Bryan Hughes has left Hull City “by mutual consent” after two and a half years with the club.

Hughes, formerly of Birmingham City and Charlton Athletic, pretty much ceased to be in Phil Brown’s plans after the Tigers won promotion to the Premier League, though made a handful of appearances last season.

The experienced midfielder joined the club on a free transfer in the summer of 2007 and contributed fitfully, but occasionally wisely, to the promotion campaign. He was fortunate to play a full part in the play-offs after Dean Marney was injured on the final day of the regular season, though he did nearly score at Wembley with an injury time free kick.

He ended up with just one goal for the club (in the 5-0 win over Southampton – and the keeper should have saved it) and in recent times came to epitomise the excesses of the Duffen era, taking no part in first team matters (even in the Carling Cup) and not even being assigned a squad number, yet picking up a large wage from a club desperately trying to save money.

Hughes spent some time on loan at Derby County earlier this season and is now a free agent. Despite an especially featureless spell with the Tigers, only confirmed churls would choose not to wish him well for the future.

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has been charged with violent conduct by the FA after being seen to give Hull City striker Craig Fagan a bit of a smack during the Premier League game between the two at Old Trafford at the weekend.

The incident was missed by referee Steve Bennett – who depressingly booked Fagan afterwards for his vehement protests – but was captured and played over and over again by television stations with rolling sports news. The national papers, with some predictability, barely mentioned Ferdinand’s indiscretion in their reports, leading to questions about bias – and about whether Fagan would have been castigated had it been he who had issued a backhander across the England defender’s chops.

Ferdinand, who admittedly is not prone to acts of off-the-ball violence, has until Wednesday evening to respond to the charge and will be banned for three matches if he pleads or is found guilty. It will be of little consolation to City whatever the outcome, given that the horse had long bolted when Bennett and his assistants (one of whom had, coincidentally, been shoved into the pitchside gulley by Fagan earlier in the game) failed to spot the incident. Football can, however, be mildly thankful that the FA have chosen to charge one of the game’s megastars for an incident involving a player with a much-smaller club.

In a shock move today, Hull City has announced that it is taking High Court action against Paul Duffen for “actions undertaken… while in office at Hull City”.

Much has been made by Adam Pearson of the worrying finances at the club since he regained power after Duffen quit the chairmanship suddenly in October, and this latest development is worrying and gripping in equal measure.

Duffen left the club, supposedly in a gesture of gallantry as the club struggled on and off the pitch, with severely limited popularity after selling Michael Turner and defending the lack of submitted accounts, but only when he had gone was it revealed how little the club eventually received for its star player and how much turmoil the books seemed to be in.

However, the club has not gone into specific detail about the nature of and reason for this unusual and serious action. The full statement reads: “Hull City Football Club has now issued legal proceedings against Paul Duffen in the High Court.

“This action has been being taken to protect the commercial best interests of the football club against the actions undertaken by Paul Duffen while in office at Hull City.”

Crumbs. Now would be an interesting time for Russell Bartlett, owner and sole shareholder of the club and the man who employed Duffen and then re-employed Pearson, to break his long silence. Amid all this Phil Brown, yachting buddy of Duffen and pressured employee of Pearson, has to prepare a team to take on Manchester United this weekend.

Hull City’s game with Aston Villa at the Circle at the end of February has been postponed as Villa will now have a Wembley date that weekend.

Martin O’Neill’s men completed a 7-4 aggregate win over Blackburn Rovers last night in the semi-final of the Carling Cup and will play one of the Manc clubs in the final on Sunday February 28th.

Their Premier League fixture with City was scheduled for the day before, so now City have another free weekend to look forward to and the prospect of a further midweek game at the KC later in the season. A new date has yet to be announced for the match.