Hull City’s worst Premier League signings of all time

Hull City have gone through some of their worst Premier League signings of all time, with the Tigers not getting a return on investment from some player transfers.

The club has witnessed a series of expensive miscalculations, particularly during the club's push to stay competitive at the top level between 2009 and 2017, when big-money gambles regularly failed to pay off.

Most of the following deals came during those high-stakes survival battles, when Hull repeatedly broke their own transfer record in search of the players who could keep them in the Premier League, only to be left with little to show for.

Here, FootballWhispers counts down Hull City's five worst signings of the Premier League era.

5. Tom Ince – AM

Tom Ince arrived at Hull City in the summer of 2014 with a genuine reputation, having been the Football League Young Player of the Year and scored 33 goals in 113 appearances during three excellent seasons at Blackpool.

Hull paid Blackpool around £2m in tribunal-set compensation for the winger, who had also impressed on loan in the Premier League with Crystal Palace during the previous campaign, and expectations were understandably high for a player of his pedigree.

Those expectations were never close to being met, with Ince managing just nine appearances and a single goal for Hull before being sent out on loan to Nottingham Forest midway through his lone season at the club.

4. Nick Proschwitz – CF

Nick Proschwitz joined Hull City from SC Paderborn for £2.6m in the summer of 2012 after finishing joint-top scorer in the German second tier, with Steve Bruce hoping the striker could fire the Tigers back to the Premier League.

The German never came close to justifying that outlay, scoring just seven goals in 37 appearances across two seasons.

His most memorable contribution came in Hull's promotion-clinching draw with Cardiff City, when he equalised before missing a penalty that would have sealed the title.

Bruce persisted with Proschwitz throughout the promotion campaign despite the striker's struggles in front of goal, but he found game time even harder to come by once Hull reached the Premier League.

A loan spell at Barnsley in the 2013-14 season did little to revive his fortunes, and Hull released him on a free transfer that summer, ending an underwhelming two years for a player who had arrived with a genuine goalscoring reputation.

3. Markus Henriksen – CM

Markus Henriksen arrived at Hull City on loan from AZ Alkmaar in the summer of 2016, before the Tigers made the move permanent for around £4.7m in January 2017, hoping the Norwegian's energetic midfield play could help the club beat relegation.

That mission failed, with Hull going down to the Championship at the end of the season, and Henriksen found himself used increasingly as an emergency centre-back rather than in his favoured midfield role during his time at the club.

Across four seasons, Henriksen managed just four goals in 89 appearances. He was sent on loan to Bristol City in January 2020 before eventually leaving Hull for nothing later that year, returning to boyhood club Rosenborg.

Henriksen's versatility kept him in and around the Hull side for longer than some others on this list, but the modest end product never reflected the investment the club had made in him.

2. Will Keane – ST

Will Keane joined Hull City from Manchester United for a reported £1m in the summer of 2016, with caretaker boss Mike Phelan bringing in a forward he had worked with during his time on the coaching staff at Old Trafford.

The striker's Hull career was disastrous from the outset, managing just one goal in 26 appearances before suffering a serious knee ligament injury in November 2016 that ruled him out for close to a year.

Keane never recovered his place on the team upon returning to fitness, eventually being loaned out to Ipswich Town in January 2019, having started just a single league game that season.

He left Hull permanently for Ipswich that summer, bringing an end to a three-year spell in which the striker signed to add goals to the team but barely contributed any at all.

1. Jimmy Bullard – AM

Jimmy Bullard's move to Hull City in January 2009 broke the club's transfer record, with the Tigers paying Fulham £5m for a midfielder who had established himself as one of the Premier League's most popular performers at Wigan Athletic and Fulham.

The move turned to disaster almost immediately, as Bullard suffered a serious knee injury just 37 minutes into his full debut against West Ham United, ruling him out for the remainder of the season.

Persistent fitness problems continued to plague him throughout his time at the club, and despite producing a handful of memorable moments, Bullard made just 24 appearances across two and a half injury-ravaged seasons.

Hull suffered relegation from the Premier League during his time at the club, and Bullard’s contract was terminated by mutual consent in the summer of 2011 following a disciplinary breach.