Two derby defeats in a week have put to bed any hopes of a successful season at Easter Road. While Saturday’s performance at Hampden was better than the league meeting at Tynecastle, ultimately it still wasn’t enough and the result means there’s little to look forward to for the rest of the campaign.
Supporters are rightly frustrated with the club consigned to the bottom six less than 12 months after being best-of-the-rest in the Premiership and qualifying for Europe – and that’s before we think about another disappointing trip to Glasgow.
With 2022/23 season tickets on sale and attendances at Easter Road already dwindling as the cost-of-living rockets and stay-away fans remain at home – where do the club go from here?
On the Pitch
First and foremost, it’s important to finish the season strongly. With five games to go fans need to see some signs of what we’re trying to build to give reason for optimism for next season.
While it wasn’t good enough and ultimately ended in another defeat, Saturday’s performance was better than it’s been in recent weeks – we were on top before Joe Newell was sent off and even with ten men we looked relatively comfortable without creating enough.
We need more of that with sharper finishing for the remainder of the season – players need to be playing for their places in the 2022/23 squad.
While we’ve not been short of injury worries, the failure to secure a place in the top half of the league in a season where no one outside the top three appeared to want to pull away is completely unacceptable for a club the size of Hibs.
We missed multiple opportunities to tie up a place in the top six before the defeat in Gorgie and the club’s league form has been concerning for months.
With a third-place finish and tournament prize money from 2020/21, and European football to look forward to, we had a platform to build on as normality appeared on the horizon following a season without supporters. The club was in a position of strength in comparison to our traditional challengers and we had the opportunity to establish ourselves as the third force in Scotland.
Despite all of that we completely failed to adequately strengthen in the summer, or indeed in January when a successful campaign was still very much within reach.
Decision makers at Easter Road were publicly scathing in their assessment of the summer window which ultimately cost Graeme Mathie – and arguably Jack Ross – their jobs but the failure to replace Martin Boyle in January has made us far too weak in attack to put up any sort of challenge for a return to Europe.
Chris Mueller and Sylvester Jasper have come into the side in Boyle’s place but neither have provided anywhere near the threat posed by the Australian since he left and Shaun Maloney’s eagerness to persist with a 3-4-3 means that if it doesn’t work we are left searching for answers we don’t appear to have.
Demetri Mitchell’s arrival at the club appeared to offer some hope as the Englishman got off to a good start, but his recent injury has left us short of options in attack in a system which requires width and pace.
No doubt the work has already started behind the scenes for next season but with only Paul McGinn, Scott Allan and Drey Wright out of contract it’s going to take a lot of shuffling to bring the playing squad up to a standard where we can expect to be back amongst the European contenders.
James Scott will return to Hull City in the summer and there are discussions to be had regarding Rocky Bushiri and Sylvester Jasper, who are both on loan with options to buy. Rocky and Jasper are young players who have shown glimmers of what they might bring to the table in the longer term but they’ll need to be two parts of a bigger overhaul if we’re serious about our ambitions for the new season.
Lots has been made about the success of reducing the average age of the squad since Ron Gordon took over as majority shareholder but there needs to be a real focus on ensuring the quality of the playing squad is improved before the start of the new season.
With Paul Hanlon and Ryan Porteous both missing for spells this year we have relied on Lewis Stevenson to lead the team on the pitch. While Lewis has been one of the few positives this season, we must find more natural leaders to guide our young squad forward if it’s going to achieve success.
Much of the focus is quite rightly on who we can attract to make us better this summer, but the club will also need to have an eye on potential departures with interest in Ryan Porteous and Josh Doig likely to resurface.
Porteous in particular has continued to show how important he is in the heart of the defence, both defensively with multiple stand out performances and in an attacking sense with his ability on the ball improving all the time.
With a season disrupted by suspensions and off-field incidents it wouldn’t come as too much of a surprise if he decides to move on. For all of our sakes hopefully he’s still in green and white come August.
The Manager
There have been some calls for the club to cut its losses and part ways with Shaun Maloney in recent days, calls which have intensified following the weekend’s cup defeat.
The reality is that barring a disaster in our remaining league games, Maloney will be in charge as we begin preparations for next season and there’s a huge summer ahead to get the fans back onside and looking forward to visiting Easter Road.
Maloney talks passionately about his ambitions for Hibernian and the entertaining football he wants to see from his side. There’s lots of discussion around the players he will need to recruit to make his vision a reality but the contractual landscape of the squad means there are only four players who will be natural candidates to move on this summer.
Warm words about performance, effort and determination only go so far when they come after yet another below par result and fans want to see actions instead of what-ifs in post-match interviews.
Whether the players fit into Maloney’s ideal style or not we have won one league game since the winter break and the failure to identify an effective system using the current squad in the last three months lies firmly at the manager’s door.
Off the Pitch
Away from the pitch there are a few huge months ahead for the club as season ticket renewals become the focus as we build for the new campaign.
With many supporters already staying away despite buying tickets for this year there’s a real job on the hands of those at the club to maximise season ticket sales which have a big impact on the club’s budget.
The feeling amongst the fanbase has been clear to see with recent attendances and the sections of empty seats at Hampden at the weekend were the starkest suggestion yet that we are at real risk of slipping back into a situation where only the hardcore support continue to attend week-in-week-out.
With an opportunity to expand the season ticket base after two years without regular visits to Easter Road it’s hugely disappointing that the season has been allowed to fizzle out and momentum drained.
There have been some significant changes to personnel at the club in the last 18 months, with the people in key roles very much identified by the ‘new regime’. The recruitment structure has changed and those in place will need to be accountable for their decisions when things don’t go to plan.
There’s a huge summer coming up for everyone involved at Hibernian.
Despite some good work from the non-football team at Easter Road to freeze prices and include some extra incentives, ultimately the product on the pitch is what drives season ticket numbers and a bottom six finish and no silverware just isn’t going to cut it for many fans who are on the fence.
As the cost-of-living crisis continues to take hold and with little to shout about on the pitch this season the reality is that ticket sales are likely to fall for 2022/23 as the club aims to grow them back to pre-Covid levels.
With lower season ticket numbers comes less urgency to buy early for walk-up fans as there’s little danger that anyone who wants a ticket for Easter Road will miss out on one while guaranteed income would be down as a result.
Behind the scenes there is work going on at Easter Road to upgrade hospitality facilities in the West Stand and there is still lots of untapped potential at the club’s East Mains training base but these things all come a distant second if the team isn’t performing on the pitch.
The ambition is to increase club revenues which will drive additional funds into the playing budget but these are mid to long-term goals which will be entirely overshadowed by a bottom six finish and two more disappointing trips to Hampden.
With Aberdeen no doubt desperate to bounce back after a poor season and Hearts looking forward to group stage football in Europe there is a risk that Hibs are left behind in the hunt for players from the same pool by two teams who already regularly outspend us.
Fans have stepped up in the last two years and have put their hands in their pockets time and again – it’s now time to see which direction the club’s management want to take us in as we approach a huge summer in Leith.
It’s a pivotal few months for Ron Gordon, Ben Kensell and Shaun Maloney and one which will give the fanbase a real indication of what they’re hoping to achieve at the club.
Hibernian FC needs its fans through thick and thin – if you can afford to stick with them next season, please do.
The East Stand 