Back to business
Richard Pitts welcomes football back on the agenda!

The playing staff began pre-season training on Tuesday with a less eventful return to business than the final opponents of last season, Partick Thistle. Their 10 kilometre cross-country run descended into anarchy when a group players took a wrong turn, ran closer to the length of a marathon and had to be rescued by a Police search party! Even so, the picture adorning the back of the Edinburgh Evening News of Hibs in training was a little disturbing as it revealed a very depleted first team squad resuming training. Of those that were there, even more could soon be gone: Jarkko Wiss, Nick Colgan and Grant Brebner all deemed surplus to requirements and Ian Murray has been the subject of continued speculation, a Glasgow-based paper linking him to Manchester City, following on from previous rumours linking him to Tottenham, Leeds and Southampton. I note that Tam McManus was previously linked to Manchester City by another Glasgow Newspaper. Given the tendency of Glasgow Newspapers toward sloppy journalism concerning all things Hibernian, it is possible that they simply got the wrong Scotland Under-21 International that time. Even so, nothing is concrete yet, with Murray’s agent merely confirming that interest has come from a number of quarters.

There seems to be a sad sense of the inevitable regarding Ian Murray’s departure, with most Hibs fans aware of the financial realities facing the club in these testing times. My only concern for Ian is that he doesn’t go to Glasgow and sit on the bench for a couple of seasons before the inevitable move to a lower-league English team and relative obscurity. We have seen that stall the careers of too many promising youngsters in the Scottish game, Kenny Miller and Paul Ritchie being just two that spring to mind. I also hope that Hibs have the bottle not to jump at the first derisory offer and get a decent price for their player, rather than the £1 million being quoted in some of the papers. Even in today’s climate £1 million for an under-21 International captain who has a solid history of first-team football seems a little on the cheap side. Even so, it is sad that is has come to this: I have just finished watching the Pat Stanton tribute video, and it is amazing to think that such a talented player spent practically the whole of his career at Easter Road bar a couple of seasons toward the end of his career.

Ian Murray - more speculation (sns)

Changed days indeed, something brought into stark relief by Joe Baker revealing that he was transferred because the board refused to meet his ridiculous wage demand of £17 a week. Whilst Bosman gave too much power to the players, it did at least have the benefit of ensuring that some now get paid what they are worth to the club, as opposed to being poverty-stricken at the end of a career in which they entertained thousands on a weekly basis. To that end I will not begrudge Ian Murray his big money move when that sad day occurs. The contrasting stories of Murray and Stanton are what makes the Straiton saga so important: we are being asked to make decisions that will affect the very life and soul of our club over the next few months and it will involve sometimes gut-wrenching emotions. I am beginning to understand the true symbolism of the ancient Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times” as this one drags on. Meanwhile Ian Murray’s fellow midfielder John O’Neill has been linked with a marginally less glamorous move to Clyde, with their manager Alan Kernanghan confirming that O’Neill is a target for the club. I think Ian Murray will be the happier party concerning transfer speculation.

The transfer rumour-mill has started again with the return of Bobby Williamson, although Rod Petrie is now on holiday meaning that little is likely to be imminent for the time being. The strongest rumours surround out-of –contract reading defender John Mackie (26), with the player expected to sign in the next 48 hours. Mackie was fined earlier last season after admitting to racially abusing Sheffield United striker Carl Abasi, and has a reputation for being a little hot-headed, although he cannot be said to lack either ability or commitment. Crewe central defender and Nigerian International Efe Sodje (30) has confirmed interest from Hibs on the Crewe Website, but has stated that he intends to stay at Crewe and fight for his place despite only making 18 appearances last year. I hope he does come to us, as he is quite a character as well a talent, and would certainly make life interesting. As stated yesterday, out of contract Kilmarnock winger Andy McLaren has been offered training facilities, and Hibs are also assessing Rangers midfielder Paul McHale (21) on a month’s trial.

Given the fact that McLaren has an offer on the table from Kilmarnock and Williamson’s stated desire to have a winger on the books, this looks like a deal in the offing. Paul McHale spent last season on loan at St Mirren and has been frustrated by lack of opportunities at Rangers. This is becoming an increasing trend with the old firm, and some very talented youngsters leaving have left both teams in recent times. Given the debt situations of both, it seems worth questioning the wisdom of this approach, and I wonder if it could return to haunt them in a few years. As yet, there has been no news on any wing-backs or full-backs, giving no indication as to how Williamson expects the team to line up next season. I imagine this will be a priority area over the next few weeks. With Alen Orman our only recognised wing-back at present, fans will be hoping this to be the case sooner rather than later, no slight to Alen Orman intended!

It’s all quiet on the Preston front, with no further news on central defender Colin Murdock, and tickets for the pre-season friendly still to go on sale. I can’t see anything on the official website and an enquiry to the Hibs ticket office last week brought no joy: “We don’t know. Talk to Preston”. The resultant phone call to Preston resulted in the reply “We don’t deal with you, talk to Hibs”. Even in today’s climate it seems clubs regard supporters as an inconvenience, and I sincerely hope this isn’t a foretaste of how the ground move consultation is going to go. There’s nothing like keeping supporters informed and that was nothing like it. A little Preston prompting revealed that the plan is that tickets should go on sale during the first week in July, meaning that Hibs supporters travelling down will have to book train and coach tickets to get cheap deals and then hang on and hope they get a match ticket. With only one stand open for the game and only half the 6,000 ticket allocation open to Hibs fans, that may prove tricky. Preston North End ticket office is on 0870 442 1964 if you want to try and get any more out of them.