A year ago, Hull City effectively conceded that their Premier League promotion hopes were over by sanctioning the club-record sale of Jarrod Bowen to West Ham.
Until that point, Hull manager Grant McCann had regularly addressed the club's top-six ambitions and with justification — they were one point off the Championship play-offs on the opening day of 2020, a win behind Fulham.
However, fans' fears that they were a one-man team — one and a half if another of last January's departees, Kamil Grosicki, was in the mood — were realised when they accepted West Ham's £22million offer.