The Tigers are £35 million in debt and facing an uncertain future with relegation from the Premier League now all but confirmed. Chairman Adam Pearson met with fellow directors on Monday to discuss City's options, which might include going into administration.

"We must now get down to concentrating on reducing the wage bill to about £15million in the Championship to establish financial viability and stability," said owner Russell Bartlett. "Subject to this, I anticipate we will be very competitive next season."

Seeking to enter into a Company Voluntary Arrangement is another possibility but both of those solutions could incur a 10-point penalty in the Coca-Cola Championship next season.

Pearson suggested at the weekend that a CVA might be a sensible route, although owner Bartlett has offered hope that a way to "trade through" the problems can be found.

To do that City would drastically need to reduce their reported £39m wage bill.

Major restructure and a fire sale of high-earning players now seem inevitable in the summer.

Pearson had little success in his attempts to offload a number of fringe players in the January transfer window.

Now a number of senior names are likely to be put up for sale such as Stephen Hunt, Jimmy Bullard, Geovanni, Anthony Gardner, Kamil Zayatte and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.

Hull actually rebuffed interest in Hunt, who reportedly earns a crippling £45,000 per week in January, in the hope he could help keep them up only for injury to rule him out from late February.

PA Sport