Hull desperate to cut wage bill

Bullard is one of Hull's high earners (GETTY IMAGES)

Hull's board will continue to meet throughout the week in an attempt to address the club's perilous financial problems.

The Tigers are £35million in debt and facing an uncertain future with relegation from the Barclays Premier League now all but confirmed.

Chairman Adam Pearson met with fellow directors yesterday to discuss City's options, which might include going into administration.

Seeking to enter into a Company Voluntary Arrangement is another possibility but both of those solutions could incur a 10-point penalty in the Coca-Cola Championship next season.

Pearson suggested at the weekend that a CVA might be a sensible route, although owner Russell Bartlett has offered hope that a way to "trade through" the problems can be found.

To do that City would drastically need to reduce their reported £39million wage bill.

Major restructure and a fire sale of high-earning players now seem inevitable in the summer.

Bartlett said: "We must now get down to concentrating on reducing the wage bill to about £15million in the Championship to establish financial viability and stability.

"Subject to this, I anticipate we will be very competitive next season."

Pearson had little success in his attempts to offload a number of fringe players in the January transfer window.

Now a number of senior names are likely to be put up for sale such as Stephen Hunt, Jimmy Bullard, Geovanni, Anthony Gardner, Kamil Zayatte and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.

Hull actually rebuffed interest in Hunt in January in the hope he could help keep them up only for injury to rule him out from late February.

Hunt is contracted for another three years, as is £5million record signing Bullard, who reportedly earns a crippling £45,000 per week.

Hull's relegation from the top flight after a two-year stay was effectively settled by a 1-0 loss to Sunderland on Saturday.

The result left them six points adrift of safety and with a hugely inferior goal difference to West Ham with just two games remaining.