Hull City turned £300k into £8m in stunning Man Utd swoop: View | OneFootball

One centre-back signing proved fruitful for the Tigers both on and off the pitch

The 2011 January transfer window was certainly an important one for those at Hull City.

Following their relegation from the Premier League at the end of the previous campaign, the Tigers had seemingly yet to fully adjust to life back in the Championship.

Come the turn of the year, the club sat 16th in the second-tier standings, just seven points clear of the relegation zone, having played more games than several of the sides below them.

As a result, Hull needed to get things right in the window, to ensure they did not get dragged any closer to the bottom three.

Five players would make the move to the Tigers in that window, including three from Manchester United.

Hull City completed triple Red Devils raid in 2011

Over the course of January 2011, Corry Evans, Cameron Stewart and James Chester would all make moves from Old Trafford to the KCOM Stadium.

Evans joined on an initial loan deal that was made permanent in the summer, before joining Blackburn Rovers two years later.

Stewart meanwhile, signed permanently after joining on loan two months earlier, though never fully established himself with the club, and was loaned out several times before leaving in 2014.

By contrast though, Chester proved to be an excellent signing for Hull, in a deal that would pay off in a number of ways.

James Chester was a profitable addition for the Tigers

Having come through the youth ranks at Manchester United, the centre-back had only made one senior appearance for the club.

Instead, much of his senior career to date had been spent out on loan elsewhere. During the first half of the 2010/11 campaign, Chester had been on loan in League One with Carlisle United.

With that stint at Brunton Park coming to an end in January 2011, the centre-back then completed a permanent departure from Manchester United, joining Hull City.

It was reported that the Tigers paid a fee of £300,000, and it would prove to be money very well spent.

Immediately after arriving at the club, Chester became a consistent feature at the heart of their defence, helping them to gradually climb the table, finishing 11th in the Championship.

With the Welshman remaining a constant figure in the Hull starting XI, the club climbed to eighth in the final standings in his first full campaign there.

Chester's contributions did not go unnoticed, as he finished runner-up in the Tigers' Player of the Year awards.

The 2012/13 campaign would then be an even more successful one for Hull, as under new manager Steve Bruce, they claimed a second-place finish to win promotion back to the Premier League.

Yet again, Chester played a key part in that as an important figure in their side's new-look three-man defence and signed a new long-term contract in the wake of promotion in the summer of 2013.

Frustratingly for the defender, injuries limited his involvement to some extent in the Premier League, though he still helped them to safety with a 16th-place finish.

Beyond that, he would also provide one of the club's most memorable moments, opening the scoring to put them 1-0 up in their first-ever FA Cup final in 2014.

Ultimately, that match would end in a 3-2 defeat to Arsenal, but the elation of that opener, and Curtis Davies' second moments later will no doubt stay with Hull fans forever.

The following campaign was a more difficult one for the Tigers, as they would suffer relegation from the top flight of English football.

Even then, though, Chester would still make a valuable contribution for Hull, as he remained in the Premier League after the club dropped out of the division.

That came with a move to West Bromwich Albion, who reportedly paid a fee of £8 million to sign the centre-back from Hull - with their willingness to pay such a fee highlighting his top-flight ability.

In doing so, the Tigers were able to secure a big profit on what they had paid to Manchester United for Chester, prior to his four-and-a-half years of excellent service for the club.

Thanks to that, this move proved a very effective one for them in a number of ways and the funds brought in also ought to have helped them cope with that drop back into the Championship.

With that in mind, it may be no surprise if some of those connected with Hull City, consider Chester to be one of their best signings of recent years.