Hull City deal for Blackpool star turned into a disaster: View | OneFootball

The summer of 2014 saw one of the most influential transfer windows in Hull City's history as they aimed to fight on all fronts under Steve Bruce.

The Tigers avoided relegation to the Championship by four points in 2013/14 and reached the club's first ever FA Cup final, meaning they were taking on the club's first ever major European football campaign in 2014/15.

In came established, senior players like Abel Hernandez, Robert Snodgrass and Mohamed Diame, while Bruce also invested in youth with Harry Maguire and Andy Robertson both brought in and eventually sold on for huge profit.

One player that came in with high expectations was Tom Ince from Blackpool - the then-22-year-old had been electric for the Tangerines for three seasons prior to the move, and joined the Tigers upon the expiry of his contract in July 2014.

Despite the anticipation surrounding his move, Ince found himself leaving Hull permanently in the summer of 2015 after just 13 appearances in all competitions and two loan spells back to the Championship in his debut season.

His signing just never worked out for himself or Hull - it was such a short and ineffective spell in East Yorkshire and a stint to forget for both parties.

Big things were expected of Ince

After the success of his dad Paul, it felt like destiny for Tom Ince to go on to do big things in his career.

He joined Blackpool in 2011 after coming through the Liverpool academy, going on to register 33 goals and 30 assists in 113 games for the Tangerines before a loan move to Premier League side Crystal Palace in 2014, and a permanent move away from Bloomfield Road that summer.

Ince then reportedly turned down the chance to join Inter Milan, with AS Monaco and multiple Premier League clubs also interested, and he joined Hull that July on a two-year contract for an eventual tribunal fee of £2m, with then-boss and his father's former teammate Steve Bruce a key factor in his decision.

He made his debut for the club in a first-leg Europa League third qualifying round tie against AS Trenčín in July, and picked up an assist in the second-leg before playing 82 minutes of a 1–0 win away at Queens Park Rangers on his league debut in August.

Two more league starts and two Europa League substitute appearances followed that month, but he was dropped from Bruce's squad in early September and did not even figure on the bench for the club's next six league games, yet started and scored his first goal for the club against West Brom in the League Cup on September 24.

No sooner had he joined Hull than he was already out the door, as he signed for Championship side Nottingham Forest in late October on a two-month loan-deal but made just three starts and two substitute appearances before being recalled a week early by the Tigers.

He returned to the Hull squad with a late league cameo against Sunderland on Boxing Day, but featured just four more times for Bruce's side, with a substitute appearance against Newcastle United in late January proving to be his last outing for the club.

Ince sealed another loan to the East Midlands, this time with Derby County in the January window, and instantly set about putting his bad form behind him at Pride Park as he netted 11 times in 18 Championship appearances under Steve McClaren.

His impressive loan spell prompted Derby to fork out a club-record £4.75m fee to sign Ince on a four-year contract, with his time at the Tigers coming to an end nearly a year to the day since his initial move there.

Ince later blamed Bruce's "defensive set up" for his poor Hull form, but the former-Sunderland boss was livid at his sale to Derby in an interview with The Mirror, as he believed he could help the club bounce back to the top-flight after relegation that season.

Upon reflection, it was a failed move for all parties involved - he was simply not ready for Premier League football at that stage in his career, and was unable to ever really establish himself in the top-flight after his spell with Hull.

Ince's career after Hull

Ince went on to make 114 appearances for the Rams, becoming a modern-day cult hero among fans as he netted 38 goals and fired Derby to the play-offs in his first full season, where they ironically lost to Hull in the semi-finals.

That two-and-a-half year spell at Pride Park was really as good as it got for Ince - he joined Premier League Huddersfield Town in July 2017 and helped them avoid relegation with key goals against Stoke City and Watford, but then left to join the Potters for a deal worth up to £12m in 2018.

He never truly found his feet with Stoke despite the sizable fee, registering 14 goals and 13 assists in 104 games across four seasons as the club struggled to adapt to life in the second-tier.

He linked up with father Paul at Reading in 2022, scoring nine league goals as they were relegated to League One, and now plays a bit-part role for Watford at 32-years-old.

Despite still forging a decent career for himself in the EFL, it is fair to say that turning down the move to Milan in favour of Hull may be one that Ince regrets - he should have joined a club that was going to be patient and give him regular playing time at 22-years-old, but the Tigers needed proven top-flight players to help them stay up and he did not get the chance to truly prove himself.