Hull City head back to Championship looking to ease £35m millstone

CRISIS talks aimed at safeguarding the future of Hull City will be held this lunchtime when chairman Adam Pearson will attempt to convince owner Russell Bartlett that a Company Voluntary Arrangement is the best way to save a club who are around £35m in debt.

Hull were effectively relegated from the Premier League by a

1-0 home defeat to Sunderland on Saturday as fellow strugglers West Ham pulled off a 3-2 win against Wigan to move six points clear with two games to play and with a goal difference that is superior by 23.

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The Tigers have already borrowed 10m from the bank against their first 16m parachute payment but Pearson immediately ruled out the prospect of the club entering into administration.

Property investor Bartlett, who took control from Pearson in a 12m takeover deal in 2007, is understood to want to try to trade through their financial difficulties but that is not an option believes Pearson, the man he brought back to the club last November following the exit of chairman Paul Duffen when the parlous financial situation became clear.

It would need 75 per cent of the club's creditors to agree a CVA, which would re-structure the debt, but at least trouble-shooter Pearson and Bartlett would be able to continue running the club – they would not if Hull go into administration.

Pearson, who saved the club from liquidation in 2001 when they were locked out of their Boothferry Park home, believes that the club's future at the KC Stadium can be secured but that a tough couple of years lie ahead.

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A fire-sale of their top earners looks certain because, incredibly, says Pearson, none of them had clauses inserted in their contracts whereby they would take a drop in salary following relegation. Wages this season are around 38.9m, almost 80 per cent of the club's total income.

Pearson even admitted that Phil Brown could return as manager because the man he put on 'gardening leave' when Iain Dowie was brought in to try to save the club from the drop seven games ago still has a year of his lucrative contract to run. Such a scenario, Pearson later stressed, is as remote as Hull sending West Ham down in their place.

The future of football management consultant Dowie will not be discussed until the club's financial situation is sorted and outlining the predicament he faces, Pearson said: "The debts are not very palatable but they can be managed and we have to see if the repayment of them can be restructured.

"I do not think that administration is on the agenda for the board so we have to find another route. We have to look at bringing the wage bill down and, hopefully, looking at doing some transfers as well.

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"I am obviously very disappointed but the squad has not been good enough. We have to accept that and take it on the chin because, realistically, we have been in relegation form for 18 months with six or seven wins in 50-odd games. With that kind of form, it has not come as a major surprise that we are in the bottom three.

"When the club was in administration last time in 2001 we had a core of staff who grew with us and with the club. They are very good people and the difference is now we have great facilities, a super stadium, decent Centre of Excellence and a good training ground, and we can build on that and take positives from it.

"When I saw the team at Burnley before I came back (from Derby County) I knew it was going to be a long, hard winter. There is definitely not enough quality back-to-front really to be able to sustain a Premier League campaign.

"We are spending 195,000 a week on strikers and if you are spending that kind of money on your strikers you have to expect more than eight goals but they just haven't been able to do it .

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"It is so difficult to score goals at this level, that is why they cost the money, but you look at what Steve Bruce (Sunderland manager) has out there in Kenwyne Jones, Darren Bent and Fraizer Campbell and his wage bill of 40m is exactly the same as ours. They have the same wage bill but they have seven or eight young, saleable assets. We don't. We have players on long contracts, high wages and with no transfer value.

"But what we do have is 12,500 season-ticket holders for next season which is fantastic. Sales have slowed off recently because of the threat and talk of the financial worry but I think that is a great core of support.

"The crowd wants to see a team which gives its all for the city and the football club and that is what we have to build and make sure next season we have a team which can compete in the Championship. We have to re-group and pull everything together again. All the basics are there and we will be back I am sure."