• Adam Pearson returns to Hull and seeks £18m in savings
• ‘We need to get back in shape’

Hull City’s new executive chairman, Adam Pearson, will conduct a major cull in the new year in an attempt to ease the financial problems at the troubled Premier League club.

Pearson took up his position in an official capacity on Monday after succeeding Paul Duffen, who resigned as the chairman and chief executive last week when it emerged Hull had debts of £27m. Pearson needs to find around £18m before the end of the season to make sure Hull remain solvent and his first task will be to reduce a wage bill of £40m – with the manager Phil Brown’s future also still up in the air.

While Brown has won a stay of execution for now, he may not be around to see the overhaul of the squad that Pearson intends to implement. Those players expected to leave include George Boateng, Bernard Mendy, Richard Garcia, Peter Halmosi, Caleb Folan, Daniel Cousin, Tony Warner and Ibrahima Sonko.

Pearson, who oversaw an annual wage bill of only £3.5m before he left Hull, then in the Championship, in 2007having appointed Brown the previous year, has vowed to get the club back on track and is confident of solving the problems he has inherited. He said: “We need to get back in shape to make sure the long-term future of the club is secure. It’s nothing that’s not retrievable, but we need to reduce the size of the playing squad, which in the Premier League is the key point.

“We’re certainly not in a situation where we need to sell players we want to keep. We just want to make sure that the club is being run efficiently and prudently. The position of the club is manageable going forward, but if it had been left much longer there was a danger of it becoming more serious. At this stage of the season, it’s achievable that we can turn this around.”

Pearson insists Brown will remain as manager until at least Sunday but refused to offer any long-term security. “Phil will be manager on Sunday but there’s no point me saying he’s got a job for life, that’s not the case,” Pearson said. “How secure is the manager? That’s a tricky one, I think if we don’t get results then that security goes down. Phil knows that, it’s the business we’re in. It’s been a difficult year and we need to achieve results quickly. We’re all in this together but we’ll have to see what happens over the next couple of weeks.”

Pearson has already opened talks with potential backers and is hopeful of securing investment before Christmas. He added: “It’s part of my remit to get extra money into the club. Every Premier League club is in a position where it is looking for external investment. It’s a big responsibility financially for myself and Russell [Bartlett, the club's owner] to manage alone and we are looking to ease that burden and provide a secure foundation for the club. I’ll be running the club from top to bottom, get it back on track and work strictly within the financial budgets that have been set.”

Premier LeagueHull CityPhil Brownguardian.co.uk