Mixu wants to get shot of "eight or nine" Hibs stars

MIXU PAATELAINEN today revealed how he is battling to trim his Easter Road squad having deemed "eight or nine" players not good enough to play for Hibs.

He urged those concerned to move on for the sake of their careers rather than simply see out their contracts in Edinburgh.

Paatelainen has told each of them they have no future at the club although he today declined to identify the individuals concerned.

It is known, however, that Hibs will listen to offers for striker Clayton Donaldson, brought in by former boss John Collins on a three-year deal last summer, while another of his signings, Thierry Gatheussi, has featured in only one of the club's pre-season matches.

Paatelainen is determined to oversee a smaller, higher quality squad, releasing striker Mickael Antoine-Curier and midfielder Patrick Noubissie at the end of last season along with a number of youngsters such as Ally Brown, Dermot McCaffrey and Keegan Ayre. But, even so, there are others who won't be considered for first team action by Paatelainen, who would be hoping to use the wages freed up by departures to bring further new faces to the club following the arrivals this week of Joe Keenan and Steven Thicot.

He said: "There are eight or nine players I believe are not good enough, simple as that.

|I have spoken to each of them and told them it would be better if they were to seek a position elsewhere.

"They will not play for this football club and it does not help anyone because we have too many players."

Paatelainen admitted, however, it was a difficult situation with players enjoying the comfort of a contract, but he insisted it would be in the best interest of each of those concerned to find themselves a new club.

He said: "If they want to sit it out for a year or two their career may be finished, so those players should look to themselves because they will not play here."

Paatelainen acknowledged Hibs had lost a plethora of talent over the past three years with the talents of Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson, Steven Whittaker, David Murphy and Garry O'Connor attracting large massive fees while others such as Chris Killen, Derek Riordan, Gary Caldwell and, most recently, Guillaume Beuzelin had moved on. He has been left with the unenviable task of rebuilding but believes he has made moves in the right direction with the captures of Keenan and Thicot with his next priority being a striker to beef up his strikeforce.

Paatelainen stressed, however, that today's revelation was not a knee-jerk reaction to what has been a difficult pre-season, culminating in a 3-0 defeat by First Division Clyde last night, but the result of his evaluation over the past few months of the squad he inherited.

As disappointed as he was by the latest set-back, Paatelainen insisted there were signs at Broadwood that the pieces were beginning to fall into place ahead of the new season as he urged supporters to get behind his players in the two remaining friendlies, against Middlesbrough on Saturday and Wigan Athletic on Tuesday.

He admitted, though, that the players confidence had taken a tumble. He said: "What was pleasing last night was the way we started the game, the way we passed the ball was good and I thought it was starting to come and I am sure it will come."

Slack defending cost Hibs the first goal after just 16 minutes and after that Paatelainen admitted it became something of a struggle for his players who have failed to score a goal in their six pre-season games.

He said: "It was a big blow after the positive start and I can understand the players being knocked off balance by it. But if ever everyone needs support it's now. We need to stay really positive, a negative attitude will only heap pressure on the players and that does not help.

"We created lots of chances but were not as sharp or as ruthless as we should have been. I know people will look at the result and say 'rubbish,' but if you look beyond the result there were positive signs. It's a matter of taking the bull by the horns, realising what we need to do better and it will happen."