It took 68 words for Hibs to dispatch of Colin Calderwood.
Even that seemed needlessly verbose, the gist was simple:
"Thanks. Goodbye. We live to find another boss."
A taciturn end to a joyless reign. Consider the contrast to July when Rod Petrie - hardly a prolific wordsmith - devoted 434 words and the logic of a one-eyed statistician to a celebratory love letter in support of the manager.
What changed?
Could it have been just five words? The chants of "Petrie, Petrie get tae fuck" that mingled with - in my experience - unprecedented boos at the final whistle on Saturday.
Perhaps it was.
Perhaps not. Clearly a storm had been brewing.
Calderwood was unloved and struggling. A board that stakes its authority on good housekeeping had posted a loss of £900,000.
The completed stadium was consistently less than half full. The quality of the training centre was translating into incompetence on the pitch.
On Saturday Hibs lost a goal inside three minutes against Dunfermline. They spent the remainder of the 90 minutes looking beaten.
Football allows you to shelter from your own failings in the shortcomings of others. When you start losing to the teams below you the game is pretty much up.
12 wins from 49 games. One home win since February. An abject performance on Saturday.
If he's honest with himself - and I suspect that it is one of his qualities - Calderwood will not be shocked at his dismissal.
But questions remain.
Hibs proclaim their financial stability. Yet they get through managers at an unseemly rate.
Mistakes. They've made a few.
Calderwood was the wrong man for the job. He was backed - within Hibs' budgetary constraints - in two transfer windows. He was lauded by the chairman in a public show of support that has never looked anything but misguided.
And that show of support was costly. There was a chance in the summer to cash in, accept compensation from Nottingham Forest or Birmingham for Calderwood and start over.
Hibs stubbornly held on to their man. Hindsight shows that as foolhardiness.
The board are guilty in this saga. And, as guilty men, they will be under fierce scrutiny at tonight's AGM. Passions will run high inside the meeting.
A rumoured protest against Petrie and his well salaried acolytes will be held outside the Famous Five stand at the same time.
Cutting Calderwood loose hasn't been met with elation. The troubled waters are not becalmed.
Instead there's a simmering resentment that it has come to this.
That resentment is manifested in a loss of faith. There's little conviction that the people with power at Easter Road now have the ability to make the changes, and the appointment, that the club needs to come even close to meeting the expectations of fans.
Blaming Calderwood. Blaming John Hughes. Blaming the players. Blaming the fans for not standing up and being counted.
That won't work tonight. Similar ploys have been used too many times.
A mea culpa. A detailed statement of of the club's footballing ambition. A transparent guarantee that Petrie's role and influence has been reduced.
All that would begin the rebuilding process. But the breakdown in trust is huge.
The fans showed on Saturday that they can only take so much.
Mired in a malaise of their own making the board need to hold their hands up this evening and beg for mercy.
Then they need to find the right manager and work tirelessly to get things right on the pitch.
Months of misery have culminated in a crisis. They can only redeem themselves with progress on the pitch.
There are lingering doubts that they can meet those challenges. They need to prove that they can. And they need to do it quickly.
> Four steps in the right direction:
1. Rod Petrie steps back. As the only board member with a stake in the company he is guaranteed a role. But a chairman can be hands off. He can busy himself with his SFA duties. If he trusts his fellow directors enough to pay them handsome salaries he has to show a willingness to trust them to run the club without their puppet-master.
2. Scott Lindsay leaves East Mains. The Executive Director is in charge of the football side of the club. He's an accountant. He doesn't need an office at the training centre. If the board want representation that close to the action they should appoint a Director of Football with a footballing background.
3. Get the next appointment right. Easier said than done for any club. But Hibs have a lot of mistakes to learn from. A manager shouldn't just impress because he understands the club's balance sheet. He also needs to understand and connect with the fans. That doesn't mean the new man should have a history with the club. We're told the directors live and breathe Hibs. That should give them an insight into the sort of manager who can provide inspiration and stability, an eye for a bargain and an ear for the support.
4. Get the fans on board. Literally. The supporter-shareholders wield no power. But representation in the boardroom would be a clear indication that the failed autocracy of recent seasons has been consigned to history in favour of a fresh start for the whole "Hibernian family."
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Showing posts with label Hibs managers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hibs managers. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Hibs Still Searching
What madness have I returned to?
With a shiny, completed ground and a financial position that the board enjoy describing as “healthy” all should be rosy in the Easter Road garden.
Unfortunately football is still about finding a manager and a squad of players who can deliver something on the pitch.
And that, recently, has been Hibs’ failing. That John Hughes had to go was of little surprise. He will, with his normal “character,” defend his record. Europe for the first time in five years, fourth place in the league. Fair enough. But the harsh reality was that Hughes’ Hibs team wasn’t good enough, that it may even have been less than the sum of its parts. And for that the buck stops with the manager.
I’m told Hughes is blaming the media for “interpreting” recent results to fit their argument.
OK. But how much spin does it take from even a third rate scribe to turn one win out of ten in the SPL and European and League Cup exits into a damning indictment of Hibs current form? Or how about the worst run of home results since the club was founded in 1875?
Hughes was fond of saying that “football” people understood what he was trying to do. Well, football people and non-football people can surely agree that the manager was going to come under pressure with such a paltry return on what, for Hibs’ famously reticent board, has been a reasonable investment in the playing squad.
I’d actually take Doc Brown’s DeLorean back to the start of last season to pinpoint the problem of the Hughes reign. I’d return to a stage of the season that came before that now almost unbelievable period when people were breathlessly hailing Hughes as the man to split the Old Firm.
In the fourth game of last season Hibs lost 2-0 at Hamilton in a performance as insipid as it was disjointed. It was to be a recurring theme. If the big players didn’t click then Hibs seemed powerless to do anything in the face of well organised opponents. There was no Plan B because, and this gnawed away even during the long unbeaten run last season, there was no Plan A. The seeds of this season’s discontent were sown last year. In focusing only on the final league position Hughes chooses not to acknowledge that.
That, of course, fits in with the pattern established in his last season at Falkirk when a cup final and a last gasp escape were constantly used to defend his record without ever facing up to the problems that had pushed his team into a lengthy relegation battle.
Given his reputation as a hard man – a reputation apparently well earned – his lack of control in the dressing room also seemed odd. But discipline does seem to have been an issue and man management problems seem to have been constantly rumoured. Having been on the receiving end of a couple of Yogi’s motivational speeches I can vouch for both their length and the essential lack of substance at their heart, like a call to arms delivered by the worst sort of New Labour apparatchik. Did the players simply stop listening?
All of which is a shame because Hughes is a decent bloke with Hibs and Leith in his heart and he shared a bond with the fans. Unfortunately, and many other former players will vouch for this, having the best of intentions and loving a club is not enough to make a success of it in the dugout.
The final verdict has to be that for the majority of his 15 months in charge this son of Leith was unable to deliver any sunshine.
Where, then, do the board turn now?
For a club that likes to consider itself “stable” Hibs have been anything but of late. There has been a constant turnover of managers and a lack of any cohesion that belies the success of the youth development staff but is borne out by a decade that has, in truth, been only intermittently inspiring.
In fact the one constant has been Rod Petrie, a man hailed for his shrewd financial guidance but who has a poor track record in identifying coaches with whom he can forge long term working relationships. The admission by Jim Duffy that he taught Petrie all he knows should not, perhaps, be much of a surprise given the mess that Duffy himself made of the manager’s job.
But with financial stability, a reasonable squad and an open race for third place there is likely to be no shortage of contenders for Petrie to choose from.
Some of the names we’ve already seen linked include: Paul Hart, Steve Clarke, Jimmy Calderwood, Billy Reid, Ian McParland, Uwe Rapolder, Gus McPherson, Derek Adams, Derek McInnes, Steve Constantine, Tony Mowbray, Mark Venus, Michael O’Neil, Pat Fenlon, Craig Brown, Sir Bobby Charlton and Colin Montgomerie.
I’ve made a couple of those names up. And I’m not going to back anyone.
Why? Because Rod Petrie would have made a damned good operator in the political machinations of the Kremlin. He gives nothing away and doesn’t feel why he should. If he was running any other business he wouldn’t discuss personnel issues with his customers and he sees fans as no different.
Thus the more names he sees linked the better, the stronger the cover for the cloak and dagger operation that will see the new man eventually emerge.
All I’ll say is rule out anyone you see as an obvious candidate. John Hughes was the obvious candidate and also the wrong one. Expect Petrie to return to the method that saw him unearth Tony Mowbray from the Ipswich coaching staff.
For all his failings – and balancing balance sheets aside he has many – Rod Petrie enjoys springing surprises more than you’d expect from a man of his dull countenance. Expect him to do so again in the next week or two.
With a shiny, completed ground and a financial position that the board enjoy describing as “healthy” all should be rosy in the Easter Road garden.
Unfortunately football is still about finding a manager and a squad of players who can deliver something on the pitch.
And that, recently, has been Hibs’ failing. That John Hughes had to go was of little surprise. He will, with his normal “character,” defend his record. Europe for the first time in five years, fourth place in the league. Fair enough. But the harsh reality was that Hughes’ Hibs team wasn’t good enough, that it may even have been less than the sum of its parts. And for that the buck stops with the manager.
I’m told Hughes is blaming the media for “interpreting” recent results to fit their argument.
OK. But how much spin does it take from even a third rate scribe to turn one win out of ten in the SPL and European and League Cup exits into a damning indictment of Hibs current form? Or how about the worst run of home results since the club was founded in 1875?
Hughes was fond of saying that “football” people understood what he was trying to do. Well, football people and non-football people can surely agree that the manager was going to come under pressure with such a paltry return on what, for Hibs’ famously reticent board, has been a reasonable investment in the playing squad.
I’d actually take Doc Brown’s DeLorean back to the start of last season to pinpoint the problem of the Hughes reign. I’d return to a stage of the season that came before that now almost unbelievable period when people were breathlessly hailing Hughes as the man to split the Old Firm.
In the fourth game of last season Hibs lost 2-0 at Hamilton in a performance as insipid as it was disjointed. It was to be a recurring theme. If the big players didn’t click then Hibs seemed powerless to do anything in the face of well organised opponents. There was no Plan B because, and this gnawed away even during the long unbeaten run last season, there was no Plan A. The seeds of this season’s discontent were sown last year. In focusing only on the final league position Hughes chooses not to acknowledge that.
That, of course, fits in with the pattern established in his last season at Falkirk when a cup final and a last gasp escape were constantly used to defend his record without ever facing up to the problems that had pushed his team into a lengthy relegation battle.
Given his reputation as a hard man – a reputation apparently well earned – his lack of control in the dressing room also seemed odd. But discipline does seem to have been an issue and man management problems seem to have been constantly rumoured. Having been on the receiving end of a couple of Yogi’s motivational speeches I can vouch for both their length and the essential lack of substance at their heart, like a call to arms delivered by the worst sort of New Labour apparatchik. Did the players simply stop listening?
All of which is a shame because Hughes is a decent bloke with Hibs and Leith in his heart and he shared a bond with the fans. Unfortunately, and many other former players will vouch for this, having the best of intentions and loving a club is not enough to make a success of it in the dugout.
The final verdict has to be that for the majority of his 15 months in charge this son of Leith was unable to deliver any sunshine.
Where, then, do the board turn now?
For a club that likes to consider itself “stable” Hibs have been anything but of late. There has been a constant turnover of managers and a lack of any cohesion that belies the success of the youth development staff but is borne out by a decade that has, in truth, been only intermittently inspiring.
In fact the one constant has been Rod Petrie, a man hailed for his shrewd financial guidance but who has a poor track record in identifying coaches with whom he can forge long term working relationships. The admission by Jim Duffy that he taught Petrie all he knows should not, perhaps, be much of a surprise given the mess that Duffy himself made of the manager’s job.
But with financial stability, a reasonable squad and an open race for third place there is likely to be no shortage of contenders for Petrie to choose from.
Some of the names we’ve already seen linked include: Paul Hart, Steve Clarke, Jimmy Calderwood, Billy Reid, Ian McParland, Uwe Rapolder, Gus McPherson, Derek Adams, Derek McInnes, Steve Constantine, Tony Mowbray, Mark Venus, Michael O’Neil, Pat Fenlon, Craig Brown, Sir Bobby Charlton and Colin Montgomerie.
I’ve made a couple of those names up. And I’m not going to back anyone.
Why? Because Rod Petrie would have made a damned good operator in the political machinations of the Kremlin. He gives nothing away and doesn’t feel why he should. If he was running any other business he wouldn’t discuss personnel issues with his customers and he sees fans as no different.
Thus the more names he sees linked the better, the stronger the cover for the cloak and dagger operation that will see the new man eventually emerge.
All I’ll say is rule out anyone you see as an obvious candidate. John Hughes was the obvious candidate and also the wrong one. Expect Petrie to return to the method that saw him unearth Tony Mowbray from the Ipswich coaching staff.
For all his failings – and balancing balance sheets aside he has many – Rod Petrie enjoys springing surprises more than you’d expect from a man of his dull countenance. Expect him to do so again in the next week or two.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
John Hughes Going Nowhere, Yet
What do John Hughes and William Hague have in common? Not, admittedly, all that much.
But yesterday the Hibs manager and the Foreign Secretary were both subjected to a frenzy of speculation and rumour that, it seems, was entirely unfounded.
The big gossip in Scottish football seemed to surface about 6.30pm when a radio station apparently reported that John Hughes had left Hibs.
My phone started vibrating like mad, Tweets appeared, emails were sent.
By coincidence I arrived at Easter Road’s 1875 function suite at around 7.05pm yesterday evening.
And who was already in position ready to take place in a quiz organised by Hibs’ sponsors. Why, surely it was the newly walked-out Mr John Hughes. As bold as brass and most definitely sitting in the stadium rather than storming out of it.
“A lot of rubbish” was his standard response to the inevitable questions regarding the reports.
And, this is an admission that pains me, his team beat mine. Although he did appear to have roped in a couple of ringers. (The players team led at the halfway stage before fading badly: a quiz based metaphor for Hibs' normal pattern during a league season.)
So it was a nonsense that appears to have been a case of somebody failing to get an interview and putting two and two together.
That’s football and it’s hardly on a par with the intrusive gossip that Mr Hague and his family have had to cope with.
But the rumour interested me less than the reaction to it.
The fans I was with gave no sign of being upset at the thought of a Yogi-less Hibs. More than one ruminated that they “hoped” it was true.
The Easter Road support have slipped away from John Hughes. Fans can point to six home defeats on the bounce and last week’s loss to St Mirren as being symptomatic of a wider malaise that has shrouded the team since around January of this year.
The reality is that Hughes’ form in those months has not been good enough.
Knee-jerk reactions are, of course, what fans do best. And an Easter Road board that craves financial stability will have no desire to be fishing around for yet another new manager in the near future.
But even there we can maybe see some fault-lines developing. Alan Gow didn’t impress many supporters during his spell with Hibs last season. But the manager is a big fan.
With Anthony Stokes lost on deadline day and Gow still available Hughes might have hoped to bring him in. For whatever reasons that didn’t happen and Gow has signed for Motherwell.
If Hughes feels the frostiness from the terraces is being matched by a reluctance from the board might he begin to consider his own position?
Last night somebody joined up a loose series of dots and came up with a pattern that fitted Hughes’ departure.
That was wrong.
But that so many fans were happy to believe it, that there were clues appearing that suggested it might be true, could just mean that Hughes and Hibs are now entering the last days of their relationship.
Hughes wasn’t going anywhere last night. Don’t be tempted to bet big on him still being around for the annual quiz next year though.
But yesterday the Hibs manager and the Foreign Secretary were both subjected to a frenzy of speculation and rumour that, it seems, was entirely unfounded.
The big gossip in Scottish football seemed to surface about 6.30pm when a radio station apparently reported that John Hughes had left Hibs.
My phone started vibrating like mad, Tweets appeared, emails were sent.
By coincidence I arrived at Easter Road’s 1875 function suite at around 7.05pm yesterday evening.
And who was already in position ready to take place in a quiz organised by Hibs’ sponsors. Why, surely it was the newly walked-out Mr John Hughes. As bold as brass and most definitely sitting in the stadium rather than storming out of it.
“A lot of rubbish” was his standard response to the inevitable questions regarding the reports.
And, this is an admission that pains me, his team beat mine. Although he did appear to have roped in a couple of ringers. (The players team led at the halfway stage before fading badly: a quiz based metaphor for Hibs' normal pattern during a league season.)
So it was a nonsense that appears to have been a case of somebody failing to get an interview and putting two and two together.
That’s football and it’s hardly on a par with the intrusive gossip that Mr Hague and his family have had to cope with.
But the rumour interested me less than the reaction to it.
The fans I was with gave no sign of being upset at the thought of a Yogi-less Hibs. More than one ruminated that they “hoped” it was true.
The Easter Road support have slipped away from John Hughes. Fans can point to six home defeats on the bounce and last week’s loss to St Mirren as being symptomatic of a wider malaise that has shrouded the team since around January of this year.
The reality is that Hughes’ form in those months has not been good enough.
Knee-jerk reactions are, of course, what fans do best. And an Easter Road board that craves financial stability will have no desire to be fishing around for yet another new manager in the near future.
But even there we can maybe see some fault-lines developing. Alan Gow didn’t impress many supporters during his spell with Hibs last season. But the manager is a big fan.
With Anthony Stokes lost on deadline day and Gow still available Hughes might have hoped to bring him in. For whatever reasons that didn’t happen and Gow has signed for Motherwell.
If Hughes feels the frostiness from the terraces is being matched by a reluctance from the board might he begin to consider his own position?
Last night somebody joined up a loose series of dots and came up with a pattern that fitted Hughes’ departure.
That was wrong.
But that so many fans were happy to believe it, that there were clues appearing that suggested it might be true, could just mean that Hughes and Hibs are now entering the last days of their relationship.
Hughes wasn’t going anywhere last night. Don’t be tempted to bet big on him still being around for the annual quiz next year though.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Mixing It With Mixu
Not much that's joyful about Kilmarnock's blues right now.
The 2010/11 season is about survival. Scrapping for every point on the pitch, scraping every penny together off the pitch.
In such circumstances there are probably worse people than Mixu Paatelainen to have in the dugout.
Mixu, opposing defenders will remember, was a rumbustious centre forward. Fans knew that they'd get a whole hearted performance even if they didn't get a goal.
Going from player to coach at St Mirren he looked to be building a solid managerial CV as he won a title with Cowdenbeath and took TPS in Finland to third place in the league.
Then came Easter Road. Leith might not be a managerial graveyard but a spell in charge of the "Cabbage" has certainly stalled a few promising careers.
Mixu came a cropper for his reliance on a utilitarian style of play that fell foul of the footballing ideals so beloved of the Hibs fans. There is a fine line between sticking to long held philosophy and just being precious. Sometimes the Hibs faithful cross that line.
Finishing sixth in the SPL for two seasons running wasn't enough for either the support or the Hibs board. A parting of the ways with Mixu became inevitable.
That doesn't mean Mixu was a failure at Easter Road. At times he was naïve. Often his touchline spats were a needless distraction. The stubbornness of that barrelling centre forward was too near the surface as he took to long to adapt tactics and make changes in games.
But he inherited a squad that had suffered the bizarre exit of John Collins, the loss of big players and the internecine warfare of dressing room factions.
That was a steep learning curve for a young manager who had benefitted from a core of full time players at Cowdenbeath and a generous owner at TPS. But he did the job pragmatically and avoided the periodic plummets that Hibs have endured over the years.
If sixth place wasn't enough at Easter Road it will be more, much more, than enough at Rugby Park.
Stubborness, even the ability to ignore the aesthetics and revert to the long ball, will be plus points for Kilmarnock next season. Where touchline arguments were a distraction at Hibs they might, if they're well chosen, prove an inspiration in Ayr.
At times it might not be pretty but it might be effective enough to save Kilmarnock. At least they know their manager won't be going down without a hell of a fight.
> Mixu will be assisted by Kenny Shiels who has left Tranmere to join him at Rugby Park. Kenny's son Dean was a player at Easter Road under Mixu.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Hibs turn to Jelly(stone)
Hibs fans had grown somewhat numb to the utilitarian tactics of Mixu Paatelainen. So they were ready for the attacking game and footballing philosophy that John Hughes promised when he returned “home” to Easter Road.
There were some that pointed to his relative inexperience and Falkirk’s brush with relegation under his stewardship last season.
But on the whole those doubters were appeased by a couple of headline grabbing signings – many thought the days of Hibs attracting a Liam Miller or an Anthony Stokes were long gone – and a flying start to the season. Even into late December Hibs were being talked about as capable of mounting the challenge that would split the Old Firm.
So how has it come to this? On Sunday I couldn’t find one Hibs fan who fancied their chances of getting any points after the split, most of them glumly accepting that the season is now all but finished and just hoping that Hearts don’t inflict too big a humiliation when they meet at Easter Road in a couple of weeks.
Even if you’re no smarter than the average bear you can surmise that something has gone horribly wrong with Hughes’ Leith homecoming. The fans expected a Yogi revolution only to be delivered a Boo-Boo. (I could go further here and suggest that it was Ranger Smith who began the collapse when Hibs lost their early advantage to go down 4-1 to Rangers at Easter Road at Christmas. But I won’t.)
Inevitably there are calls for the manager’s head. Two wins in 13 games is hardly the form that delivers confidence to the terraces and calling for a sacking is the predictable response of the unhappy punter.
As a club Hibs pride themselves on their financial stability. In recent season they’ve failed to match that on the pitch. Since 2001 when Alex McLeish was in charge they’ve gone through 7 managers, with Hughes following the short lived reigns of Mixu and John Collins. Sometimes a club needs stability in the dugout.
So, at the very least, Hughes needs a bit more time.
Time to bring in the players (a defender or two, a more physical midfield presence) that he should really have been looking to attract last summer. Time also to work out any problems that might currently be simmering away in the dressing room.
Tittle-tattle and rumour is the chief export of Leith so I’ll not list all the gossip (and the stories I’ve heard are long, varied and would probably result in libel action). But the players apparently relaxed demeanour as they warmed down after last week’s Hamilton humbling suggests that not everyone feels the pain of defeat as keenly as the manager and fans. A big name or two being shipped out in the summer would not surprise me.
Hughes himself also needs to find a workable Plan B. His philosophy is admirable. But when it fails he seems to have no options besides a Tony Mowbray style huff and reverting to a long ball game that is completely at odds with the strengths of his players.
There should be more room for idealists in football. But every idealist needs a healthy dose of realpolitik to succeed.
Hughes himself should also tone down his personality a little. I don’t know how it works with the players. But the rambling press conferences and post match interviews focusing on positives that have eluded everyone else are not endearing him to the fans. It’s almost as if he is constantly trying to prove that Hughes the manager has more depth than Hughes the player. The fans aren’t going to show patience with a man using press conferences as a form of therapy.
Gloom is obscuring the sunshine in Leith right now. But Hibs still sit fourth, on more points than they amassed last year. The current pessimism is made worse by the recent optimism. But earlier in the season the press, the fans and even the players and managers got caught up in an impossible dream. Hibs were set targets that they weren't good enough to meet. That's not the end of the world as long as they make more improvements next season.
It’s not yet time to cut Hughes loose. But he’s going to need to prove that he’s learned from this season’s mistakes.
Results That Killed A Season
Hamilton 4-1 Hibs (10th April)
Hibs 2-4 Dundee United (31st March)
Ross County 2-1 Hibs (23rd March)
Hearts 2-1 Hibs (20th March)
St Johnstone 5-1 Hibs (17th February)
Hibs 1-4 Rangers (27th December)
There were some that pointed to his relative inexperience and Falkirk’s brush with relegation under his stewardship last season.
But on the whole those doubters were appeased by a couple of headline grabbing signings – many thought the days of Hibs attracting a Liam Miller or an Anthony Stokes were long gone – and a flying start to the season. Even into late December Hibs were being talked about as capable of mounting the challenge that would split the Old Firm.
So how has it come to this? On Sunday I couldn’t find one Hibs fan who fancied their chances of getting any points after the split, most of them glumly accepting that the season is now all but finished and just hoping that Hearts don’t inflict too big a humiliation when they meet at Easter Road in a couple of weeks.
Even if you’re no smarter than the average bear you can surmise that something has gone horribly wrong with Hughes’ Leith homecoming. The fans expected a Yogi revolution only to be delivered a Boo-Boo. (I could go further here and suggest that it was Ranger Smith who began the collapse when Hibs lost their early advantage to go down 4-1 to Rangers at Easter Road at Christmas. But I won’t.)
Inevitably there are calls for the manager’s head. Two wins in 13 games is hardly the form that delivers confidence to the terraces and calling for a sacking is the predictable response of the unhappy punter.
As a club Hibs pride themselves on their financial stability. In recent season they’ve failed to match that on the pitch. Since 2001 when Alex McLeish was in charge they’ve gone through 7 managers, with Hughes following the short lived reigns of Mixu and John Collins. Sometimes a club needs stability in the dugout.
So, at the very least, Hughes needs a bit more time.
Time to bring in the players (a defender or two, a more physical midfield presence) that he should really have been looking to attract last summer. Time also to work out any problems that might currently be simmering away in the dressing room.
Tittle-tattle and rumour is the chief export of Leith so I’ll not list all the gossip (and the stories I’ve heard are long, varied and would probably result in libel action). But the players apparently relaxed demeanour as they warmed down after last week’s Hamilton humbling suggests that not everyone feels the pain of defeat as keenly as the manager and fans. A big name or two being shipped out in the summer would not surprise me.
Hughes himself also needs to find a workable Plan B. His philosophy is admirable. But when it fails he seems to have no options besides a Tony Mowbray style huff and reverting to a long ball game that is completely at odds with the strengths of his players.
There should be more room for idealists in football. But every idealist needs a healthy dose of realpolitik to succeed.
Hughes himself should also tone down his personality a little. I don’t know how it works with the players. But the rambling press conferences and post match interviews focusing on positives that have eluded everyone else are not endearing him to the fans. It’s almost as if he is constantly trying to prove that Hughes the manager has more depth than Hughes the player. The fans aren’t going to show patience with a man using press conferences as a form of therapy.
Gloom is obscuring the sunshine in Leith right now. But Hibs still sit fourth, on more points than they amassed last year. The current pessimism is made worse by the recent optimism. But earlier in the season the press, the fans and even the players and managers got caught up in an impossible dream. Hibs were set targets that they weren't good enough to meet. That's not the end of the world as long as they make more improvements next season.
It’s not yet time to cut Hughes loose. But he’s going to need to prove that he’s learned from this season’s mistakes.
Results That Killed A Season
Hamilton 4-1 Hibs (10th April)
Hibs 2-4 Dundee United (31st March)
Ross County 2-1 Hibs (23rd March)
Hearts 2-1 Hibs (20th March)
St Johnstone 5-1 Hibs (17th February)
Hibs 1-4 Rangers (27th December)
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