After winning promotion via last season's Championship play-offs, the Tigers – who have never previously played in the top flight – were swiftly installed by the bookmakers as odds-on favourites for relegation.

That does not bother coach Horton – and Hull only have to look at the story of Luton Town 25 years ago for inspiration.

A victory over Manchester City on the final day of the 1982-83 season plucked the Hatters, with Horton playing in midfield, from the jaws of relegation and sent manager David Pleat skipping across the Maine Road pitch.

It was a moment that would still be shown on TV over two decades later, illustrating what it means to stay in the top flight.

Horton spent one more season at Luton before starting the first of his two associations with Hull. The club he left behind, meanwhile, lasted another eight years in the top flight and made a hat-trick of Wembley appearances.

At 59, Horton has been around the block often enough to appreciate the size of next season's task. His recent appearance alongside the Premier League trophy at a Barclays bank in Hull city centre will surely be the closest he comes to the big prize. Yet, whatever happens, Horton insists that Hull will play with 'no fear' next season and are capable of defying the odds.

"Keeping Hull City up would be a bigger achievement than anything I did at Luton, Brighton or Manchester City," said Horton, who is returning to the top flight for the fourth time in his career. "It has got so much harder since those days because the gap financially is so much wider.

"Look at Chelsea," he mused. "Scolari has probaby got £100m to spend. That's what we're up against – but what a challenge.

"People will make us favourites to go down, along with Stoke and West Brom who have also come up, but that's always the case and it is up to us to go in there and prove them wrong. We have to go there and not fear anything.

"We know it's going to be hard, but if you go to places like Anfield and Old Trafford with that attitude, you are never going to achieve anything.

"There are almost three different divisions in the Premier League – the sides that can win it, the ones who are striving to get into Europe, and the ones who are striving to stay out of the relegation battle.

"It's no good going in there negative. If you are negative against some of these top sides, you will get hammered. I saw some sides go to Manchester United in the last two seasons and play negative and you just can't get the ball."

Hull's desire to play attacking football against the big guns could yet provide a breath of fresh air to the Premier League, providing, of course, it does not backfire and result in a string of heavy defeats.

Horton said: "We worked better when we played 4-4-2 without any shadow of a doubt in the Championship. Whether we can be that adventurous in the Premier League, I don't know – but I always was, particularly as manager of Manchester City (who stayed up). You have to get the ball off these teams – that's the difference between the Championship and the Premier League – retention of the ball and the final ball, they won't give it to you often."

Horton clocked up over 1,000 games in management prior to accepting an invitation 13 months ago from manager Phil Brown to return to Hull in a coaching capacity. By his own admission, the speed of the club's progress in that period has been a pleasant surprise.

"I never thought this was going to happen so soon after I came back. Phil and Steve Parkin had done well to keep the club in the Championship the year before so, when the new people took over, the first target was going to be mid-table.

"As we got players in last season, we got into a position where we were strong and confident and we were on an unstoppable run. There were one or two blips, but to do what we did at the end of the season was incredible. We were strong, organised, fit, and hard to beat."

Horton is full of admiration for Brown who now holds the record for the highest league finish as Hull manager. Horton had previously held the record after steering Hull to sixth in the old Division Two.

"What Phil has done at this club should make him immortal – to finish third, go to Wembley, and play in the Premier League. He has broken three club records in one swoop. I finished sixth when I was manager, but Phil had kept saying he wanted to beat my record."

Although Hull supporters had to wait several weeks for signs of a new arrival this summer, the completion of French international defender Bernard
Mendy's transfer from Paris St Germain on Friday took the tally to three alongside Brazilian midfielder Geovanni and striker Craig Fagan.

"We need five, six, or seven new players in total," saidd Horton. "Possibly eight if we can do the sums and bring them in on Bosmans. There is a bit of money to spend ,but the chairman has also made it clear that he won't put the club's future in jeopardy.

"Wage demands have not surprised me. I have had this before when I went from Oxford to Manchester City. Initally, you think 'wow', but if that's what you have to pay to get good players, that's what you have got to do because this is the biggest, richest, league in the world. I am well into the negotiations with Phil and the chairman. These days you are dealing with agents more than managers and other chairmen, you hardly talk to the players until the final thing."

Outlining the calibre of player required, Horton said: "We needed players with experience of playing at top level, like Nick Barmby and Dean Windass.

"They have got to be able to go and play at the biggest grounds and think it is nothing to be afraid of. We all want to savour this season and we all want to prove that we can play at the top level. I had that mentality as a player at Luton. But survival is the target and if we could finish 17th, we would take it now."

Who knows, if that happens, it might prompt Horton to skip across the pitch.