If it wasn’t for bad luck, Hull would have had no luck at all so far this season.   On the field, they lost at Chelsea on Saturday to a mishit, stoppage-time Didier Drogba cross, before running into a Spurs juggernaut on Wednesday, driven by a super-charged Jermaine Defoe.     Midfielder Seyi Olofinjana said after the Chelsea defeat: “If we put that amount of effort in every week we’ll be fine, I’m confident about that.”     But that confidence quickly dissipated against Spurs. Under-pressure manager Phil Brown admitted it was “lucky we don’t have to play Tottenham every week.”     Off-the-pitch, Hull’s summer-long search for a striker continues to frustrate. They were prepared to nearly double their previous record transfer fee with a £12m bid for Real Madrid striker Alvaro Negredo, surely the first time ‘Hull’ and ‘Real Madrid’ have been so adjacent in a transfer tale.

But the deal, like so many before it, collapsed this week, Negredo choosing La Liga outfit Sevilla instead.

Nineteen-year-old American international frontman Jozy Altidore was due to join the KC Stadium ranks prior to the Spurs game, having agreed a twelve-month loan deal from Sevilla’s compatriots Villareal.

However, while on international duty in Mexico last week, Altidore came into contact with, yes you’ve guessed it, a swine flu victim, in the shape of international colleague Landon Donovan.

Altidore was forced to undergo precautionary tests, which has delayed his required international clearance, despite receiving a work permit on August 10^th.

It is hoped that Altidore, who scored in the States’ shock Confederations Cup win over Spain in the summer, will be available for the Tigers’ already-vital clash with Bolton on Saturday.

Meanwhile, club captain Ian Ashbee is likely to miss the vast majority of the season after it was confirmed that he will travel to America next week for surgery on the knee ligament injury he sustained against Aston Villa in May.     City manager Phil Brown said: “It’s a big blow for Ian and a big blow for us. He is flying to Colorado next Monday and hopefully the scenario will then be rehabilitation and a return within eight or nine months.” George Boateng will assume the captaincy in Ashbee’s absence.     The Tigers had better luck in snapping up Reading midfielder Stephen Hunt for an undisclosed but “sizeable” fee, reported to be in the region of £3.5m. The Irish international has signed a four-year contract, six months after penning a three-and-a-half year deal with the Royals.

Meanwhile, Hull are the only Premier League club yet to file accounts for the financial year ending 30 June 2008, the period covering the Tigers’ promotion season. The accounts were due in May. And the accounts of the club’s parent company, Tiger Holdings, have also yet to be filed, even though they were due in February.