It seemed like the whole nation got swept up in the furore and hype surrounding Hull City when they miraculously achieved survival in their first-ever season in the top-flight five years ago, with some even touting boss Phil Brown as a future England manager. It would appear that Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez even got swept up in the Hull love-in, as he deemed their 25 year old centre-half of adequate standard for the Reds.
''It is true I was talking with Phil Brown, but I wont discuss any figures. - Rafa Benitez, August 2009.
The reason that the Spaniard was reluctant to openly disclose the asking price was perhaps because it was so ludicrous, with Hull reportedly looking for as much as £10 million for Michael Turner. He may have performed well during the season, but this was still a player who had never appeared in the top-flight before, and despite their acclaim for a supposedly marvellous campaign, the Tigers still had the second leakiest defence, shipping 64 goals. In the end, everybody sobered up and realised that he was nothing but an average, run-of-the-mill mid-table centre-half, and ended up at Sunderland for £4 million, where he enjoyed an injury-plagued three seasons before signing for Norwich City.