What is going wrong at Hibs? – An in-depth look at the Hibees start to the season

It has been a dire start for David Gray’s men with only 1 win in their first 11 league matches. The capital club sit rock bottom of the William Hill Scottish Premiership amassing only 8 points thus far. 

But why have Hibs been struggling so much this campaign? 

Playing Squad

Over the summer, the club saw 11 new arrivals and 18 first-team players departing with a mixture of loans and permanent moves away. Hibs spent a massive £700k on Kieron Bowie, however that was the club’s only signing for a transfer fee, with the rest of the arrivals signing on free transfers or loan moves. 

Overall, it almost feels like the squad has declined since last season. Losing loan players such as Myziane Maolida and Emiliano Marcondes and failing to replace them has felt like a critical hit to the creativeness of this side. Junior Hoilett has been Hibs’ brightest spark when it comes to creating chances, but the club should not have to pin all their hopes on the 34-year-old. Now in fairness to the club, it was incredibly unfortunate that summer signing Bowie was ruled out for 4 months after an injury on Scotland U21 duty.

Now injured Kieron Bowie celebrating his first goal for the club against Dundee at the end of August. Image Credit – Alan Rennie.

His presence is really being missed as the Hibees have scored the least amount of goals in the league this season! 

Defensive signings in Warren O’Hora and Marvin Ekpiteta, though they had a rocky start in particular Ekpiteta, they have certainly come onto more of a game and look more assured and solid as the games go by. Goalkeeper Josef Bursik has not been anything to write home about, coming under a lot of pressure from Hibs fans, especially after his mistakes that led to a catastrophic collapse at Tannadice a couple of weeks ago. 

Despite the defence starting to work better together and more of their ability shining through, the Hibees continue to concede sloppy goals week by week, with many coming from when they are in winning positions. 

So far this season, Hibs have dropped 11 points from winning positions to goals which have come in the 86th minute or later. For context, if these points were not dropped, they would see themselves joint 3rd in the league, level with Rangers. All ifs, buts and maybes but it has always been about the fine margins in Scottish football. 

The Easter Road club have conceded an incredibly worrying 8 goals in the last 10 minutes of league matches, scoring 0 goals in the process. An increasingly alarming statistics for the Hibs faithful. These continuous late goals are now doubt leaving the players short of confidence appear to be having a snowball effect and David Gray will be desperate for his side to hold out for a win in the extremely near future. 

David Gray and the ‘Golden Quadrant’ 

On the topic of David Gray, it has certainly been a stressful and difficult introduction to full time management for the Hibs legend. Despite his 4 interim terms in charge of the club, Gray is a very inexperienced manager. He will most certainly need time. Unfortunately for him, the higher ups have shown a previous trend of not giving the head coach time, going through 4 managers in just 3 years. 

David Gray during one of the club’s training sessions. Image Credit – Alan Rennie

If anyone is going to be able to buy themselves time with the Easter Road faithful, then Scottish cup winning captain David Gray is most certainly that man. The Scot will need to watch though, with sections of the support expressing their discontent, however, this has largely been aimed at the new Sporting Director Malky Mackay, Chairperson Malcolm MacPherson, CEO Ben Kensell and club owner Ian Gordon.  

The ‘Golden Quadrant’ they like to call themselves. It is laughable. The club has been failing on the pitch over the previous years. Under the Gordon family’s ownership, Hibs have finished in the bottom 6 for 3 of the last 5 years. A dismal record for such a reputable club. They may mention the finances at the club have improved, with better partnerships and newly furnished hospitality suites, but the reality is that Hibs are running at a loss every season. Despite Ian Gordon explaining his family will cover those losses, it must be genuinely concerning for fans, especially if the Gordon’s one day decided to no longer cover them. 

One aspect of the club which has come under the most heat is the recruitment side. Several players have been leeching off the club for many years now, signing long-term contracts with high wages. Rightly so, they do not want to leave the club as they are on a lot of money, but to offer such players contracts in the first place is just so poor. You cannot keep having transfer windows like the club has been having, signing double digits worth of players for only two or three to be good enough to feature in the team. 

As mentioned in the summer, this is being viewed like a transition period, where the club try to navigate themselves to next summer when there will be 18 first team players out of contract (including loans). Effectively, admitting those at the club with contracts expiring are not good enough. As I mentioned, there are numerous players at the club not even featuring, earning luxurious wages whose contracts are thankfully up next summer. However, many key players for this season’s squad are also unsure of their futures.

Mykola Kuharevich, Joe Newell, Marvin Ekpiteta, Lewis Miller, Nectar Triantis and Warren O’Hora (left to right) celebrating Miller’s goal vs Dundee United last week. Image Credit – Alan Rennie

Going off the side that featured against Dundee United last weekend, 7 of the 11 that featured are not currently signed up to be at the club next season. SEVEN! That list includes fan favourite Martin Boyle, Lewis Miller and Junior Hoilett. Put yourself in these players’ shoes. The sporting director at the club has effectively come out and said they are not good enough, yet they are expected to play their best football in that atmosphere. It is absurd. It is incredibly reminiscent of the 2013/14 season where Terry Butcher joined the club in November and told his players only a couple of months later that they will not be there next season. And look how that ended up, with Hibs in the Championship. 

Though it is not all doom and gloom. I do believe this Hibs side is good enough, and together enough to not get drawn into a relegation fight. But they must stop conceding so many late goals. Saturday’s match at home to St Mirren is a must win for David Gray and his men as they look to put an end this dropping points malarkey and get themselves away from the foot of the table.