Well, it’s taken five months but it looks like Hibs are finally taking Bill Foley’s advice on board.
The Bournemouth owner was furious back in the summer when the Leith board ignored his warnings on appointing David Gray as Easter Road manager.
Sitting here and now a week into December with the club marooned in the lower reaches of the Premiership, just two points above rock bottom, you’ve got to say the Black Knights chief was completely right to be wary.
But Ian Gordon, Ben Kensell and Mackay McKay felt they knew best and ploughed ahead with the decision to give the job to the club’s Scottish Cup-winning hero. What’s done is done and now it’s all about getting Hibs out of the mess they’re in.
That’s why I was delighted to see the Hibs hierarchy finally listen to sense as they allowed Black Knight to install one of their own men as the new head of recruitment. Garvan Stewart was described as an expert in his field of data analytics and player recruitment in the club press release that dropped at dinner time on Tuesday.
And looking at his CV, you can certainly see why Foley was so keen to get him up to Edinburgh. Bournemouth have consistently outperformed their size and spending power during their recent run in the Premier League and that is all down to their ability to source top talent at the cheapest possible price.
It’s pretty much the exact opposite to what’s been going on at Hibs. Stewart has been working for the Cherries for over 10 years and during that time he’s been employed in a number of roles, building up a wealth of experience and playing a key part in their success.
Hopefully he can start to impart that wisdom on the people at Easter Road because frankly, Hibs need to work smarter and sharper in almost every department. For Foley, it will be a welcome sign that the Hibs board are at last listening to what he has to say.
Kensell and Gordon were forced to fly out to the US a few weeks back to patch up relations after the fall-out over Gray’s appointment.
Having poured £6million into the club, you’d think they’d have been a bit more receptive to his suggestions from the get go, especially when you consider the success the Black Knight group have had with the other clubs in their portfolio.
But at least they all now appear to be on the same page. As for Garvan, well the Irishman is going to have to be a quick worker because there’s no time to waste with the January transfer window just three weeks off from opening.
Let’s be honest, Hibs could not have made a bigger arse of their recruitment work since Jack Ross’ ridiculous sacking – both with players and bosses. Garvan started work on Monday and he’s going to have to graft around the clock if Hibs are to avoid the mistakes of the past.
But even then, January might still come too soon. We’re halfway through the season now and a lot of these under-performing players will be hard to shift. Even the guys who are out of the picture might not want to go as Hibs are a big club which pays well.
I can’t see many teams wanting to buy guys struggling to get a game for a side that’s second bottom of the league. The positive is that Hibs will have something like 18 players out of contract in the summer, so there should be scope for a major overhaul at the end of the season and a chance for Stewart and the Black Knight guys to finally put their stamp on the squad.
In the meantime, they’ll duck and dive in January. They’ll definitely be in the market for a goalkeeper or two give given Josef Burski and Jordan Smith’s struggles in that department.
There might be a couple more beyond that but at the very least Stewart’s arrival – combined with the recent results against Aberdeen and Motherwell – have offered some positivity for the Hibs faithful. It’s been a sea of despair for the majority of the season but at last it looks like some momentum is building.
Well, that’s what I was thinking until I saw this weekend’s fixture – Celtic away!
Ah well, it was fun while it lasted!