Once ensconced at the top table of English football, it seems the temptation to follow the lead of Sixties pools winner Viv 'spend, spend, spend' Nicholson can prove too hard to resist for someone whose newly-promoted club is suddenly awash with cash.

What other explanation can there be for the £6.5m that Blackburn Rovers spent in 2001 on Corrado Grabbi in return for two goals in two-and-a-half years from the Italian striker? Or the £3.5m that it cost Derby County to sign the less-than-prolific Robert Earnshaw last summer?

Reassuringly for Hull City fans, Paul Duffen is unlikely to follow suit after a successful career in business spanning more than a quarter of a century.

The 50-year-old former media executive, who arrived at the KC Stadium 14 months ago as the public face of a three-man consortium that included property investors Russell Bartlett and Martin Walker, is determined to use the Tigers' arrival in the top flight after 104 years of toil as a stepping stone towards a bright future.

The key proviso, though, at a club that arrives in the Premier League in the advantageous position of being debt-free is that any additions to the squad have been – and will continue to be – made as part of a firm business plan designed to bring both quality and value.

Such an approach should ensure Duffen and Hull, no matter what happens on the pitch in the coming months, do not become best known for a scatter-gun approach to the transfer market.

It will not, however, prevent the City chief from being remembered as the chairman who came – quite literally – the closest to losing his head after being almost decapitated on the celebratory open-top bus ride around Hull that followed the play-off final triumph at Wembley.

Duffen, clearly enjoying the moment last May, opted to wave to supporters lining the route while standing on a seat at the front of the bus – blissfully unaware that it was about to travel under a bridge. Thankfully, as the other occupants of the top deck shouted in horror, the Tigers chairman realised the danger in the nick of time and ducked a split second before the bus passed under.

Two-and-a-half months on, Duffen can laugh about the incident, even though the colour does drain slightly from his face on being reminded about his near-miss.

"Bridge-surfing is my new favourite sport," laughs the man who celebrated his 50th birthday late last month in the south of France. "It was a very adrenalin-fuelled day and I had rehearsed my ducking technique on a bridge earlier.

"It meant by the time we came to that one, I was ready. I am sure it was just the camera angle that made it seem a bit more precarious than it was in reality. Honestly!

"Though I do have to say to the readers of the Yorkshire Post, please don't try it at home. It's not big and it's not clever."

With their chairman still safely at the helm, City are eagerly looking forward to what promises to be the most exciting season in a history that dates back to 1904.

The pundits may have dismissed Hull as no better than the Derby County side that set a new record low points tally last term with a paltry 11, but that has done nothing to lessen the fevered sense of anticipation that has built up across the summer in east Yorkshire.

Duffen is no different from any other member of the 'Tiger Nation' in that Saturday's opener at home to Fulham cannot come soon enough.

Talking to the Yorkshire Post in Edinburgh at the home of Heart of Midlothian ahead of the friendly that City would lose 1-0, he said: "It is going to be a special day, as I anticipate will every one of the days we play this season. To go to those grounds that are feted in football folklore and watch the black and amber of Hull City run out will be a spine-tingling moment.

"I really do feel to be 'living the dream'. It would be disingenuous to say anything else. I have been very lucky to be involved in buying a football club that, in the first season, won promotion to the finest football league in the world with me as chairman.

"The 14 months since I became involved with Hull City have been the most fantastic experience of my personal and professional life.

"It still chokes me up and..."

Duffen, gazing towards the other side of Tynecastle suddenly stops mid-sentence before pointing: "Here I am talking about Hull City in the Premier League at the same time as I am looking at a sign for David Lloyd Leisure. It shows how times can change."

This jolt back to a less happy period in Hull's history is indeed timely, a poignant reminder of what true suffering can be for a football club ahead of a season where Phil Brown's men will inevitably be locked in a fight against relegation.

Forget a heavy defeat at Old Trafford or dropping two points to a relegation rival courtesy of a controversial late goal, true stomach-churning pain for a supporter is seeing a beloved club locked out of their home or being threatened with closure. City fans had to endure both during David Lloyd's reign in charge at Boothferry Park.

It took the arrival of Leeds United commercial director Adam Pearson in 2001 – and the building of the KC Stadium a year later – for east Yorkshire to finally realise its football potential as back-to-back promotions were followed by two successful battles against relegation in the Championship.

It was after the second of these fights for survival last year that Pearson struck a £10m deal with an Essex-based consortium fronted by Duffen, the former chief executive of Catalyst Media Group.

At the first press conference following the takeover, the new Tigers chief outlined a three-year plan for reaching the Premier League and promised significant investment in the playing squad to help realise that aim. Fourteen months later – and well ahead of schedule – City will kick off the new season among the elite.

Duffen said: "We came in with a clear vision and business plan. Last season was an intentional investment in the club, we knew we would lose £4-5m on a profit level and closer to £7-8m on a cash level.

"We were prepared for that, and part of the original business plan was to sustain that for three years. Obviously, promotion has changed things and now the club is in its best ever position and the business is in its best ever financial situation.

"Finances in the Premier League are very different because they are all about cash and not profit. Without getting too technical, building a squad is partly investment in wages – which is overhead and depletes your profit – and partly acquisition of players, which is capital expenditure. It does not hit your profit/loss in one year, it is spread across the length of a contract.

"What that means is in the Premier League Hull City can make a healthy profit.

"As for whether Hull City can generate any cash in the Premier League, that depends on the fortunes and wisdom of the players we bring in.

"What I do know is that, as the custodian of this club, it is my job to make sure I use these good times to feather the nest of the football club if there are any downturns in fortune in the future."

The biggest immediate downturn in fortune would, of course, be relegation – even if the financial blow would be lessened by two parachute payments of £11m in the following two seasons. A finish in the bottom three is, however, something Duffen refuses to contemplate.

"I am only looking at more success, that is the kind of animal I am," he said. "I don't look backwards or downwards.

"Now, the focus is very much on the belief that brought me to this club in the first place – the potential it has to become a permanent constituent of the Premier League.