“People talk about the £90m game or however much it is now worth to win the Championship play-off final,” said Duffen when taking time out from his busy schedule as chairman of Newsdesk Media to speak to the Yorkshire Post.

“But it doesn’t give the true picture with more than half, £48m, being parachute payments over four years, which are obviously not available until a team goes down.

“Plus, the increased wages that come with being in the Premier League – which if you don’t pay them means you are not competitive, something you have to be – means a lot of the income goes straight out.

“Through my time at Hull, I likened the role of the club to acting pretty much as a pipe between the TV companies and the players’ bank accounts – effectively funnelling the money straight there, without receiving any of the benefits.

“You only have to look at the Deloitte figures for the 2010-11 season to see the results of this crazy state of affairs. The average debt for a Premier League club was in the region of £120m and the average wage bill something like £70m.

“Clearly the top four distort those figures somewhat but, even so, it points to a competition where clubs need a benefactor to sustain the losses, which is usually done in the form of a soft loan. Without that, life can be tough.”

The harsh reality of life in the Premier League without a footballing sugar daddy to rely on was brought home to Duffen during the summer that preceded Hull’s second year in the top flight.

He added: “In our first season in the Premier League, we made a profit of £2m. That was a very creditable performance. But the reality was we didn’t have the money to plough into the team.

“Not having a budget to go out and get players meant we had to concentrate on free transfers or deals involving deferred payments. It meant a bigger challenge for the football management, and that is why I laugh when I hear supporters urging their club to go out and spend big on transfers ‘because we have £90m to spend’.

“One deal we nearly pulled off was (Real Madrid striker Alvaro) Negredo. We struck a deal (in the summer of 2009), whereby we would have only had to pay his wages for 12 months and then at the end of that time we could have either signed him for a set fee or sent him back.

“His parent club knew that if he did well in the Premier League then his value would multiply. And if Madrid then sold him, we would have got a percentage of the fee.

“It was a clever deal as, effectively, we would have been able to bring someone in worth £10m for just the cost of his wages. It was a win-win situation for everyone.

“But, unfortunately, after agreeing the deal in principle with Real Madrid, the player decided he wanted to stay in Spain and signed for Sevilla instead.

“It was a big blow, especially as the irony was that the make-up of the deal made it an easier one for Hull City to conclude than, say, having to find £1m up front to sign a player. That is what I mean by saying a club needs a benefactor to properly establish itself in the Premier League, otherwise things are very difficult.”

Duffen, as the figurehead of a consortium led by Essex-based property investor Russell Bartlett, may have left as Hull’s financial problems started to bite during the October of the season that ended in relegation but he has only fond memories of his time at the KC Stadium.

“Hull City in the Premier League was such an emotional journey for everyone,” he said.

“The magic dust from winning at Wembley carried us into the following season and was a big factor in why we had such an incredible start. It is not stretching things to say we set the football world alight as moments like our wins at Arsenal and Tottenham are the sort that live in the hearts of football fans forever.

“The impact that Hull being in the Premier League had on the region was immense, while being two divisions above Leeds United was wonderful for the supporters, too, as was being the top club in Yorkshire.”

Duffen’s involvement may be over but he keeps a watching brief on events at the KC Stadium and believes the club’s stint in the top flight has changed the perception of the club forever.

He said: “I would suggest the mindset surrounding Hull City has changed. I meet up with Phil Brown every so often and, inevitably, our conversation turns to Hull and we both believe the legacy of that time is the 104 years where Hull City were synonymous with modest ambition and largely playing in the lower divisions has ended.

“Instead, Hull City are now regarded as a top Championship team with genuine ambitions of getting back up. That much is evident when listening to the owners, who seem very strong and supportive, and the manager Steve Bruce’s every comment is about getting back into the Premier League.

“If anyone involved with the club had said that publicly five years ago, they would have been laughed at. But not any more.”


http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/spor...ave-hull-city-supporters-extra-joy-1-4727534?

 

Decent article - cheers for posting.

Oh what might have been with Negredo and no Altidore

 

Or if we'd left PB in charge of those last 9 matches...

 

See the thread started by OLM titled 'So that's what went wrong.....'

Was a good read though, I thought the Negredo thing was just paper talk, had no idea it nearly came to fruition!

 

Bwahahaha

 

He seems to suggest we would've had Negredo on what was more or less a loan deal, rather than by stumping up £12m straight away.

 

I don't know the ins and outs of the Negredo deal, OLM reckons it's tosh but the mindset has defo changed.. and perhaps we should add we've been top yorkshire club for the last 5 seasons.. will be tough next season though..