Hull City have nothing to thank Man City for when it comes to 9 appearance flop | OneFootball

Danny Mills endured a short loan stint at the MKM Stadium in 2006/07

The 2006/07 season proved to be a somewhat bizarre campaign for those associated with Hull City, as they initially started out under the management of the now vastly-experienced Phil Parkinson.

Indeed, Parkinson had been poached by the Tigers from Colchester United after he was able to guide the Essex club to the second tier by finishing second to local rivals, Southend United, a handful of months beforehand.

Such developments came after former chairman, Adam Pearson, was left to source Hull's first newly-appointed manager since October 2002, with Peter Taylor moving to Crystal Palace after helping City consolidate their position in the Championship after achieving back-to-back promotions from League Two to the second tier between 2003 and 2005.

All things considered, Parkinson's stint in East Yorkshire proved to be nothing but a disaster when it came to results and an overall points tally which was accumulated between August and December 2006, with the now-Wrexham boss eventually relieved of his duties, which led to his assistant and eventual MKM Stadium history maker, Phil Brown, handed the full-time role.

Despite a poor maiden venture into Championship management, Parkinson has still received credit when it comes to some of the players he was able to recruit during a solitary transfer window in HU3, including Sam Ricketts, Michael Turner and Dean Marney - all of whom played a key role in City's first-ever promotion to the Premier League the following season.

However, it isn't perhaps the greatest of surprises that, out of his eight permanent and loan signings, not all would work out despite some boasting previous Premier League and international pedigree.

This was certainly the case when Hull struck a two-month loan agreement with Manchester City for the services of ex-England defender, Danny Mills, who failed to make an impression during a handful of appearances in black and amber.

Danny Mills' Premier League pedigree before Hull City, Man City agreement

Mills had been on the radar of supporters of many teams for several years, largely down to his spell in the Three Lions ranks between 2001 and 2004.

All but one of those 19 caps would come during his well-documented spell with Leeds United, during which the West Yorkshire side reached the UEFA Champions League semi-finals in 2001, before featuring under Sven-Goran Eriksson at the FIFA World Cup 2002 in Japan and South Korea.

Indeed, whilst Hull were languishing in League Two for an eight-year period, the Norwich-born defender would be featuring alongside the likes of Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole as the Three Lions were defeated at the quarter-final stage by Brazil.

Mills would then go on to win the solitary major honour of his extremely respectable career with Middlesbrough in the 2003/04 campaign as the North East side won their first-ever high-profile trophy by defeating Bolton Wanderers in the EFL Cup final at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

With Leeds falling into the Championship amid a backdrop of serious financial difficulty, Mills was one of several high-profile names to exit Elland Road in the summer of 2004, linking up with Kevin Keegan at the Etihad Stadium on a five-year contract.

Of course, this was prior to Man City's far-east takeover, which has since brought an endless amount of trophies to the club, with it being reported that the defender had taken a major wage cut to remain in the Premier League despite Leeds' perilous position in boardroom terms.

The right-back started his Citizens career in impressive fashion, making 35 appearances in 2004/05, before seeing his gametime significantly reduced the following campaign due to a shin injury and the emergence of academy graduate Micah Richards.

After featuring for 10 minutes in a home clash with Arsenal in August 2006, Mills agreed a two-month loan with the Tigers in September 2006, as Parkinson looked to significantly bolster Hull's defence after a slow start to the campaign.

He would then endure a mixture of emotions on debut against Sheffield Wednesday, as he was adjudged to have handled inside the box, with replays showing eventual scorer, Deon Burton, was the real culprit of such an offence, before a Jon Parkin double gave City their first home success of the campaign.

Mills started all nine of his appearances at the MKM, but only two more of those would result in victories against Southend and Wolverhampton Wanderers, with then-Man City boss, Stuart Pearce, stating that his future remained up in the air.

The former Tigers loanee then saw his loan stint come to an end, before sustaining an injury which put pay to any plans which Parkinson's successor, Brown, had of reuniting following the turn of 2007, as Hull eventually secured their Championship status with a game to spare at the hands of Leeds, largely down to the eight goals scored by hometown hero, Dean Windass, who returned on an initial loan basis from Bradford City.

As for Mills, he would rejoin Charlton Athletic a handful of months later, before being forced to retire in August 2009 after sustaining a serious injury on loan at Derby County a year-and-a-half previous.