Title challenge

[MWHIBBIES]

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For us to challenge in the league is improbable not impossible.

Why? Leicester City FC

Leicester cannot be used as an example in all these threads.

Going from 17th to 1st then back to being rubbish isn't a good example. Its more likely for it to come out that Leicester were on drugs than a repeat of that.

[mjhibby]

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Reckon that both Celtic & Sevco will run away with 1st & 2nd. Hibs, Hearts & Aberdeen will challenge for 3rd.

Not sure hertz will challenge for third. I'd wait till the first round of games is over before predicting that. They have Killie away next so that will maybe be a pointer to how they will do. I expect celtic still to win the league with sevco second, us not far behind them and hertz and the dons fighting it out for fourth with Killie roundabout their too. Dundee to get relegated btw. I'm sure if we get Allan in and mulumbu we should have a cracking season.

[CLASS OF 72 -73]

73-74 /74-75 when we were runners up was the best period watching Hibs apart from the famous five era. Old firm games aside and even then we were competitive every game we knew we could win and most of the time win handsomely.
We would not drop points at the likes of St Johnstone even away, so we are not remotely a contender. Teams were molded then so you had a chance not bought as they are now.

[Keith_M]

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73-74 /74-75 when we were runners up was the best period watching Hibs apart from the famous five era. Old firm games aside and even then we were competitive every game we knew we could win and most of the time win handsomely.
We would not drop points at the likes of St Johnstone even away, so we are not remotely a contender. Teams were molded then so you had a chance not bought as they are now.

1973-74

Ayr Utd 1-1 Hibs / Falkirk 0-0 Hibs / Abroath 3-2 Hibs / Hibs 2-2 Abroath, / Clyde 1-1 Hibs


1974-75

Hibs 1-2 Ayr Utd / Airdrie 0-0 Hibs / St Johnstone 2-2 Hibs / Morton 0-1 Hibs / Hibs 1-5 Dunfermline

[Lago]

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1973-74

Ayr Utd 1-1 Hibs / Falkirk 0-0 Hibs / Abroath 3-2 Hibs / Hibs 2-2 Abroath, / Clyde 1-1 Hibs


1974-75

Hibs 1-2 Ayr Utd / Airdrie 0-0 Hibs / St Johnstone 2-2 Hibs / Morton 0-1 Hibs / Hibs 1-5 Dunfermline

Funny the tricks your memory can play on you, I remember those years as Hibs being invincible.

[houstonhibbee]

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Funny the tricks your memory can play on you, I remember those years as Hibs being invincible.

Try summer 72 - Jan 73...............

[MWHIBBIES]

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1973-74

Ayr Utd 1-1 Hibs / Falkirk 0-0 Hibs / Abroath 3-2 Hibs / Hibs 2-2 Abroath, / Clyde 1-1 Hibs


1974-75

Hibs 1-2 Ayr Utd / Airdrie 0-0 Hibs / St Johnstone 2-2 Hibs / Morton 0-1 Hibs / Hibs 1-5 Dunfermline

[ekhibee]

I don't think we've got any chance of winning the league but not anything to do with finances. We've beaten Rangers consistently over the last few seasons and run Celtic close a few times as well. It's as a previous poster said, we drop silly points to poor or average teams. We did it more when we were in the Championship, dropping points to the likes of Falkirk and Dumbarton, nowadays we still can't seem to find a way of beating a poor St Johnstone side. It seems to be the Hibs way. We'll probably end up taking points off all the other top 6 teams, but win the league? No chance.

[Keith_M]

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It had to be said.

[Sir David Gray]

I think Celtic and Rangers will be comfortably 1st and 2nd in the league this season, unfortunately.

[shetlandhibee]

i personally think the rankers will run us close for 2nd spot followed by aberdeen then hearts or killie . celtic 7 to 12 points clear at the end out with celtic i think we should have as much optimism as any of the others in being best of the rest, to many people thinking rangers will cruise 2nd spot IMO GGTTH...

[SingaporeHibs]

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Leicester cannot be used as an example in all these threads.

Going from 17th to 1st then back to being rubbish isn't a good example. Its more likely for it to come out that Leicester were on drugs than a repeat of that.

I think your point highlights how good an example it really is.

[ian cruise]

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1973-74

Ayr Utd 1-1 Hibs / Falkirk 0-0 Hibs / Abroath 3-2 Hibs / Hibs 2-2 Abroath, / Clyde 1-1 Hibs


1974-75

Hibs 1-2 Ayr Utd / Airdrie 0-0 Hibs / St Johnstone 2-2 Hibs / Morton 0-1 Hibs / Hibs 1-5 Dunfermline

Ouch.

[Austinho]

You can’t challenge for the league by losing players like McGinn and McGeouch every time we have a good season. Doesn’t look like Hearts will keep hold of Lafferty, and Aberdeen have lost McLean, Hayes etc over the years. That’s what enables the Old Firm dominance.

Even if we got 2nd this year, we’d lose our best loan players to Championship sides or back to their parent club, and have to start the rebuild all over again. To cause an upset, you need to retain a quality core squad over a number of seasons, not sign a new group of players every summer and hope this year is your lucky break.

The only way to ever be a contender (besides a mysterious benefactor) would be to qualify for the Europa League continuously for a number of seasons. That would eventually put us on a bit more of a level playing field financially, and bridge the gap between us getting the same amount of gate money for 3 home matches that Rangers can get in just 1.

The reason Leicester were able to win the league was because the huge TV money payouts have meant any additional revenue from gates, shirts, sponsors etc. that the big clubs made over them was rendered peanuts in comparison.

[patlowe]

If you were to judge our chances on our form in the second half of last season (which is reasonable to an extent) then clearly we should be considered a serious challenger. However, sustaining that over a season would be so difficult and it's really hard to say how good Hibs, Aberdeen, Hearts and Rangers are at this stage due to the number of squad changes and additional factors such as Europe. This latter point could prove even more significant depending on the progress of the teams still left in European competition.

I'd be happy with top 5 but would not be surprised if better or worse, it's football.

[CLASS OF 72 -73]

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1973-74

Ayr Utd 1-1 Hibs / Falkirk 0-0 Hibs / Abroath 3-2 Hibs / Hibs 2-2 Abroath, / Clyde 1-1 Hibs


1974-75

Hibs 1-2 Ayr Utd / Airdrie 0-0 Hibs / St Johnstone 2-2 Hibs / Morton 0-1 Hibs / Hibs 1-5 Dunfermline

Fair but as lago highlighted we felt invincible

[ian cruise]

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You can’t challenge for the league by losing players like McGinn and McGeouch every time we have a good season. Doesn’t look like Hearts will keep hold of Lafferty, and Aberdeen have lost McLean, Hayes etc over the years. That’s what enables the Old Firm dominance.

Even if we got 2nd this year, we’d lose our best loan players to Championship sides or back to their parent club, and have to start the rebuild all over again. To cause an upset, you need to retain a quality core squad over a number of seasons, not sign a new group of players every summer and hope this year is your lucky break.

The only way to ever be a contender (besides a mysterious benefactor) would be to qualify for the Europa League continuously for a number of seasons. That would eventually put us on a bit more of a level playing field financially, and bridge the gap between us getting the same amount of gate money for 3 home matches that Rangers can get in just 1.

The reason Leicester were able to win the league was because the huge TV money payouts have meant any additional revenue from gates, shirts, sponsors etc. that the big clubs made over them was rendered peanuts in comparison.

I don't think we'd win the league but say we did, who have we on loan that creates a massive issue if we couldn't retain them, most of the squad are Hibs players with the new signings on 3 or 4 years contracts.

Loans
Bogdan - we've Marciano and Laidlaw
Jamie Mac - we'd still. Have Kamberi and Shaw would have another year experience. We also have a set price agreed to buy at end of loan, which if we won the league we'd pay so it would entirely be up to the player.
Emerson - only hear for 6 months so far, if he was playing so well that we were top of the league by the end of loan then he's not staying on. We're not short in midfield either.
Agyepong - the mystery man. Who knows? City aren't exactly strapped for cash and were happy for Roberts to keep being loaned to Celtic though so never say never.

Our signing strategy has been pretty good in regards to setting us up with a solid base to improve on over the next few years.

[Wakeyhibee]

Celtic still too strong over the coarse of a season. Sevco will be stronger with the signings they've made. Not much between Hibs/Hearts/Aberdeen in my view.

There maybe a surprise e.g Killie or the like mixing it up with those 3 too.

[WeeRussell]

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i personally think the rankers will run us close for 2nd spot followed by aberdeen then hearts or killie . celtic 7 to 12 points clear at the end out with celtic i think we should have as much optimism as any of the others in being best of the rest, to many people thinking rangers will cruise 2nd spot IMO GGTTH...

Agree. They might well improve enough to take 2nd place fairly comfortably. However there's still a chance Gerard completely bombs, is out before the season and they are all squabbling/walking away etc.

2 games into the season is far too early to say that lot will walk anything, given what they've been like the last few seasons. They've already spent a lot of money and put a lot of pressure on themselves... as usual.

[makaveli1875]

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Agree. They might well improve enough to take 2nd place fairly comfortably. However there's still a chance Gerard completely bombs, is out before the season and they are all squabbling/walking away etc.

2 games into the season is far too early to say that lot will walk anything, given what they've been like the last few seasons. They've already spent a lot of money and put a lot of pressure on themselves... as usual.

They've spent wisely and brought in quality defenders , they look alot better than Celtic at the moment . All they have to do is beat Celtic at darkheid and Gerard will be a hero

[wookie70]

The Rangers are unfortunately in with a shout of winning the league. They only finished 12 points behind Celtc last year and are significantly stronger this year. That is the difference in winning two derbies they lost. Celtc don't look as good and Brenda seems to be in the huff about signing ambitions. I think we and Aberdeen are weaker than last year so I doubt we will be winning the league and although Hearts appear stronger it may only be enough to get up to Hibs and Aberdeen's level. To me we are back to the Ugly sisters dominating which is always going to be the case with their budgets. Still lots to play for in the cups and we have already seem how a 4th place finish can lead to huge revenue and a great start to the season

[Hibby Kay-Yay]

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Leicester cannot be used as an example in all these threads.

Going from 17th to 1st then back to being rubbish isn't a good example. Its more likely for it to come out that Leicester were on drugs than a repeat of that.

The fact an unlikely team won the league against major teams with more money absolutely provides an example of things being improbable over impossible. If you’re looking for another example, Greece winning the Euro’s.

Unlikely things can happen in football. Nothing is impossible.

[WeeRussell]

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They've spent wisely and brought in quality defenders , they look alot better than Celtic at the moment . All they have to do is beat Celtic at darkheid and Gerard will be a hero

I've heard it before. Still to be convinced they will comfortably finish 2nd. Nothing is every plain sailing at Ibrox these days.

They won't get near Celtic.

[Paisley Hibby]

Best bet is that Celtic won't win the treble this year - because we'll win one of the cups....

[seanoheimhin]

Having lost McGeouch, McGinn and Allan, I’d be happy enough with fourth if we made into the group stages and had our little European adventure. Surely that’s what it’s all about for teams like us who are, as many have already said, never going to challenge for the title when we lose arguably our 3 best players in one window.

I’d love us to do a Leicester in my lifetime, but that involved them somehow keeping Vardy, Mahrez and ****e in their team without being poached. Maybe it’s the smaller size of Scottish football that makes it impossible for us to hold onto our stars like they did?

[Smartie]

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Having lost McGeouch, McGinn and Allan, I’d be happy enough with fourth if we made into the group stages and had our little European adventure. Surely that’s what it’s all about for teams like us who are, as many have already said, never going to challenge for the title when we lose arguably our 3 best players in one window.

I’d love us to do a Leicester in my lifetime, but that involved them somehow keeping Vardy, Mahrez and ****e in their team without being poached. Maybe it’s the smaller size of Scottish football that makes it impossible for us to hold onto our stars like they did?

They weren't really stars before Leicester won the league.

If we won the league, all of our players would be off immediately.

[Keith_M]

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Fair but as lago highlighted we felt invincible

I was only highlighting the fact that some poor results doesn't make for a bad team.

I was actually encouraging positivity

[CLASS OF 72 -73]

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I was only highlighting the fact that some poor results doesn't make for a bad team.

I was actually encouraging positivity

Aye right.

[superfurryhibby]

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1973-74

Ayr Utd 1-1 Hibs / Falkirk 0-0 Hibs / Abroath 3-2 Hibs / Hibs 2-2 Abroath, / Clyde 1-1 Hibs


1974-75

Hibs 1-2 Ayr Utd / Airdrie 0-0 Hibs / St Johnstone 2-2 Hibs / Morton 0-1 Hibs / Hibs 1-5 Dunfermline

In 72-73 I have the feeling we finished around 6points away from Celtic. Some of those games I remember. Could have sworn the Arbroath loss was in the cup at ER?

Just shows that even the best team wince the early 50’s managed some poor results against minnows, never mind our not common league demolitions v Celtic. There was also a certain 4-1 defeat to Hearts in September 1973, my first derby match. Another loss to a wee diddy team.

[Lago]

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Try summer 72 - Jan 73...............

Yip those were the days, but still no league title.