If we were bankrolled.

[Eyrie]

It would start out being wonderful as we buy better players and became consistent challengers who occasionally win a trophy. But after a few seasons we'd have built the squad to such a level that I'd have a reduced interest because it would all be so easy with each game being a likely win and each trophy being expected rather than dreamt about.

By contrast everything we achieve at the moment is hard earned, and so is much more appreciated because of the misery that we endure for years between each triumph. Think of the League Cup win in 1991, when we could have no longer existed, or the win in 2007 which was our first trophy in 16 years.

That said, and even allowing for the financial muscle of Septic and Huns RIP, Hibs have been perennial underachievers in Scottish football.

[Northernhibee]

That lot across the road tried and failed to buy the Champions League, SPL etc.


We may be in the same league but we will always, always have the moral high ground that we've always done things the right way. No thanks to the proposal.

[Pedantic_Hibee]

As long as we paid our bills as they fell due I would be fine. Something the Hearts fans should think about prior to gloating.

[mca]

Once all the English clubs are bought up by foreign millionaires and the Likes..


How Long before they realise that they can buy a Whole Football club in Scotland with (Maybe) a Possible route to European football for the same Price as a Mediocre EPL Ball boy..

[yekimevol]

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Unlikely I know but if a wealthy investor came in and financed us to such a level that we pissed the league and dominated Scottish football how would you feel?
Would you forget all about the money and rejoice in our success or would a bit of you feel it wasn't a real achievement just money talking.

It would be a moment of pure ecstasy to see us lift even the scottish cup after all the failures; however that would not be worth the worry of wondering when this "Money Man" came from and what would happen if he got bored, went bust or just lumped us with enough debt to kill us.

[Kato]

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It would be a moment of pure ecstasy to see us lift even the scottish cup after all the failures; however that would not be worth the worry of wondering when this "Money Man" came from and what would happen if he got bored, went bust or just lumped us with enough debt to kill us.

What if s/he was a local Hibby who was well known?

Some people seem to want to be scared of the bogey man so much, they invent one for themselves.

[Sir David Gray]

I'm sure I could learn to cope with us being the best team in the country and playing in the Champions League every year.

[wookie70]

Not for me. I despise the ability to buy almost anything in the world. Football is shocking now with big clubs being seeded so they always get an easy ride and getting a far bigger share of the pot. Money has pretty much destroyed football for me and my interest is almost entirely focussed on Hibs. I tend not to watch any football apart from Hibs games.

Perhaps the biggest fear would be that Hibs fans would change from being a supporters who follow their team and are proud to be part of a club to a group who follow success. Not right away but it would be inevitable.

[Kato]

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Not for me. I despise the ability to buy almost anything in the world. Football is shocking now with big clubs being seeded so they always get an easy ride and getting a far bigger share of the pot. Money has pretty much destroyed football for me and my interest is almost entirely focussed on Hibs. I tend not to watch any football apart from Hibs games.

Perhaps the biggest fear would be that Hibs fans would change from being a supporters who follow their team and are proud to be part of a club to a group who follow success. Not right away but it would be inevitable.

So let's just stay being ***** then.

If a modern day Harry Swan/Tom Hart came along I'd be strapping myself in and getting ready for the ride.

Behind the scenes football has always been a grubby business.

[wookie70]

I don't want to continue to be crap. I want us to build through youth and canny investments. Look at Bournemouth down south. You don't need money to punch above your weight. You need a plan and some talent.

[snooky]

I used to have a soft spot for Man City in days gone by.
Now I look on them with the same contempt I have for Chelsea and the other killers of football.
I guess that answers the OP's question for me.

[Scouse Hibee]

Some interesting responses to this question.

[TheFamous1875]

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I don't want to continue to be crap. I want us to build through youth and canny investments. Look at Bournemouth down south. You don't need money to punch above your weight. You need a plan and some talent.

Spot on. If we do everything right then we should always be in the top 3/have at least 1 trip to Hampden a year. That's not punching above our weight, that's what our 'ideal weight' should be.

Get the football sorted, the fans'll come back, there'll be more money to sustain the level/improve player recruitment, then winning cups is more likely, trips to Europe, and if we were utterly brilliant and did everything right, eventually challenge for the league and do very well (within reason) in Europe. That's the limit for us. Winning the league would be a miracle, but miraculously it could be a possible one. We've underachieved to such an extent that being ***** is our natural habitat, rather than the complete nadir that it should be.

[Sir David Gray]

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Spot on. If we do everything right then we should always be in the top 3/have at least 1 trip to Hampden a year. That's not punching above our weight, that's what our 'ideal weight' should be.

Get the football sorted, the fans'll come back, there'll be more money to sustain the level/improve player recruitment, then winning cups is more likely, trips to Europe, and if we were utterly brilliant and did everything right, eventually challenge for the league and do very well (within reason) in Europe. That's the limit for us. Winning the league would be a miracle, but miraculously it could be a possible one. We've underachieved to such an extent that being ***** is our natural habitat, rather than the complete nadir that it should be.

Without serious investment, we'll never win the Premieship title whilst Celtic are there.

Even Hearts couldn't win the title back in 2005/06 when they were spending money like it was going out of fashion.

[Slicer]

I'll never forget the joy, emotion and celebrations on the 18th March 2007.

I watched the corresponding fixture the season after it when Oldco were doing a lap of honour in front of their remaining 15,000 loyal supporters.

Even after 2013 SC final, after our lap of honour and Sparky's farewell, bumped into tic fans in Asda with their team still parading the trophy on the pitch.

Winning means more to us. I for one, would never get tired of it. Celebrating with close ones, remembering those who have passed on.

Hertz, United, Aberdeen, Motherwell should be our main rivals for league positioning and I'm sure we will be back up there soon. Bankrolling would mean we have bigger rivals, European nights, hopefully the old scalp, some great trips. How enjoyable was it going to watch Mowbray's team? Going to ER has turned into a habit in the past few years for a lot. Much rather go along watching some good football, a marquee singing, big crowds. If we were bankrolled, the Glasgow teams would still be up there, and beating them to any silverware would never be tainted.

I've lived through so much disappointment following Hibs, I wouldn't feel guilty of any success.

[greenlex]

Not for me. Eventually it has to go pop. The EPL will eventually end up in the grubber asthe multi millionaires move onto something else. Its not sustainable and will eventually end.then what?

[Steve20]

We don't win or challenge for enough trophies that we should. So I'd take the investment and enjoy it. Never mind this 'tainted' nonsense that people come out with.

[SonOfDavidFrancey]

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Probably happier than when they were in the second tier.

Well in a way, but fans are pretty quick to entirely alter their perceptions, and my Chelsea fan friends all wax nostalgic for the days of Mickey Droy and Kerry Dixon.

[Mikeystewart]

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If the person was a true Hibbys and earned the money in an honest ethical way then bring it on.

There is blood and immorality on every penny you own. We all make compromises. Even Ricky Hatton.


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[Keith_M]

St Johnstone won the Scottish Cup without a major investor and, presumably, a much smaller budget than Hibs.

I'd rather do it their way.

[Bill Milne]

As long as we made a point of paying our debts, unlike the manky mob across the city, I would be delighted to take advantage of real funding.

[Keith_M]

OK, I give in....

I won a bit of money on the German Lottery last week. Who's got STF's phone number?

[WeeRussell]

I guess it's a question of where do you draw the line? Many on here are quick to have a moan that STF doesn't put enough money into Hibs but wouldn't be happy with a major investment. Every football club needs money to run - and generally the richer clubs are more successful.

I wouldn't want the kamikaze Romanov-style attempt to buy success, definitely not. I am not sure I'm adverse to a rich individual throwing his wallet at our club though, provided (as people have said) the books were being balanced and the bills were being paid.

Just think - we could start a Griffiths thread as soon as the takeover was confirmed

[Sammy7nil]

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Im probably going against the majority but its not something that would really appeal to me. Sure I want to see us win things, but if we have just spent vastly more than other teams then whats the point? I like the ups and downs of being a Hibs fan, having the feeling that when we do achieve something its for the right reasons, and not because we have thrown a lot of cash at it.

Almost every major torphy win goes to the top 5 spending teams in their league with the odd expcetion. It is just the way of modern football.

[21.05.2016]

Hibs are the biggest underachievers in Scotland by a country mile. So many "nearlys" so many "we were so close" and so many "we were unluckys". We deserve to finally have our shot at glory, the fans deserve it more than anything. The **** and the utter humiliations we have been put through, we deserve to finally have something big to celebrate. If we bought the glory it would feel a bit hollow but I can't say I wouldn't love the success. As long as we were paying our bills and not robbing charities/businesses/the taxpayer etc etc. like the filth across the road. Hearts have cheated and swindled their success over the years yet it doesn't stop them lording it over us.

Our day will come and when it does we will be able to say it wa honestly earned which is more than what the **** can say.

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

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I don't want to continue to be crap. I want us to build through youth and canny investments. Look at Bournemouth down south. You don't need money to punch above your weight. You need a plan and some talent.

Maxim Demin (Russian businessman) now owns Bournemouth. I doubt they'd be top of The Championship without his considerable wealth. Oh aye and they've managed to go insolvent twice in the last twenty years too.

[21.05.2016]

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Not for me. Eventually it has to go pop. The EPL will eventually end up in the grubber asthe multi millionaires move onto something else. Its not sustainable and will eventually end.then what?

Although it's fantastic to have some big sugar-daddy bilionaire come along and plumit hundreds of millions into the club, it's a scary thought that at any moment they could get fed up and just pull the plug and walk away. Clubs are just like a play toy to these guys, it's not to make themselves more money (they don't need it!), it's simply an investment and something to do with the spare millions burning a hole in their pockets.

I would obviously love the money but I would want the money to be given to a board with fans who make the decisions about where it goes. I don't like the idea of just 1 person holding all the power. Look at the likes of Tanz and Romanov dictatorships who made all the decisions and everyone had to tow the line or it would be trouble. I don't want my club held to ransom like that

[SouthsideHarp_Bhoy]

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Some interesting responses to this question.

Because its a good question, that in my opinion gets to the very nitty gritty of supporting your team/club.

I'm guessing that as a Liverpool fan, this dilemma is a very relevant? I'm not a fan of any English club in particular, but I do think there is 'something' about Liverpool. Likewise, I hate the way Barca have sold some of their principles.

However I would previously have said that id want Hibs to be true to our values, history and to earn our success. I have to admit though recent years have changed my view. We have been punished more than most for doing things the 'right' way, and that lot of have been massively rewarded for cheating, lying etc

So I now take a very hard, realpolitik view of the situation. Football rewards profligate spending and cheating. Doing neither has seen us sink to the first division. Therefore i'm happy for us to 'bend the rules' too.

And I also think we should stop with all the other distractions, being a 'community club', women's teams, even youth teams (unless they are actively contributing to the first team). The whole club should be about putting a successful team on the park - that should be our only aim. Everything else must either contribute towards that directly, or be discarded.

[Sylar]

It would be a bit like playing FIFA, transferring Messi, Ronaldo, Iniesta, Bale, Ibrahimovic et al., to Hibs and then hosing all over the league...a totally hollow victory IMO.

[Alex Trager]

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It would be a bit like playing FIFA, transferring Messi, Ronaldo, Iniesta, Bale, Ibrahimovic et al., to Hibs and then hosing all over the league...a totally hollow victory IMO.

Haha I don't think it would be the same as that.
The money spent would be relevant to scottish football.
It would ale a big difference seeing aboard invest in decent players and not havin. To worry about next months mortgages.
We are virtually debt free but not totally. If a person came in, freed us of all our debt, cleared the mortgage payments on the ground, and bought players of a decent spl standard Id be delighted.

I would love to hose the SPL. Celtic and rangers managed (I use this tense for obvious death related reasons) to hose the league and celtic continue to do so. They done that through buying the better players in the Scottish leagues, and at one point the better players from around the world, and this they built up a fan base that's humungous and allows for their constant betterment over the rest of the countries teams.

If we were invested in properly and for a long long period of time, it would not only make me very happy ****ging all teams around the country for a change, it would also bring in investors to other clubs.
If we were invested in for forty years day, and we were regularly winning stuff maybe even winning things in Europe, I did say MAYBE, we would then be attractive to other investors.
We would have built up a bigger worldwide fan base, meaning that is a steady flow of income from many many avenues.

It all depends on whether it was done properly or not.
If it was done legit it would be brilliant.

City will be a massive club worldwide in ten years time.

Man Utd. They started somewhere. They got lucky and managed to get a worldwide brand going, which brings about success in itself. But they a started somewhere with some sort of investment.

Marry this concept to that posted a few days ago of summer football and you have a very attractive package for hibs and potential investors.