In the summer of 2009, Hull City looked to undergo a recruitment drive that would see the club build on a mixed first-ever season of top-flight football.
The Tigers gained plenty of early admirers after sitting within the top-six in the Autumn to Christmas period, but a run of one Premier League win following the turn of the year saw Phil Brown’s side escape an immediate relegation back to the Championship by a solitary point ahead of Newcastle United.
Unaware of the financial instability that was soon to follow, City went on to acquire the likes of Kamil Zayatte, Kamil Ghilas, Stephen Hunt, Steven Mouyokolo and Paul McShane, whilst Jan Venegoor of Hesselink, Jozy Altidore and Ibrahima Sonko also arrived on free transfers and loan deals respectively.
Another arrival who set the club back a fair amount came in the form of Nigerian midfielder, Seyi Olofinjana, who moved from Stoke City for £3m, after the Potters also maintained their position in the Premier League following automatic promotion in 2007/08.
However, it would be fair to say that the Staffordshire outfit would prove the real winners of this particular transfer, as well as Cardiff City later down the line, with the East Yorkshire club left to feel a major sense of transfer regret.
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Seyi Olofinjana’s first season at Hull City ended in relegation
Olofijana made his debut in Black and Amber on the opening day of the 2009/10 season – a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge – immediately becoming a regular in Brown’s starting XI for 10 of the following 12 games, in which Hull accumulated just 11 points.
However, the last of those games was a 2-1 success against his former employers, and the game in which the 56-time international netted his solitary goal for the club with a sublime second-half equaliser before Venegoor of Hesselink gave Hull a vital three points in the dying embers.
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