I was reading an article on the train this morning from the Telegraph site about
Hull City suspending Nick Barmby. Which, on its own, is not particularly exciting if you're a Town fan - but the following couple of paragraphs caught my eye.
'Having already pumped in £51 million to keep the club afloat since taking over from Russell Bartlett in Dec 2010, the Hull City owners, Assem and Ehab Allam, have tried to stick to a strict budget.
But their prudence has not gone down well with fans, who flooded local phone-in shows and websites to complain about Barmby’s treatment as news of his suspension spread.(The reasoning given in the article for Barmby's suspension is that he has openly challenged the owners to keep the cheque book open in order to fulfill his vision of Premier League football.)
A little perspective, perhaps, when consider our own debt. Hull's owners have sunk £51 million in to the club just to stabilise it, and are being considered 'prudent' (or tight-fisted, if you're a Hull fan) because they are not adding to that sum by going for broke on an all-out spending splurge to get them back to the Premier League. This is Hull City we're talking about. I'm having great difficulty squaring my memories of Boothferry Park with sums of money like that.
