Two years and we will be back on right track – Pearson

Adam Pearson, back at the helm of Hull City after two years away from the club he rescued for a first time in 2001, is learning the hard way that the maxim can also apply to chairmen.

The 45-year-old returned to the KC Stadium a little over two months ago after answering an SOS call from owner Russell Bartlett to sort out the Tigers' financial problems.

Just a week or so earlier, City's auditors had questioned the club's "ability to continue as a going concern" without the introduction of significant funding after building up debts of around 9m.

In a Premier League where the last official financial review by Deloitte revealed the 20 member clubs owe more than 3billion in overdrafts, loans and other borrowings, such a sum seemed a mere drop in the ocean.

However, to a club that was understood to have been debt-free when promoted in 2008, it represented a worrying turn of events and action was needed.

Once back in situ, Pearson, who quit as football chairman at Derby County to return to the East Riding in early November, made it clear he was under no illusions as to the size of the task that lay ahead.

Reducing the club's outgoings – and, in particular, a wage bill that, when appearance bonuses are taken into account, stands at 38.9m – was, the incoming chairman said, a priority along with attracting outside investment.

The latter has proved extremely difficult due to the economic climate, while the first nine days of the transfer window have brought only enquiries for several fringe members of Phil Brown's squad as opposed to firm bids.

It adds up to a difficult task for Pearson who admits to allowing his thoughts to drift towards 'what might have been?' type scenarios while attempting to steer a path through the Tigers' current stormy waters.

The Hull chairman told the Yorkshire Post: "I am enjoying being back, though it is also very frustrating.

"To have come in after the play-off final (victory over Bristol City) would have been great as I could have planned properly.

"I would love to get hold of a club as it is going into the Premier League. Then, it would be possible to approach the situation sensibly and ensure the club is run along proper lines.

"But I suppose it is like being a football manager, they only usually come in to sort out a failing squad. I am sure they would love to take over a team top of the league but that just doesn't happen.

"I realise I only got this chance because we were in adversity. But, hopefully, in the next two years we can get this club back running on the right lines."

Pearson's return to East Yorkshire has been popular with fans who remember his sterling work after first taking charge of the club in 2001.

After taking the Tigers out of administration, he helped revive a club that had endured a miserable slide down the Football League during the previous decade.

Appointing Peter Taylor proved to be the masterstroke of his first reign as the pair led City to back-to-back promotion before consolidating the club's position in the Championship. Taylor left for Crystal Palace in 2006 but Pearson remained for another 12 months before, after again keeping Hull in the second tier, selling to Bartlett.

Further success followed under new ownership with a first ever promotion to the top flight being secured at Wembley in May, 2008, before Phil Brown went on to confound his critics by keeping City in the Premier League 12 months later.

On the surface, all seemed well but the reality was rather different – as Pearson found out with a quick glance at the finances ahead of returning, the figures showing the wage bill alone accounting for almost four-fifths of the club's 50m annual turnover.

"For the life of me, I cannot understand how our costs are so close to turnover," reveals the Tigers chairman. "Being promoted to the Premier League was an amazing opportunity for Hull but all the club has done is acquire a lot of players of a similar standard on very high wages.

"Maybe a bit more quality rather than quantity would have been in order.

"I look at the value we have had out of our transfers in the last 12 months and it is not the best. The wage bill is also too high and it has to come down as, at this point, the debt is moving up. We need to move players on but it is not as simple as it sounds. A lot of our squad members are earning very, very good salaries and they won't move unless another club will match that, which is something I perfectly understand.

"If we can't off-load players then we will continue to lose money and have to find other means of managing the situation by raising finance."

Asked if there are parallels with the club's plight when he first took over in 2001, Pearson said: "Not really. The amounts we are talking about now are significantly higher than when I first came in to Hull City.

"The club has wasted a lot of money on transfers and agents fees over the past 12 months. For example, it has committed 5m on agents fees and that is just too much.

"In contrast, our youth development programme is being run on buttons. We spent 500,000 on that last year and yet millions on agents' fees, that just isn't right."

The priority, along with sorting the finances out, is ensuring the Tigers escape the bottom three of the Premier League. Pearson added: "It is vital that we stay up and I have been heartened by what I have seen since coming back to Hull.

"I think the manager has done really well. He is working flat out to keep Hull City in the Premier League."