Tim Walter's Hull City transfer challenge clear ahead of pre-season return

Six weeks on from their dismal final day showing at Plymouth Argyle which extinguished any hope of making the Championship's play-offs, Hull City will return to work on Monday ready for a big change.

A host of players have gone and so, too, has the manager who guided City to seventh in the Championship, their highest finish since relegation from the Premier League in May 2017.

Liam Rosenior was sacked 48 hours after the season ended and Tim Walter has since been installed as his successor, with his remit to produce a more attacking brand of football and go one better than last term.

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To do that, City face a busy summer of recruitment ahead of the new season, and Walter will need to hit the ground running over the next six weeks before the campaign gets underway.

Here's a look at some of his early pre-season tasks...

Get the players on side

Change always brings uncertainty and in the dressing room, there will be players who were dismayed to see the back of Liam Rosenior, and there will be those who probably didn't shed a tear.

Also, there will undoubtedly be some nerves from some members of the playing squad about returning to a completely different way of working under Walter, different expectations, different boundaries and much more.

At Hamburg, Walter was a manager well-liked - and respected - by his players, and he'll hope to have that influence quickly as he gets to know his new group, and they get to know him and his staff, the quicker that happens the more fluid the transition will be.

Going away to Turkey for 10 days will be a hugely important period for not just him, but the players and staff to spend time and get to know each other properly during what is always a pretty intense period.

The future

Aside from getting his methods across and formulating his style of play with a new group of players in a different country, Walter's biggest job comes in recruitment.

And while he will have a big involvement, he needs the transfer team above him to produce the goods, he really does. The squad is worryingly thin after the loan players returned to their parent clubs and the others, like Adama Traore, Greg Docherty and Aaron Connolly, were released.

Ryan Allsop has gone and while that doesn't weaken the goalkeeping department but losing Ozan Tufan to Trabzonspor is a blow. Not least because that's another 10 goals taken out of last season's team, a team that struggled for goals at the best of times.

Connolly, Liam Delap, Noah Ohio and Fabio Carvalho all knew where the net was and have all gone. City will start pre-season without a recognised, senior striker, bringing in attacking players of quality is a big, and not-so-easy task.

Work quickly

It might seem like there's plenty of time to go between now and the start of the season with less than 50 days, but there really isn't and what time there is will fly by.

City have just over a week on the lush grass of Cottingham before they fly off to Istambul for 10 days. During that trip, they'll play their first two friendlies of the summer, and it'll be Walter's first chance to look at his side against decent opposition and it will provide the Tigers public with their first glimpse of his side.

That trip will come and go and then, before they know it, they'll be into the cycle of domestic friendlies and then the build-up to the new campaign really gets going.