Hull City have signed five midfielders who could take Regan Slater's place but he only sees them as players who can push him to be better, and his job is to buy them time to settle in.

Despite the arrivals of Tim Iroegbunam, Christos Mouzakitis, Jens Hjerto-Dahl, Lucas Gourna and Hidemasa Morita (Oscar Zambrano has not been registered for the first half of the Premier League season), Slater has been the ever-present in Hull’s unbeaten start to the Premier League season, where they are yet to concede a goal.

And the faith in the core of last season's team was underlined on Thursday when Slater and five others signed new contracts.

"The core group, that's what we built last year," said Slater after Saturday's 0-0 draw with Aston Villa. "We're getting results this season by working hard, doing the dirty bits.

"We're happy to not have the ball defending, so when they bring in new signings and they can see the core group and what they're about, they pick it up quite easily and they settle in nicely.

"We're all just pushing each other, really.

"It probably gets the best out of everyone. The standard of training goes up when they bring in quality players. Everyone's got to be pushing for their shirt and to keep hold of their shirt.

"If they're not, they know that someone else is going to step in and do a job for the team.

SURIVIVOR: Regan Slater has kept his Hull City place despite 18 summer signings (Image: Matt McNulty/Getty Images)

placeholder image — SURIVIVOR: Regan Slater has kept his Hull City place despite 18 summer signings (Image: Matt McNulty/Getty Images)

"The manager's been open about the new signings coming in and giving them time to settle.

"A lot of people that we have signed, I wasn't aware of who they were and they probably had no idea who I was. But there's been some great characters, along with a lot of quality.

"I wasn't really too fussed about deadline day. I've got better things to be doing in my spare time. I was probably playing on my Xbox."