Park handed the mission
impossible
...and he could be McLeish's
shopping list - STUART
CROWTHER
DONALD
PARK HAS THE IMPOSSIBLE task of
taking a Hibs side already devoid of confidence before the events of the
last 48 hours through to Glasgow tomorrow evening to face Rangers.
While his former boss will most likely be sitting in the Ibrox stand
rather than the opposite dug-out, it will be of little consolation to
Park, more used to taking charge of Hibs Under-21 side before a few
hundred fans than to Ibrox before 40,000+.
Park
was the 'last man standing' when McLeish and his assistant Andy Watson
walked out of the door for the last time this afternoon, both set to be
unveiled as the new front-line management team by Rangers this
evening. And while Park has the difficult task of leading Hibs
through the immediate aftermath of the departure of McLeish, it is quite
possible that he will himself join his former boss at Ibrox. While
McLeish will take time to settle into his new task, he is known to rate
Park very highly, having taken a great deal of care to convince the coach
to remain at Easter Road when an opportunity to become assistant manager
at Dunfermline was given to the former Hearts player and Meadowbank
Thistle manager. Park is in fact enjoying his second spell in charge
of the future stars at Easter Road, having carried out the task under Alex
Miller he was cast aside by Jim Duffy - only to be recalled by McLeish
when he arrived at Easter Road.
Donald Park - difficult task (hibs.net)
For
now Park has the task of trying to lift Hibs players who are as astonished
as the Hibs support have been at the turn of events. Just about
every player at Easter Road was brought to the club by McLeish, the most
recent only recruited on Friday when Ecuador international Eduardo Hurtado
joined the club. "He has
basically brought all of us to the club, apart from young lads like Ian
Murray and Tam McManus,"
goalkeeper Nick Colgan said today, adding: "I
am sure the fans would rather have seen Alex going down south to the
Premiership than to Rangers. The timing is not ideal either, we have
not had the season we had last year which made people sit up and take
notice of the manager's attributes."
Ian Murray was stunned at developments, the Under-21 international saying:
"I always knew that he would
leave, but I thought it might be three or four years down the line.
He has been good to me and obviously I don't want him to go.
"It
would be disappointing for me personally but he has to look after
himself. It's a real kick in the teeth for us when we are not
playing so well. Over the period the boss has been very good,
telling us to give it time, convinced that things would turn for us
again." The chances of
things turning for Hibs may not be as high now as they could have been, as
the club enter a period of the season that would have been difficult
enough with McLeish and Watson at the helm let alone without any manager
whatsoever. The Hibs Board will now set about the task of
identifying a replacement, but that is not a task that can be rushed and
the hope is that the players can react in a positive manner as often
happens when a club finds itself in such a position. It will be a
stern test for Park, and one that he would likely not have undertaken by
choice. The Hibernian support now, more than ever, have a job to do
as well. Having shown astonishing loyalty in recent years to
McLeish, they must turn that loyalty in the direction of every player in
green and white through these difficult times.
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