Tigers focused on sales

Pearson looking to trim wage bill

By Chris Burton   Last updated: 16th December 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Tigers focused on sales

Pearson: Has to be sensible

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Hull City chairman Adam Pearson insists selling players, not buying them, will be his priority in January.

The Tigers are hoping to trim some £6million off their wage bill over the coming months, starting with a mass clearout in the New Year.

The KC Stadium faithful will not be happy to learn that Phil Brown will be given little money to spend in the upcoming transfer window, but the club have made their priorities clear.

A relegation dogfight could be avoided were new arrivals brought in to help freshen up the squad, but Pearson insists Hull cannot afford to live beyond their means.

"The priority is still very much on moving players on but that can be very difficult in January," Pearson told the Hull Daily Mail.

"We have to raise funds as a trading club but that's very much up in the air as we stand.

"There are no definitive offers in place for any of our players and that makes it difficult to plan for what may come in."

Cash flow

He added: "It looks like there will not be a lot of cash around during this transfer window and when you've got players on Premier League wages, it's difficult to make things happen with a Championship club.

"In an ideal world we'd like the wage bill to be £5-6m lighter but that isn't straightforward."

While admitting that new arrivals will be thin on the ground, Pearson has not ruled out the possibility of further loan recruits being brought on board.

"Loans are an option open to us and one we're certainly looking at," he added.

"There's the obvious attraction of it being a short-term commitment, as opposed to a long-term commitment, but our focus still has to be on cutting down the size of our current squad."