George Boateng is already questioning the preseason plans at Hull City.

The former Middlesbrough captain only joined the Tigers last week and manager Phil Brown revealed to the Daily Mail: "George said straight away: 'We're running without the ball - it's bad for the mind.'

"It's a classic, isn't it? I totally agree with him. But there are games when we're hardly going to have the ball. We've still got to be fitter than the opposition."

Brown also said: "It's a compromise on my beliefs but we've got to be fitter and stronger than the opposition because we haven't got the quality that Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal have got.

"So we've got to be able to compete physically. We have a Premier League fitness test. It has a measurement. Last year it showed that we had Premier League fitness in the Championship. What we need now is Champions League fitness in the Premier League."