Where are Hull City’s 3 most underwhelming signings since 2013 now?

The last 10 years have certainly had their significant ups and downs for Hull City, who have experienced the highs of the Premier League on multiple occasions but they’ve also suffered the lows of relegation to League One.

The Tigers have spent three seasons in the top flight of English football in that time but have been relegated from it twice, and after consecutive bottom half finishes in the Championship they dropped into League One in 2020 following a monumental collapse in the final months of the campaign.

City supporters were very critical for the most part of the Allam Family ownership of the club, but since his takeover in January 2022, Turkish media mogul Acun Ilicali has brought positivity back to the MKM Stadium – irrespective of 19th and 15th-placed finishes since.

Liam Rosenior will be hoping to acquire some promising talents this summer and not many duds – but what about some of the most disappointing signings the Tigers have made in the last 10 years since 2013? Let’s take a look at three of them and where they are now…

Danny Graham

Having failed to recapture his Swansea City form for Sunderland, Graham was sent out on loan to Hull for the 2013-14 Premier League season in a bid to try and bolster their strike-force.

Did it work though? Absolutely not.

Graham scored just the one goal in 18 league matches and by the end of January 2014, the decision was made to terminate his deal at the KC Stadium due to his poor record and performances.

It took Graham a few more years to find his scoring boots as he eventually settled at Blackburn Rovers towards the end of his career, and he retired from playing in 2021 after a short spell back at Sunderland – he is now a self-employed sports consultant/performance advisor to young players.

Tom Ince

Once upon a time, Ince was one of the hottest free agents about in 2014 following a spell with Blackpool – clubs across Europe were keen on the 22-year-old at the time but it was Hull who would win out in the race for his signature, paying the Seasiders an initial £1.6 million for his services in the form of compensation.

Ince came with promise but he could not transfer his Championship form to the Premier League, and after 12 appearances in all competitions he was loaned out to Nottingham Forest for a short period of time, and then Derby County for the rest of the season when January came around.

The forward was never seen in a Hull shirt again as in the summer of 2015, Derby paid £4.75 million for his services, meaning the Tigers made a decent profit on a player who never scored for the club.

He went to move on for even bigger fees to Huddersfield Town and then Stoke City, but next season he will be plying his trade in League One with Reading if the Royals don’t sell him – he joined his father and manager at the time Paul last summer and scored nine goals, which weren’t enough to keep the Berkshire outfit in the Championship.

Hatem Ben Arfa

A maverick talent who had been capped multiple times for France, Ben Arfa’s career at Newcastle United was at a crossroads in 2014 until Hull loaned him in on transfer deadline day.

Tigers fans were of course excited at the prospect of Ben Arfa playing for their club, but he failed to deliver spectacularly, playing just nine times and notching just one assist, which came against West Brom in the EFL Cup.

Despite the fact he was supposed to be at Hull for the whole season, Ben Arfa went AWOL in December 2014 and his loan was terminated at the start of January – that was followed by his Newcastle contract being ripped up as well.

Ben Arfa was still playing football in the 2021-22 season as he joined Lille on a short-term deal, but departed in explosive fashion when criticising the club’s manager and president – he’s not officially retired at the age of 36 but it would be a shock if he plays professional football again.