Hull City financier Peter Wilkinson: 'Why would I spend my money to be abused and ridiculed?'

Harrogate-based internet entrepreneur Peter Wilkinson first became involved with the Tigers in 2001 when he and then-Leeds United commercial director Pearson brought the club out of administration.

With Wilkinson preferring to remain in the background, Pearson became chairman and the driving force behind a remarkable transformation in Hull's fortunes.

Back-to-back promotions followed before the Tigers were sold to current owner Russell Bartlett in the summer of 2007 in a deal reputed to be worth around 12m.

Pearson subsequently moved on to Derby County before returning to the KC Stadium a year ago this month to answer an SOS call from Bartlett to sort out the club's troubled finances.

Wilkinson has not been involved in football since leaving Hull but that has not stopped speculation over a possible return to the game for the multi-millionaire.

However, despite being linked with a possible move for Leeds in recent years, Wilkinson says: "I have finished in football forever. Why would you want to spend your hard-earned money to be abused and ridiculed by the supporters, hated by some of them, because you cannot achieve something that is totally unrealistic?

"That is why I would not want to own another football club. Plus, I am a private man and don't like a public image.

"I did Hull and I did it with Adam. I think we did a great job together and took them from bankruptcy to the Championship.

"When we sold Hull City, albeit in the lower reaches of the Championship, we (the club) had 1m in the bank, we owed nobody anything and we had a wage bill of 5m.

"It was a sustainable club (but) when they went down last year, they had a huge wage bill and debts. They were in serious financial distress."

Under the stewardship of Wilkinson and Pearson, Hull rose from the basement division to the Championship within four years and moved out of their dilapidated Boothferry Park ground to the state-of-the-art

KC Stadium in 2002.

Hull's success on and off the field paved the way for the 2007 takeover that saw Bartlett become owner and install Paul Duffen as chairman.

Within a year, Hull had been promoted to the top flight for the first time in their 104-year history.

Last season, Hull were relegated amid debts that had spiralled to around 30m courtesy of a wage bill that peaked just short of 40m.

A refinancing package with major creditors helped ease some of the pressure on Hull's finances in August but, as head of football operations Pearson admitted in Friday's Yorkshire Post, there are still "some significant challenges to overcome".

Wilkinson added: "Hull have all that debt and that enormous wage bill and I cannot think of a decent player that is worth some decent dosh.

"What the hell did they spend it on? It is not as if they bought a James Milner or an Ashley Young. I cannot remember Hull selling a player for anything. That is almost from the sublime to the ridiculous."

On the wider picture of investing in football, Wilkinson said: "Fans want you to spend all that money but then you are jeopardising the whole future of the football club.

"What would Hull, what could Leeds realistically be? The best they could hope is you are Everton or Villa. Never going to win anything, never going to achieve top four, never going to get into the Champions League – and fans never learn the lesson.

"If you can't win anything, what's the point of starting the race?"