It's not all doom and gloom at Hibs!
No numbers yet on those coming and going this summer

IN ONE OF THE LONGEST PRESS CONFERENCES of his reign as Hibs manager, Bobby Williamson sat down to address the issue of openness, or as some people think - the lack of it, with regard to the current situation at the Easter Road club.  While in the past he may have been seen as obstructive in dealing with the press at times, Williamson seemed at ease with the constant questioning on the events of the last 72 hours as the traditional Friday pre-match conference stretched to over 4 times it's normal length.  Indeed, if it wasn't for the fact that no-one had any other questions for him at that time, it could very well have gone on longer!  Hibs.net always reports these conferences in full and today's will be no different.  To do this though, Bobby's words will come in three parts with the remaining details tomorrow morning.

The player that sparked the whole sequence of events off was club captain John O'Neil.  It was his statements to the press on Wednesday with regard to him not playing again for the club that kicked the Hibs PR machine into action.  While he won't be involved tomorrow, there was still the issue of some other players, most notably Nick Colgan and Grant Brebner, and whether Hibs fans would see them again.  "There'll be quite a few involved.  We're just addressing the situation and we're no different from any other clubs that are addressing their situations."  Making available players that are under contract is not something that is unique to Hibs though as Williamson was quick to point out!   "I see Hearts have put Scott Severin up for transfer if someone comes in.  He's got a year left on his contract so we're no different, we're not doing anything different from anyone else."

Why did it take a player to start the ball rolling though?  Many Hibs fans, myself included, were disappointed at picking up the paper on Wednesday morning, or turning on the radio to hear O'Neil's comments before anything official had come from the club, a release that would have been issued in a much less sensationalist way no doubt.  "We couldn't come out with anything until we'd spoken to the players involved and I didn't finish until Tuesday.  I blanked David's (Hardie) calls on Wednesday 'cos I wasn't any surer.  These things take time, especially when you're dealing with as many players. You can't just come out and release statement after statement."  But statement after statement is what's been coming out on the official website as Williamson and Managing Director Rod Petrie try to resolve the issue of budget cuts while keeping the players that the Hibs boss believes will help drive things forward next season.

"You go about your business in the proper manner.  You try and speak to the players before you speak to anybody else and John was one of the first.  But this isn't something new.  I'm surprised that people are surprised!"  Indeed, this isn't all new as the club's highest earning players were approached last summer with regards to taking longer contract in exchange for a cut in their wages.  Only two players are known to have taken this option though with one of these, Paul Fenwick, definitely missing out on the 'chop' this summer!  "This was addressed at the start of last year when Rod spoke to a few players about their contract situations and the money that they were on so I don't know why this has been a big shock or big surprise to people.  The problems' not going away, nothing's gotten any better financially so it still had to be addressed."

John O'Neil in one of his last appearances for Hibs (sns)

While some Hibs fans have been annoyed. rightly or wrongly, at the way this week seems to have been handled by the club, as many are as annoyed about what seems to have been the blatant lies emanating from Easter Road itself.  However, Williamson was keen to point out that a misunderstanding was the key to the whole thing while telling Hibs.net that the playing staff are always welcome to speak to the press.  "That's the player's prerogative.  I don't stop any players from speaking to the press, I've maybe been quite selective about who I've sent up occasionally but at this time of year players have got agendas.  But John had a point.  It was a misunderstanding and I thought he was injured. He hadn't trained Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday but trained Thursday and was seeing the physio after that.  I wasn't in on Friday so I assumed he wouldn't be fit for Saturday so that's why I said he had an injury.  But everybody knows now that's not the case."

Whether the financial situation come the summer would have been any better if Hibs had finished above Dundee three weeks ago, we'll never know but the Hibs boss was sure that he'd still be looking at trimming down his squad with a view to increasing the quality but not the quantity of those on the Easter Road books.  "I don't think that it would have mattered if we finished in the top half of the League, we would still have had this problem to address, and we're addressing it!"  Would he have taken the job if he knew the difficulties he was going to face in strengthening taking the club forward?  "I've been fully aware of what was happening from the moment I joined the club, that there was a problem and it had to be addressed and it will be.  But it's not just Hibs, it's every club in Scotland that have got to address their issues and their situations, and that's the challenge I came to and I've took on and I think the fans know that's the way it's got to be just now.  Sometimes you have to take a step back to go forward.  You try and do it as sweetly as possible by getting results.  But it is a thin line, I keep saying this, it is a thin line.  I mean we've conceded 16 goals from the 87th minute onwards but if we'd held on for another four or five minutes w would have finished up in the top half of the League comfortably, maybe even challenging, but that's not happened so we've got to look at the situation and make sure, try our best to try and get back up there and that's what we're doing."

A few players names have been banded about as leaving the club in a few weeks time whilst others have been rumoured as joining or discussing terms with Mr Petrie.  However Williamson still hasn't decided on exactly who will be leaving Hibs employ and who will be taking their places, if any as they leave the building for the last time.  "I've not actually stated how many players have been released yet, we've still got a month to work through so it's up to the guys who get an opportunity to impress to do that and stake a claim.  I've not got any number in mind to say who's going.  There's no pre-contracts signed so I can't tell you who's coming in because there's nothing there!  I think it's disrespectful to other clubs so I'm not going down that road at this moment in time, I'm not saying that I never will but at this moment in time I'm not doing it, but there's players out there that I'm sure would be delighted to join Hibs and we've got to make sure that we get players in that can come in and do the job."

With so many players still fighting for contracts and Bobby previously stating that any player wishing to play first team football would have to do so on merit, Hibs fans could be forgiven for thinking that they were going to see no 'new' faces over the remaining four games of this season.  Many fans though want to see some of the younger players get their chance over the next few weeks as these are the future of clubs in a financially tight climate.  However, far from it being a bleak front on that point, at a much younger level there is some hope for the future of the capital side although some strengthening of those squads will need to be done also!

"To be honest, we're down to the bare bones with the kids.  We've only got about fourteen under-18 players, maybe sixteen with the goalkeepers but we're short on numbers so we've been supplementing that squad with the promising sixteen year olds who over-excel at that level but quite a few have been injured and the season's taken it's toll on them so they might not be able to do themselves justice."  Last week saw Kevin Nicol make the bench at Tannadice whilst Alan Reid has irregularly popped onto the team sheet.  Tomorrow sees the introduction of another name.  "Young Scotty Brown's been one of the most promising and he'll be involved tomorrow.  So it's not all doom and gloom at Hibs, maybe we're not getting that message out clearly enough.  It's not my intention to keep everyone in the dark, it's just that I'm trying to do the business properly and that's the way it's always been."