What do Hibs backroom boys tell us about rookie gaffer's approach to management?

Gray (right) and May have built up a strong relationship on the training ground.

There isn’t much in the way of box office appeal to the backroom staff assembled by new Hibs manager David Gray. Nor does the coaching team put together by the rookie gaffer boast an overload of touchline experience at the elite end of the Scottish game. Does either of those factors actually matter?

The lack of a ‘big name’ is neither here nor there. But the presence of an assistant with the right sort of miles on the clock, someone who has contributed to sustained success in a high-performing coaching group, would have been a nice bonus. Because, while sporting director Malky Mackay will be a useful sounding board, he won’t be part of the manager’s inner circle, attending every training session and team meeting.

With Eddie May and Liam Craig both officially named assistant coaches and Craig Samson returning to the club as goalie coach, at least Hibs fans will be familiar with everyone in the away technical area for that first pre-season friendly against Edinburgh City at Meadowbank in 10 days’ time. So what are their credentials for such key positions at the club? And what does his first spot of recruitment say about Gray’s approach to the job?

Eddie May

Experience. There’s no substitute for it. But May’s ten years in a variety of roles at East Mains, on top of his contribution as a Hibs player back in the day, can be viewed through a couple of different lenses.

On the one hand, he’s completely immersed in the club. Knows everything about how things work out at HTC. Is familiar with everybody in the building – and understands the scale of the challenge facing Gray.

May is also, of course, Hibs to the core. Has been since he started going along to Easter Road as a nipper in season 1974-75. The lad from West Pilton genuinely lived the dream by signing for his boyhood heroes, progressing to the first team – where he played over 100 games – even while he was still on the ground staff; he used to regularly play on a Saturday and then sweep the terraces on the following Monday.

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In terms of experience relevant to the new gig, his one brief spell as a manager came to an end with his resignation from the Falkirk job in February of 2010. He returned to the Hibs fold in 2014, the same year Gray signed for the club, working under a variety of gaffers – and filling a number of different jobs, from first team to academy.

Having served two tours of duty as interim manager himself, May also filled in as Gray’s assistant during the Scottish Cup-winning captain’s FOUR stints as stand-in head coach. Given their shared history, Gray making an internal appointment hardly came as a shock.

The flip side of May’s in-with-the-bricks status at East Mains is, of course, precisely that. A decade spent filling a variety of roles at Hibs, a club with a reputation for disfunction and disruption, means he’s associated with a lot of turmoil and failure.

That’s unfair, of course. A genuine football man who devotes plenty to whatever position he’s asked to fill, from coaching to recruitment, May can hardly be blamed for chaos and calamities far beyond his limited control.

Gray clearly doesn’t believe that to be a problem. And he’s obviously placed familiarity high on the list of priorities in pulling together a brains trust capable of guiding him through is first crack at management. Which meant turning to someone who has always been there. For the good times and the bad.

Liam Craig

The former Hibs midfielder, who spent the vast majority of his playing career at St Johnstone, where he holds the all-time record for first-team appearances, has a bit of experience as an assistant. And he’s certainly learned a few hard lessons in management, despite only moving into full-time coaching when he became first-team analyst and development coach under Callum Davidson at St Johnstone at the start of season 2022-23.

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When Double Cup winner Davidson left the Perth club last April, Craig was handed a battlefield commission and invited to become new gaffer Steven MacLean’s assistant. Both were sacked in October.

Craig, who briefly stepped into assist Arbroath caretaker Stuart Malcolm in December, was reunited with Davidson at Queen’s Park in January. The 37-year-old is, like Gray, a former Hibs captain.

Craig Samson

This is a more straightforward appointment, given Samson’s previous work as goalkeeper coach under Jack Ross at Hibs. He’ll do the same job he’s been doing at Aberdeen. Either by turning Jojo Wollacott into the undisputed first choice – or bringing a new first-choice goalie up to speed.