Southampton handed Hull City £5m profit after underwhelming player stint: View | OneFootball

The 2013/14 season proved to be a reasonably productive one for Hull City.

After finishing as runners-up in the Championship the season before, the Tigers once again found themselves back in the Premier League for that campaign.

Admittedly, it was something of a tough season, but even so, the club would achieve their main achieve, as a 16th place finish proved enough to see them retain their top-flight status.

There was also the bonus of a remarkable run to the FA Cup final for the first time in the history of Hull City. That though, did end in somewhat disappointing circumstances with a 3-2 defeat to Arsenal.

Even so, it was yet another impressive achievement in what would surely be considered a largely successful campaign for the club.

However, it may be argued that not everything done by Hull City in that season, worked out exactly as they would have hoped.

At the midway stage of the 2013/14 season, with the January transfer window open, one signing that the Tigers completed was that of Shane Long.

The striker made the move to Hull from their then-Premier League rivals West Brom, on a three-and-a-half-year contract.

It was reported that the Tigers paid a fee in the region of £7million for the Irishman, who also saw his salary double as a result of that move.

However, some may suggest that this move did not entirely work out, with Long finding the net just four times in 15 league games for the club, as they battled to avoid relegation.

With the striker also cup-tied for the FA Cup run, this was perhaps not the most lucrative investment that the Tigers have ever made from a footballing perspective.

Even so, it did still turn into a rather profitable piece of business for Hull City, just a few months after it had been completed.

Southampton paid big for Shane Long

Despite the fact that Long had only been at Hull for a matter of months, and had not delivered the most prolific goals return for a striker during his time there, Southampton still made their move for Long in the summer of 2014.

As a result, Long was on the move again shortly after arriving at Hull, with the Saints reportedly paying £12 million for his services.

That fee meant that Hull received £5million more for Long than they paid for him, bringing in a useful profit that could be reinvested in their own squad in the process.

Given he had only been there for a relatively brief period, without hitting any spectacular heights, being able to recoup such a fee for Long, still ended up being a reasonably good bit of business for Hull, especially given they had not even lost out on their top-flight status due to the signing in the interim.

Indeed, the striker would then go on to spend the next eight seasons of his career with the Saints.

During that time though, Long scored just 37 goals in 245 appearances in all competitions for Southampton.

Given most clubs would hope for a greater impact in front of goal from their attacking options, Hull may therefore feel that they did well to get the sort of profit they did for Long when they did.

With all that in mind, there may therefore be an argument that despite only being a brief and relatively quiet spell on the pitch for Long at Hull City, this did still prove to be a deal that worked out rather well for the Tigers.