A fourth Hibs manager sacked in a little under two-and-a-half years, starting with the overly hasty departure of Jack Ross just six months after Ron Gordon acquired Sir Tom Farmer’s controlling interest in the club. A sixth dismissal since Neil Lennon’s mysterious leave taking in January of 2019.
Yep. It’s genuinely baffling, isn’t it? Why DO Hibernian – and the Gordon family, in particular - have a reputation for being trigger happy?
The rate this club are going through gaffers, the next man up should probably ask for a large chunk of his contract to be guaranteed, in financial terms, just in case he gets tapped on the shoulder a week into pre-season. Seriously. While there is never a shortage of managerial wannabes for every available job, this constant air of instability around Hibs can NOT make it easier for them to attract candidates of a certain calendar.
Will Bill Foley’s Black Knight group bring their influence to bear now, helping to identify and appoint a manager capable of changing the pattern of short-term thinking and swift changes of tack? That’s a lot to ask of a guy with just a 25 per cent shareholding. But Hibs fans can live in hope, right?
On what is guaranteed to be a busy day of activity out at East Mains, with Scottish Cup-winning captain David Gray limbering up for yet another stint as caretaker boss, we take a look at the past five sackings. And rate the axed gaffers according to whether they were unlucky, unimpressive or unlikely to fetch much sympathy for being given the boot.
1. Neil Lennon - UNLUCKY
Did he fall or was he pushed? Despite the club claiming that Lennon had “not been dismissed”, this was a sacking by any other name. And it ranks right alongside the Jack Ross departure in terms of wisdom and foresight. Lennon will never be everyone’s cup of tea. There were people at East Mains who did not like working with him. But he got Hibs out of the Championship, losing just three games in the process. And guided them to a fourth-placed finish in the Premiership on their return, compiling a club record points total in the process. Not enough, apparently … Photo: SNS Group Rob Casey
2. Shaun Maloney – IN THE WRONG MOVIE
From working with some of the finest footballers on the planet, in his role as coach with the Belgium national team, to being pitched into the frantic world of the Scottish Premiership, former Scotland and Celtic star Maloney was certainly a bold first managerial appointment by Ron Gordon. It did not work out. Maloney – now managing former club Wigan - is clearly a man in possession of a brilliant footballing mind. There are people in the football department at Hibs who still, to this day, describe him as a true revolutionary who changed the way they think about the game. He lasted five months. And left behind whispers about interference from above, especially in recruitment, that made his role more difficult than it needed to be. Photo: Ross Parker - SNS Group
3. Jack Ross – UNLUCKY
The late Ron Gordon later admitted that he’d been too quick to get rid of Ross. Even at the time, it felt like an odd move. There wasn’t exactly a groundswell of antipathy towards the manager among fans. And he was generally held to be doing a decent job, a little under two years into his post. With a win percentage pushing 50 per cent, the stats would suggest that Ross – now head of academy at Newcastle United – was no dud. Hibs may have been sitting seventh when he left - but were only 11 points off third place. His sacking smelled like one of those instances when a new owner, badgered by supporters and advisers on the need to take their club to “the next level”, feels compelled to do something for the sake of doing something.
4. Paul Heckingbottom – NO SURPRISE
Sometimes, a manager and a club are just a bad fit. That’s not necessarily a reflection on either. But it was certainly true in this case. Heckingbottom, who didn’t manage to see out a full calendar year during a reign that lasted from February to November of 2019, rarely looked or sounded entirely at ease at Easter Road. But he’s clearly not a BAD coach, right? Look at the clubs he’s managed. The failure of his summer recruits to settle quickly, allied to decisions like letting Marvin Bartley leave the club, ultimately put him in trouble. And he was axed with Hibs sitting 10th in the Scottish Premiership, having taken just nine points from a possible 33 at the start of season 2019-20.