Hull's head of football operations Adam Pearson has admitted the club paid over the odds for agents' fees in the past and still owe £1.5 million. A statement on the club's official website revealed agents' costs of £3m between October 1 2008 and September 30 2010, most of which came during the East Yorkshire side's two-year stint in the Premier League.

This is added to the £1.5m still outstanding.

Pearson told the Hull Daily Mail: "The football club has been guilty of paying over the odds on agents` fees. We've had a bill of £3m to pay dating back to the period between the summer of 2008 and summer of 2009 and there's around £1.5m still left to pay over the next year.

"The club could not afford those figures. In my opinion, it should have been a third of that when you put it in context with our assets.

"The days of us paying half a million on a deal are long gone. Someone would be lucky to get that figure with a nought taken off now."