January Man United deal surely one of the best for Hull City: View | OneFootball

James Chester would have arrived in 2011 at Hull City to not a lot of fanfare, having only made a handful of first team appearances across multiple loans.

However, over his next four years at the club, he would go on to make the reported £300k he signed for look like very shrewd business, and establish himself as one of Hull City's best ever transfer dealings.

Chester's arrival in East Yorkshire

Chester was signed in the January of the 2010/11 season, where Hull found themselves doing well in the Championship, and having recently received an injection of money into the club following Assem Allam's takeover of the club.

He had initially wanted to continue permanently at Carlisle United, the club he was sent on loan to at the beginning of the season, but when Hull boss Nigel Pearson expressed an interest in striking a permanent deal with Manchester United, Chester's parent club, his destination was set for the MKM Stadium.

He would go on to have an instant impact at Hull too, upon signing. He made his debut only a week after arriving and would then only take another two weeks to score his first goal. Overall, in his first six months at the club, he would appear 21 times and finish runner-up for the club's player of the year at their end of season awards.

In the next season, Chester would complete another successful campaign, slotting in nicely into new manager Steve Bruce's defensive system, and in the season after that, he would become part of a promotion winning team.

Chester was part of a history-making team

As just stated, Chester formed part of a very successful Hull City side who would end up winning promotion to the Premier League ahead of the 2013/14 season, and he would form himself into a Hull City hero over the next year or so.

In his first season of Premier League football for the Tigers, he would help them not only achieve Premier League safety, with relative comfort, but also go on to star in one of the East Yorkshire-based sides' biggest games in recent history.

Throughout the second half of the 13/14 season, Hull had gone on a great FA Cup run, and probably to the surprise of many Tigers fans, had made it to the final.

They faced Arsène Wenger's Arsenal, and despite being clear underdogs, the plucky Hull side took a 2-0 lead within the first half, with Chester scoring the first of Hull's two goals.

The Tigers would end up tasting defeat in extra time, losing 3-2, but memories were made that day and Chester etched his name into Hull City folklore.

In the following season, Chester would once again play a big role for Hull City, as they fought hard to beat relegation, but unfortunately, the Tigers would drop down into the Championship, missing out on safety by only three points.

Relegation spelled an end to Chester's stay with Hull, but with his departure, there didn't come disappointment.

Chester's move away netted Hull a profit - and gave them instant promotion

When Chester departed, he left for West Bromwich Albion, who were still in the top flight, but as just mentioned, his move away did not come with a lot of negative side effects.

The fee he reportedly moved away for was £8m, meaning Hull made an astonishing £7.7m profit on their small investment only four years prior.

However, the profit was not the only bonus to Chester's transfer.

Having received such a large fee for Chester, among others, that summer, Hull were able to build a squad that gave them instant promotion back to the Premier League, ultimately making his departure not too detrimental to their long-term future.

Talking of long term futures, Chester himself has gone on to forge a very healthy career in football since departing Hull. The Welsh international still plays at the age of 35 for League Two side Barrow, helping them achieve back-to-back seasons in the playoffs.

He had, however, spent the majority of his career in the Championship. Following a single season with West Brom, the Mancunian defender joined Midlands rivals Aston Villa, where he would play a huge role over the next four seasons in getting the side promoted back to the Premier League. Then, following this, he would take in spells with Stoke City and Derby County.

So, while we can look back at this mightily impressive career for Chester and do nothing but applaud him, the bigger cheers should definitely be directed towards Hull City, who maximised their tiny investment, and gained some fantastic memories out of such a small transfer fee.