• 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.”

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A most turbulent week at Hell – sorry, Hull – City concluded with a controversy-tinged defeat that threatens to cost Phil Brown his job. Already deeply in the red off the pitch, Hull were hardly in the pink on it and, long before Geovanni’s second-half dismissal reduced them to 10 men, Brown’s side looked second-best to Owen Coyle’s impressively slick-passing, inventively moving Burnley.

With reports suggesting that Brown could get the sack unless Hull’s results improved immediately, Brown tried to put on a brave face afterwards, but admitted his future would be resolved after emergency talks with the club’s owner, Russell Bartlett, and incoming chairman Adam Pearson today. “I will speak to the owner later and on Sunday, and we will find out more on Monday,” he said.

“I expect to be manager of this club in the Premier League next year. The announcement will be forthwith and hopefully I’ll be standing alongside Adam Pearson on Monday. My situation is my situation and I’m not blaming anyone else for it but me. I’m proud of my players’ performance today.”

Characteristically, Brown, Coyle’s captain at Bolton during the 1990s, seemed determined to make the most of his perceived last stand and emerged from the tunnel in prize fighter mode.

Up in the directors’ box Pearson, who replaces the newly departed Paul Duffen, sat busily punching buttons on his BlackBerry. Brown could only trust Pearson was messaging Hull’s bank manager about an overdraft extension rather than canvassing potential managerial replacements.

When Stephen Hunt was harshly judged to have felled Tyrone Mears, Graham Alexander stepped forward to evade Matt Duke’s reach. The ball had barely settled in the back of the net before Turf Moor taunted Brown with choruses of: “You’re getting sacked in the morning.”

With Robbie Blake and Chris Eagles teasing their visitors, Burnley were ascendant, but Hull began the second half by seriously testing Brian Jensen for the first time, Burnley’s keeper adroitly repelling Kamel Ghilas’s shot. Even so, visiting tension was building and when the frequently outmanoeuvred Paul McShane was withdrawn, he hurled a water bottle to the ground.

Creditably, Brown refrained from doing likewise when Geovanni appeared to have scored with a brilliant curling free-kick – rather harshly awarded for Steven Caldwell’s perceived trip on Hunt – but had that effort surprisingly disallowed for a minor push in the wall.

Even worse, Geovanni – deployed in an unaccustomed deep central midfield role – saw red after receiving a second yellow card following a late tackle on Steven Fletcher. Then, by way of a finale, Alexander scored a second with a low-angled drive from outside the area, leaving Brown clinging on by his fingernails. Did he have a message for Pearson? “If anything changes, so be it,” said Brown. “But he’s still got a manager prepared to put his neck on the line for Hull City.

“We’re in a tight situation. We’re in the bottom three. But the threat of relegation does inhibit good players. Saying that, I asked the players for a committed performance and I got one.”

Coyle also had some encouraging words of support. “[Phil Brown] is a personal friend of mine. You don’t like to see anyone down on their luck. We are friends and we go back a long way. I am sure he will see this through and come back stronger.

“There’s no doubt in my mind we were the better side,” said Coyle. “We created numerous opportunities, but Phil’s a friend and I do feel for him.”

The Fans’ Player Ratings And Verdicts

Martin Barnes, When The Ball Moves fanzine

We were workmanlike rather than spectacular, but it’s the three points that count. Alexander played his best game of the season, with two goals, and Eagles gave us a good cutting edge out on the wing. Jordan was very solid at left-back – he might be winning over some of the doubters at the club. I thought we passed it quite well and got it in the danger area. Once Hull were down to 10 men there was no doubt who would win, but they never really looked like scoring.

The fan’s player ratings Jensen 7; Mears 8, Carlisle 7, Caldwell 7, Jordan 8; Bikey 7, Alexander 8; Eagles 8 (Guerrero 84), Elliott 7, Blake 7 (McDonald 74 7), Fletcher 7 (Nugent 77 6)

Subs not used Penny, Duff, Gudjonsson, Thompson

Rick Skelton, HullCityOnline.com

We were pretty good today. The first half was quite even, but after that we came out and looked like the sort of team Phil Brown used to send out. We played better football than Burnley – quicker, more physical – until the ref intervened. After that, only one team were going to win. Ghilas had a good chance, but it was a weak effort. Geovanni’s goal was disallowed, but pushing in the wall goes on all the time. He shouldn’t have been booked because it should’ve been a goal.

The fan’s player ratings Duke 6; McShane 5 (Mendy 58 6), Zayatte 9, Gardner 7, Dawson 5; Geovanni 8; Marney 6, Olofinjana 6, Hunt 6 (Barmby 70 7); Vennegoor of Hesselink 6 (Altidore 58 7), Ghilas 6

Subs not used Warner, Mouyokolo, Kilbane, Garcia

To take part in the Fans’ Verdicts, email fans.premier@observer.co.uk

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