Hull make Gardner record signing

Gardner has featured for Hull in their pre-season campaign

Hull have confirmed the permanent signing of Tottenham defender Anthony Gardner for a club-record fee of £2.5m.

The 27-year-old has been on loan with the Tigers and had not expected to make the move permanent until the new year.

But he has signed a three-year contract and will be in the squad for Saturday's opener against Fulham.

"We had an option to make the deal permanent at any stage, so I spoke to him and asked him if he would be happy to stay," said manager Phil Brown.

"He has been at the club for four or five weeks now and he said he would, so he now becomes our record signing."

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Centre-back Gardner, who has been capped once by England, spent the latter part of last season on loan at Everton but failed to make an appearance.

His deal completes a busy day for Brown, who also brought in Marlon King from Wigan on a season-long loan.

Hull have one more loan available, but Brown would not be drawn on whether he had created the space to try to bring Manchester United striker Frazier Campbell back to the KC Stadium.