By GARY KEOWN
Published: | Updated:
John Potter stated on Friday that everyone at Hibs has to accept responsibility for the results that eventually saw club legend David Gray axed as manager.
The stand-in boss is right. That’s why it might be nice to hear from the likes of chairman Ian Gordon, sporting director Malky Mackay or even lesser-spotted chief executive Dan Barnett about what comes next as the Easter Road side endeavour to stop this season falling off a cliff.
Right at the start of Gray’s two-year reign in charge, Gordon admitted in a quite astonishing interview that his family had made all sorts of mistakes, including appointing himself head of recruitment at one stage.
It’s still hard to know whether he can be looked upon as a steady hand at the tiller.
Signed to much hullabaloo, the tie-up with Bournemouth’s American owner Bill Foley and his Black Knight Group was quietly ended last November amid talk of ‘philosophical differences’. At the last count, the club had lost £18million in four years with Barnett admitting that expecting the Gordon family to keep taking up the slack was not sustainable.
Thibault Klidje arrived in the summer of 2025 as the club’s record signing for a fee estimated at around £1.5million and has been a complete flop. Recruitment, as a whole, has not been up to scratch of late.
Hibs chairman Ian Gordon with chief executive Malky Mackay as the Leith club played Gent
Hauling in £6million from Verona for centre-forward Kieran Bowie and bringing in a 21-year-old on a temporary arrangement from Stoke City in Nathan Lowe to replace him up front does not speak to the kind of ambition Easter Road fans expect.
While balancing the books is necessary, that cannot come at the expense of being competitive on the park.
Gray’s departure also brings back into focus the fact that Hibs have operated a real revolving door in terms of managers for a long time now.
It needs someone to come out before another head coach is appointed and spell out where the club is going and just how joined-up their plan for the future really is.
Maybe things are exacerbated by the fact Hearts have an exciting project going on across Edinburgh with Tony Bloom and Jamestown Analytics.
Maybe it’s the fact the Jam Tarts are brazen about where they see themselves long-term that makes their biggest rivals feel like they’re not really going anywhere fast at all.
That has to be addressed. This changing of the guard in the dugout needs to be delivered with a wider plan.
