Hibs could be just like the French!
Hibs could be like the French national side claims former Gillingham star...

One player who has been playing for a new contract over recent weeks is former Gillingham left back Roland Edge.  Edge, who arrived last summer, has been one of those to suffer with injury problems over the last few months but is starting to find his way back to the sort of form he showed at the start of the season.  With him due to come out of contract in a few weeks and no sign of a new manager coming in yet, he could be forgiven for being down about it all but as he spoke to the assembled press corps yesterday lunchtime, his demeanour was completely different to this, laughing and joking about his own future.

"The weather can be better up here!  Nobody knows at the minute which is fair enough seeing as they haven't appointed anyone yet, and he might have his own ideas and people, myself included might not be included in his plans. You've just got to wait and see but there's at least six weeks off in the summer so anything can be done, but it would be nice to be told what they're thinking to be honest. That's all you can ask for!"  With Jim Clark suggesting that some players will be looking to perform better over the closing games as they try and line up new deals, Edge believes that most of the work will have been done on that front by now.  "Yeah I agree with Jim to a certain point there but if a club's going to judge you on the last four games and haven't seen you all season, I think to be honest people know. They'll watch you week in week out anyway so they'd know if they fancy you. The last four games, you got to just try and end on a winning streak so that whoever's here next season or whatever club you're at you'll go into it confidently."  Should Hibs not offer him a contract, the defender joked, "I'm a bricklayer by trade. I've seen construction work everywhere so it's happy days whatever happens!" (it should be pointed out that he ISN'T a bricklayer!)

Having spent his first season north of the border and given his experiences at Hibs, Edge was keen to point out that he's like to keep his association with the Capital going for a longer period.  "I'd like to stay here again. I'm not too sure on too many places up here to be honest. I've enjoyed my stay here. Everybody's been nice, it's been a bit a bit uneasy with the gaffer leaving and injuries really. To be honest, we've played a full season without a first eleven. To do what we did, the youngsters have come in and done brilliant but without actually playing our first eleven we've done OK!  It would be nice to have a season with the strongest time out there!"  One thing that he'd be keen to do though is get himself back into the sort of form he had shown after his arrival at Easter Road, something that he admitted himself.

Edge - looking to stay around next season  (sns)

"The fans definitely haven't seen the best of me. When I first came in I was happy with how I was playing, got a bad knock and was out for six weeks. When I came back, I got another knock in my comeback game which put me out for another six weeks. After that, I kept myself in good shape but it takes a while. You've got to get your sharpness back, you've got to get your fitness back so I've definitely got more to show if I stay here. I don't know really, it's just been a tough season for everything."  Getting his sharpness back is priority number one for Edge, something that has put his own ambitions on hold for the time being.  With so many aspects of Hibs life having to change over the course of this season, Edge was keen to praise his younger team-mates for the way that they'd gotten on with the job in hand.  "I wouldn't say that at all, because the young lads that have come in have been really impressive. All of them have done brilliantly, better than they could have hoped for if you know what I mean. But you can always take pluses from everything and that's it. From my perspective I wanted to come up here and do as well as we could in the league, the cup and to say that I've been in Scotland one year and been in a cup final, and we only just missed out on the top six, I think that's a successful season!"

It's a measure of the size of the club that Hibs fans won't see the last nine months as being successful, something that the former Gillingham defender  acknowledged.  "Yeah they don't see it as a great success but every fan wants their club to be a winner and this club's been used to it in the past which makes it worse. But at the moment, football's going through a bad patch, and everyone's had to let go of, I'm not being funny but a few years ago the youngsters would still be trying to get a spot in the under 21's to be honest and now they've been forced through so you're not going to get the silverware that you've hoped for."   While this season has been disappointing, Edge believes, as Jim Clark and Gerry McCabe did, that the basis is there now for the future of Hibs, with a rather surprising comparison being drawn as to the current situation at Easter Road.  "What's happened here in two years could make the club very very strong and the silverware could come then! It's a massive thing to say or compare to but the French national team had loads of youngsters for a while and won nothing and everyone was thinking 'what's going on here' then four years down the line they're winning World Cups and that's how it works - patience!"

Edge does have a lot of praise for his younger colleagues and was keen to point the spotlight in the direction of one who is perhaps less spoken of than some of the others.  "I rate them all really highly. To be honest, for a group, for there to be so many of them, most clubs have one or two are exceptional but Scotty Brown, Kevin Thomson and Derek Riordan - everyone will say that they're the main three that have come through and done it all but even the likes of Steven Whittaker, when you see him play more regularly you're going to think he's a very good player. And when he finds his own position, which to be fair to them they can all play everywhere which is good for them as well!"  While they may be good and attracting the attention of other clubs on both sides of the border, Edge firmly believes that they should remain where they are, for the time being at least.  "Although I think they're very very good players, they'd go down there and they'd be back to the reserves and possibly even back to the under 19's because they're that young. Once you've played for the first team and played in front of those crowds and really enjoyed that, it would be a massive step backwards even though their bank account would look a lot better! I think they've got nothing to lose to stay up here for a couple more years then they can go and give it a go and hopefully they'll succeed and I'll wish them all the best."

With speculation on who the next manager will be at Hibs, and when they'll be appointed, the left back had his own views on the current situation.  "I can't see anyone coming in before the end of the season. Can't see it happening." When asked why he felt that this was the case, he added, "I don't think there's any need to get someone in here just yet. We're coming back early for the Intertoto Cup so a couple of friendlies and any gaffer will know his team anyway!  If anyone was watching our games now, the first team, will think 'they're doing well and they're doing well', comes in an takes training for a month and think 'he done well but why didn't he play?' but that's the way football is. If he comes in here and sees the full team he might fancy other people and put them in anyway so I don't think there's any emphasis on getting someone in yet."  While a new boss will not have had the opportunity to meet the players yet, Edge is convinced that he's been watching Hibs, and not always from a distance!  "You can guarantee that whoever we're going to have is up there watching anyway or even knows a lot about the team so I don't think there's much point in getting someone in right away unlike the the way the national newspapers quoted me last week saying we desperately need to get someone in!"

Whether that is true or not, players like Edge will need to ensure that they give maximum effort over the coming few games if they want to have any hope of a new contract for next season and the European football that will kick it off.