Hull City were hours from a six-point deduction in the Premier League. Then they sold their goalkeeper and a teenage midfielder who had never played a first-team game.
Ivor Pandur, the 26-year-old who won three player of the year awards in 2024-25, was sold to Rangers for £6m on Tuesday evening. The next morning, 19-year-old Aidon Shehu – signed from Southend United for a small compensation fee and loaned to Scarborough Athletic last season – joined Panathinaikos for a reported £2.5m.
“Hull City sold Ivor Pandur and Aidon Shehu for £7m profit to avoid a six-point Premier League deduction.”
Together, the deals generated about £7m of profit for Hull's profit and sustainability calculations. The club needed it. The EFL's PSR rules restrict Championship clubs to losses of £39m over three years, and Hull had overspent by about £6m for the period up to 2025-26. With promotion to the Premier League secured by beating Middlesbrough 1-0 in the Championship play-off final in May – a victory that guaranteed about £200m in riches – the Tigers faced an extraordinary situation: a club on the cusp of vast income had to sell to satisfy regulations.
The PSR concerns have frozen Hull’s transfer activity. No new signings have been made before the new season. The club had expected to sell Kyle Joseph to Middlesbrough for £5m, but a snag between the clubs meant the deal could not be completed in time.
From Wednesday, the accounting period resets, and transfer activity is expected to ramp up. PSR itself is being replaced by a new system called squad cost ratio, which will allow clubs to spend 85% of their income on squads, assessed annually rather than over three years. For Hull, the window to spend their Premier League windfall has finally opened.