Recruitment

[Slim Shady]

In charge of recruitment we have Ian Gordon.
What experience or credentials does he have for sourcing and signing players for our club?
Buying a club and putting your laddie in to oversee the most important part of the business is not acceptable. This isn’t a game!

Mathie - He is the man who has failed our season. We entered Europe without making proper signings to strengthen or provide back up to what we had. JR spoke publicly on this several times.
Look at the mess we are in now.

George Craig - Neil Lennon was not allowed to sign players he wanted. He was refused several players, some that have went on to bigger things in EPL and euro leagues. How do I know this - NL told me at a club event in front of others the players he wanted and had lined up.

Our recruitment policy doesn’t work.

The manager / coach of our club does not have carte blanche on recruitment. These are the players we are signing, see what you can do with them please.

I know for fact we have signed players under Mathie and Craig that they only saw on YouTube!

Before anyone that comes back stating Lennon, Ross or Maloney are 100% responsible for the signings. The information is there to prove they don’t. Google it.

[Stubbsy90+2]

In charge of recruitment we have Ian Gordon.
What experience or credentials does he have for sourcing and signing players for our club?
Buying a club and putting your laddie in to oversee the most important part of the business is not acceptable. This isn’t a game!

Mathie - He is the man who has failed our season. We entered Europe without making proper signings to strengthen or provide back up to what we had. JR spoke publicly on this several times.
Look at the mess we are in now.

George Craig - Neil Lennon was not allowed to sign players he wanted. He was refused several players, some that have went on to bigger things in EPL and euro leagues. How do I know this - NL told me at a club event in front of others the players he wanted and had lined up.

Our recruitment policy doesn’t work.

The manager / coach of our club does not have carte blanche on recruitment. These are the players we are signing, see what you can do with them please.

I know for fact we have signed players under Mathie and Craig that they only saw on YouTube!

Before anyone that comes back stating Lennon, Ross or Maloney are 100% responsible for the signings. The information is there to prove they don’t. Google it.

Who were the players we missed out on under NL out of interest?

Maybe they were out of our budget?

I agree about it not working. It’s supposed to bring continuity but it hasn’t come close to doing that since the end of Lennons tenure.

[OldEast]

We know Ron Gordon is a shrewd businessman and will squeeze every pound spent to get what he sees as value. There's been plenty talk of a low wage culture at Hibernian now.
With that in mind I'd like to suggest that the title "head of recruitment" which Ian Gordon holds is probably nothing at all to do with sourcing players but everything to do with the final shout on what our terms and conditions for player targets will be. I just hope we don't miss out on any key players because of the Gordon's business model.

[madhatter]

We know Ron Gordon is a shrewd businessman and will squeeze every pound spent to get what he sees as value. There's been plenty talk of a low wage culture at Hibernian now.
With that in mind I'd like to suggest that the title "head of recruitment" which Ian Gordon holds is probably nothing at all to do with sourcing players but everything to do with the final shout on what our terms and conditions for player targets will be. I just hope we don't miss out on any key players because of the Gordon's business model.

Low wage culture but players have signed contract extensions? We've signed a player from the MLS, got Murphy in for a season (wouldn't have been a low contract).

Ron Gordon wants to give young players a platform to perform and improve. Then to sell them at a profit to repeat and strengthen. Its the only way Hibs improve as a club unless we get an investment firm behind us, putting in tens of millions each year.

[Just_Jimmy]

In charge of recruitment we have Ian Gordon.
What experience or credentials does he have for sourcing and signing players for our club?
Buying a club and putting your laddie in to oversee the most important part of the business is not acceptable. This isn’t a game!

Mathie - He is the man who has failed our season. We entered Europe without making proper signings to strengthen or provide back up to what we had. JR spoke publicly on this several times.
Look at the mess we are in now.

George Craig - Neil Lennon was not allowed to sign players he wanted. He was refused several players, some that have went on to bigger things in EPL and euro leagues. How do I know this - NL told me at a club event in front of others the players he wanted and had lined up.

Our recruitment policy doesn’t work.

The manager / coach of our club does not have carte blanche on recruitment. These are the players we are signing, see what you can do with them please.

I know for fact we have signed players under Mathie and Craig that they only saw on YouTube!

Before anyone that comes back stating Lennon, Ross or Maloney are 100% responsible for the signings. The information is there to prove they don’t. Google it.Mathie paid with his job.

Craig and lennon were under the old regime.

There's very valid questions and criticism of Ron Gordon's hibs to be raised but he can't be blamed fir previous failings.

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

[PatHead]

Mathie paid with his job.

Craig and lennon were under the old regime.

There's very valid questions and criticism of Ron Gordon's hibs to be raised but he can't be blamed fir previous failings.

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

You could also add that both Lennon and Ross were very well supported and allowed to make many signings.
I doubt that any manager gets every target they have in mind.

[easty]

In charge of recruitment we have Ian Gordon.
What experience or credentials does he have for sourcing and signing players for our club?
Buying a club and putting your laddie in to oversee the most important part of the business is not acceptable. This isn’t a game!

Mathie - He is the man who has failed our season. We entered Europe without making proper signings to strengthen or provide back up to what we had. JR spoke publicly on this several times.
Look at the mess we are in now.

George Craig - Neil Lennon was not allowed to sign players he wanted. He was refused several players, some that have went on to bigger things in EPL and euro leagues. How do I know this - NL told me at a club event in front of others the players he wanted and had lined up.

Our recruitment policy doesn’t work.

The manager / coach of our club does not have carte blanche on recruitment. These are the players we are signing, see what you can do with them please.

I know for fact we have signed players under Mathie and Craig that they only saw on YouTube!

Before anyone that comes back stating Lennon, Ross or Maloney are 100% responsible for the signings. The information is there to prove they don’t. Google it.

Who did Lennon want to sign and have lined up?

[Dmas]

Low wage culture but players have signed contract extensions? We've signed a player from the MLS, got Murphy in for a season (wouldn't have been a low contract).

Ron Gordon wants to give young players a platform to perform and improve. Then to sell them at a profit to repeat and strengthen. Its the only way Hibs improve as a club unless we get an investment firm behind us, putting in tens of millions each year.

Exactly this. Another attempt at having a pop at the club it wasn’t long ago there where rumours of muellar being on 7-10k a week and him being the reason Boyle wanted away.

I don’t think penny pinching is something that can be laid at Ron Gordon’s door,we’re renewing contracts at times in previous year players would be leaving for free as they’d reached the peak of what we could offer, the stadium work the HTC upgrades the hospitality improvements, bringing in someone like Steve Kean to head up youth dept spending fee’s on players

[matty_f]

We know Ron Gordon is a shrewd businessman and will squeeze every pound spent to get what he sees as value. There's been plenty talk of a low wage culture at Hibernian now.
With that in mind I'd like to suggest that the title "head of recruitment" which Ian Gordon holds is probably nothing at all to do with sourcing players but everything to do with the final shout on what our terms and conditions for player targets will be. I just hope we don't miss out on any key players because of the Gordon's business model.

We did a special episode on the podcast on Sunday night discussing recruitment and Ian Gordon in particular, and on the back of that we’ve had a bit more information on how much involvement Ian has in identifying players, and it’s much more than coordinating people or having the final say - he’s very much involved in identifying potential signings, which is a concern.

[matty_f]

Exactly this. Another attempt at having a pop at the club it wasn’t long ago there where rumours of muellar being on 7-10k a week and him being the reason Boyle wanted away.

I don’t think penny pinching is something that can be laid at Ron Gordon’s door,we’re renewing contracts at times in previous year players would be leaving for free as they’d reached the peak of what we could offer, the stadium work the HTC upgrades the hospitality improvements, bringing in someone like Steve Kean to head up youth dept spending fee’s on players

He’s certainly not penny pinching on things, think he’s very much of the view that he needs to speculate to accumulate and he’s throwing some decent cash at it.

[Brightside]

In charge of recruitment we have Ian Gordon.
What experience or credentials does he have for sourcing and signing players for our club?
Buying a club and putting your laddie in to oversee the most important part of the business is not acceptable. This isn’t a game!

Mathie - He is the man who has failed our season. We entered Europe without making proper signings to strengthen or provide back up to what we had. JR spoke publicly on this several times.
Look at the mess we are in now.

George Craig - Neil Lennon was not allowed to sign players he wanted. He was refused several players, some that have went on to bigger things in EPL and euro leagues. How do I know this - NL told me at a club event in front of others the players he wanted and had lined up.

Our recruitment policy doesn’t work.

The manager / coach of our club does not have carte blanche on recruitment. These are the players we are signing, see what you can do with them please.

I know for fact we have signed players under Mathie and Craig that they only saw on YouTube!

Before anyone that comes back stating Lennon, Ross or Maloney are 100% responsible for the signings. The information is there to prove they don’t. Google it.

Neil Lennon should never ever be allowed to just sign who he likes. No manager should have that power. The problem now is we don’t have a sporting director. I’m totally against Ron’s boy having that job as again he has no experience and more importantly no experience in Scottish football.

[B.H.F.C]

There will hardly be a Manager or Head Coach in the professional game who has complete control over transfers these days so that side of things doesn’t concern me.

There will always be a mix between the club identifying players and the manager doing the same. Taking Lennon as an example, it wasn’t the club that identified the likes of Ambrose, Holt, Marciano or Commons for him.

Whether the folk in the recruitment roles at the club are adequately qualified and any good at their job is a different question and is a concern.

[Brightside]

There will hardly be a Manager or Head Coach in the professional game who has complete control over transfers these days so that side of things doesn’t concern me.

There will always be a mix between the club identifying players and the manager doing the same. Taking Lennon as an example, it wasn’t the club that identified the likes of Ambrose, Holt, Marciano or Commons for him.

Whether the folk in the recruitment roles at the club are adequately qualified and any good at their job is a different question and is a concern.

Correct. Lennon would have had the team full of his pals given half the chance.

[Heisenberg]

We did a special episode on the podcast on Sunday night discussing recruitment and Ian Gordon in particular, and on the back of that we’ve had a bit more information on how much involvement Ian has in identifying players, and it’s much more than coordinating people or having the final say - he’s very much involved in identifying potential signings, which is a concern.

That is a concern. He’s got no experience and pretty much no right to hold that kind of position at a club this size. Shame the AGM is past now, Ron absolutely should’ve had some heat for this decision.

[Pretty Boy]

I posted on another thread that the high point in our recruitment in recent years was under Stubss, Mathie and Craig. It was the one time we stuck fairly rigidly to the system that was put in place and several managers benefited from a number of the players signed in that period. For reference in 14/15 we signed:

David Gray
Farid El Alagui
Scott Allan
Liam Fontaine
Dominique Malonga
Frack Dja Djedje
Tomas Cerny
Fraser Fyvie
Aaaron Scott

and on loan:

Mark Oxley
Matty Kennedy
Dylan McGeouch
Jake Sinclair
Martin Boyle
Keith Watson

Then in 15/16 we signed:

James Keatings
Dan Carmichael
Martin Boyle (loan made permanent)
Mark Oxley (loan made permanent)
Antonio Reguero
Marvin Bartley
John McGinn
Dylan McGeouch (loan made permanent)
Darren McGregor
Jamie Insall
Adam Eckersely
Chris Dagnall
Kevin Thomson
Otso Virtnanen
Conrad Logan

and loans:

Liam Henderson
Islam Feruz
Hneri Anier
Nikklas Gunnarson
Anthony Stokes

I've highlighted in bold the ones I think could be described as a success. I accept the likes of Logan and Stokes are more remembered for a single game. I'd balance that by saying the likes of Reguero and Cerny weren't bad signings, they were brought in as back up keepers and served that purpose. However imo that is a fantastic strike rate of getting it right. Some made us money and some contributed for several seasons.

In the years since there has been a steady decline imo:

16/17:

Grant Holt
Ross Laidlaw
Brian Graham
Neil Eardley
Chris Humphrey
Brian McLean

Loans:

Ofir Marciano
Andrew Shinnie
Kris Commons
Efe Ambrose

17/18:

Danny Swanson
Simon Murray
Efe Ambrose (loan made permanent)
Ofir Marciano (loan made permanent)
Steven Whittaker
Deivydas Matulevičius
Vykintas Slivka
Anthony Stokes
Cammy Bell

Loans:

Brandon Barker
Scott Bain
Jamie McLaren
Faycal Rherras
Florian Kamberi
Scott Allan

18/19:


Players in

Florian Kamberi (loan made permanent)
Stevie Mallan
Daryl Horgan
Mark Milligan
Miquel Nelom
Charalampos Mavrias
Gael Bigirimana
Jonathan Spector
Tommy Block

Loans:

Adam Bogdan
Jamie Maclaren
Thomas Agyepong
Emerson Hyndman
Ryan Gauld
Stéphane Oméonga
Marc McNulty
Darnell Johnson

19/20:

Scott Allan
Adam Jackson
Joe Newell
Christian Doidge
Tom James
Josh Vela
Melker Hallberg
Ádám Bogdán
Paul McGinn

Loans:

Chris Maxwell
Glenn Middleton
Jason Naismith
Stéphane Oméonga
Marc McNulty
Greg Docherty

20/21:

Kevin Nisbet
Drey Wright
Alex Gogic
Stephen McGinn
Kyle Magennis
Matt Macey
Jackson Irvine
Chris Cadden

Loans:

Jamie Murphy
Dillon Barnes

21/22:

Jamie Murphy (loan made permanent)
Daniel MacKay
Jake Doyle-Hayes
David Mitchell
Dylan Tait
Chris Mueller
Elias Melkersen
Demetri Mitchell
Runar Hauge
Emmanuel Johnson

Loans:

James Scott
Nathan Wood
Ewan Henderson
Harry Clarke
Rocky Bushiri
Sylvester Jasper

Obviously with the most recent signings there is a huge element of juries out with a lot of them but to me there is a clear decline in our hit rate over the years, I accept some of that is subjective and people may disagree on some of my assertions but it's something that has to be sorted. We have a finite amount of money to spend and almost every other plan the club has hinges on a winning team on the park. We simply need to get more of our transfers right than we have done in recent years.

[OldEast]

We did a special episode on the podcast on Sunday night discussing recruitment and Ian Gordon in particular, and on the back of that we’ve had a bit more information on how much involvement Ian has in identifying players, and it’s much more than coordinating people or having the final say - he’s very much involved in identifying potential signings, which is a concern.

Thank you Matty. That is a concern as you say. And far from having a pop at the club as some have suggested I was genuinely concerned he was put in that position to keep a lid on costs. I accept that may not be the case.

[CapitalGreen]

I posted on another thread that the high point in our recruitment in recent years was under Stubss, Mathie and Craig. It was the one time we stuck fairly rigidly to the system that was put in place and several managers benefited from a number of the players signed in that period. For reference in 14/15 we signed:

David Gray
Farid El Alagui
Scott Allan
Liam Fontaine
Dominique Malonga
Frack Dja Djedje
Tomas Cerny
Fraser Fyvie
Aaaron Scott

and on loan:

Mark Oxley
Matty Kennedy
Dylan McGeouch
Jake Sinclair
Martin Boyle
Keith Watson

Then in 15/16 we signed:

James Keatings
Dan Carmichael
Martin Boyle (loan made permanent)
Mark Oxley (loan made permanent)
Antonio Reguero
Marvin Bartley
John McGinn
Dylan McGeouch (loan made permanent)
Darren McGregor
Jamie Insall
Adam Eckersely
Chris Dagnall
Kevin Thomson
Otso Virtnanen
Conrad Logan

and loans:

Liam Henderson
Islam Feruz
Hneri Anier
Nikklas Gunnarson
Anthony Stokes

I've highlighted in bold the ones I think could be described as a success. I accept the likes of Logan and Stokes are more remembered for a single game. I'd balance that by saying the likes of Reguero and Cerny weren't bad signings, they were brought in as back up keepers and served that purpose. However imo that is a fantastic strike rate of getting it right. Some made us money and some contributed for several seasons.

In the years since there has been a steady decline imo:

16/17:

Grant Holt
Ross Laidlaw
Brian Graham
Neil Eardley
Chris Humphrey
Brian McLean

Loans:

Ofir Marciano
Andrew Shinnie
Kris Commons
Efe Ambrose

17/18:

Danny Swanson
Simon Murray
Efe Ambrose (loan made permanent)
Ofir Marciano (loan made permanent)
Steven Whittaker
Deivydas Matulevičius
Vykintas Slivka
Anthony Stokes
Cammy Bell

Loans:

Brandon Barker
Scott Bain
Jamie McLaren
Faycal Rherras
Florian Kamberi
Scott Allan

18/19:


Players in

Florian Kamberi (loan made permanent)
Stevie Mallan
Daryl Horgan
Mark Milligan
Miquel Nelom
Charalampos Mavrias
Gael Bigirimana
Jonathan Spector
Tommy Block

Loans:

Adam Bogdan
Jamie Maclaren
Thomas Agyepong
Emerson Hyndman
Ryan Gauld
Stéphane Oméonga
Marc McNulty
Darnell Johnson

19/20:

Scott Allan
Adam Jackson
Joe Newell
Christian Doidge
Tom James
Josh Vela
Melker Hallberg
Ádám Bogdán
Paul McGinn

Loans:

Chris Maxwell
Glenn Middleton
Jason Naismith
Stéphane Oméonga
Marc McNulty
Greg Docherty

20/21:

Kevin Nisbet
Drey Wright
Alex Gogic
Stephen McGinn
Kyle Magennis
Matt Macey
Jackson Irvine
Chris Cadden

Loans:

Jamie Murphy
Dillon Barnes

21/22:

Jamie Murphy (loan made permanent)
Daniel MacKay
Jake Doyle-Hayes
David Mitchell
Dylan Tait
Chris Mueller
Elias Melkersen
Demetri Mitchell
Runar Hauge
Emmanuel Johnson

Loans:

James Scott
Nathan Wood
Ewan Henderson
Harry Clarke
Rocky Bushiri
Sylvester Jasper

Obviously with the most recent signings there is a huge element of juries out with a lot of them but to me there is a clear decline in our hit rate over the years, I accept some of that is subjective and people may disagree on some of my assertions but it's something that has to be sorted. We have a finite amount of money to spend and almost every other plan the club has hinges on a winning team on the park. We simply need to get more of our transfers right than we have done in recent years.

Much of the last few years fails can be laid at our failure to invest in the summer of 2018 after our excellent end to the previous season under Lennon.

In Allan, McGeouch and McGinn we were losing our best midfield 3 for at least a decade and had zero in the way of succession plan in place. They weren’t surprise departures either. Allan was returning to Celtic, McGeouch wasn’t resigning and we knew all summer that we would be cashing in on McGinn.

That summer the likes of Lewis Ferguson was available for free, Glen Kamara could have been secured for low 6 figures but instead we brought in Mallan, Milligan (did you mean to highlight him as a success?) and Hyndman on loan.

Last summer we look to have repeated the same mistake again of not having any sort of plan in place to kick on from a season of relative success.

[MWHIBBIES]

We did a special episode on the podcast on Sunday night discussing recruitment and Ian Gordon in particular, and on the back of that we’ve had a bit more information on how much involvement Ian has in identifying players, and it’s much more than coordinating people or having the final say - he’s very much involved in identifying potential signings, which is a concern.

I always thought the idea of a head of recruitment not actually doing any recruitment work was ridiculous. Utterly laughable really. That logic was used to defend clear nepotism and someone dreadfully unqualified for the gig. Ron making his laddie head of recruitment was a huge red flag. Let's be honest, there is nothing to suggest RG has a clue how to run a successful football club.

[Spudster]

I don't want the managers in charge of signing players if we sack the manager every few months. Lennon had much more say in our signings than Stubbs did and we ended up signing guff like Nelom. He seemed to think we were celtic with money to splash on players we had no intention of playing.

[AugustaHibs]

I don't want the managers in charge of signing players if we sack the manager every few months. Lennon had much more say in our signings than Stubbs did and we ended up signing guff like Nelom. He seemed to think we were celtic with money to splash on players we had no intention of playing.

You’d rather Ian Gordon made that choice?

[SlickShoes]

I always thought the idea of a head of recruitment not actually doing any recruitment work was ridiculous. Utterly laughable really. That logic was used to defend clear nepotism and someone dreadfully unqualified for the gig. Ron making his laddie head of recruitment was a huge red flag. Let's be honest, there is nothing to suggest RG has a clue how to run a successful football club.

I don't think anyone knows how to run a football club until they try though, we just have to hope he is learning something and not going to keep making these mistakes in who he hires. The only way he comes out without losing millions is if we are a good team, so he has to get it right unless he wants to admit failure AND lose a big bunch of money.

[Unseen work]

Wonder what happens with recruitment now?

All the targets we had identified since January? The players we had already spoke to?

Now we need to wait until we have a new manager and see his thoughts on those players.

Can see us missing out on a lot of targets now.

[SlickShoes]

Wonder what happens with recruitment now?

All the targets we had identified since January? The players we had already spoke to?

Now we need to wait until we have a new manager and see his thoughts on those players.

Can see us missing out on a lot of targets now.

It's only mid April, if we had waited to get rid of Maloney at seasons end then it would be much worse.

You have to imagine whoever comes in will not officially start until the season is over, but other things can start rolling before that, unless we actually take over a month to appoint someone and it drags on for ages, which wouldn't surprise me because it's Hibs haha

[Stuart93]

The biggest problem with our recruitment is Ron’s appointed his son as head of it.

[dp00]

Very easy to blame mathie …. But he was doing a decent job before . Given Ron’s son replaced him it wouldnt be daft to think we are not being told everything about Mathies departure

There are reasons for jack Ross’s departure too and it’s not all down to the results.

We may start noticing when it’s too late tho

[Scotty Leither]

We did a special episode on the podcast on Sunday night discussing recruitment and Ian Gordon in particular, and on the back of that we’ve had a bit more information on how much involvement Ian has in identifying players, and it’s much more than coordinating people or having the final say - he’s very much involved in identifying potential signings, which is a concern.

I think the word "concern" underplays it, Mattie.

On a wider point, I wonder if when Gordon bought this club that anybody at ER primed him about the level of scrutiny the club gets just from within its own fan base, and indeed from the wider media.

I must say I find it incredible that his laddie was appointed to such a high-profile role; also that his role has been ill-defined up to now, and the subject of just how much reach and influence a 30-year old with no experience of Scottish football has at the club.

A bit of digging on social media reveals his initial role was as a "technical scout" (whatever the **** that is), and that he was instrumental in setting up the link with Charleston Battery.

Wind forward to Mathie's removal and the next thing is he's quietly appointed "Head of Recruitment", the first anybody finds out about it is when his name appears as HoR on the club website, then its taken down, then his name re-appears - so was his old man aware of the flak that would come from this appointment, and decided just to slip it under our noses in the hope nobody would notice?

It appears our absent owner either: 1) doesn't know his fanbase 2) doesn't care a fig what the fans think, and 3) really believes in keeping nepotism in the family.

[Spudster]

You’d rather Ian Gordon made that choice?

I’d rather we had someone in charge of recruitment who was here for the long term as well as able. Circumstance would suggest Ian Gordon is here for a while, no idea on his ability to spot a player or see the holes in the team (very obvious to most of us!).
Leaving recruitment to the manager alone is far too short term an outdated idea IMO.

[JammyDoidger]

I posted on another thread that the high point in our recruitment in recent years was under Stubss, Mathie and Craig. It was the one time we stuck fairly rigidly to the system that was put in place and several managers benefited from a number of the players signed in that period. For reference in 14/15 we signed:

David Gray
Farid El Alagui
Scott Allan
Liam Fontaine
Dominique Malonga
Frack Dja Djedje
Tomas Cerny
Fraser Fyvie
Aaaron Scott

and on loan:

Mark Oxley
Matty Kennedy
Dylan McGeouch
Jake Sinclair
Martin Boyle
Keith Watson

Then in 15/16 we signed:

James Keatings
Dan Carmichael
Martin Boyle (loan made permanent)
Mark Oxley (loan made permanent)
Antonio Reguero
Marvin Bartley
John McGinn
Dylan McGeouch (loan made permanent)
Darren McGregor
Jamie Insall
Adam Eckersely
Chris Dagnall
Kevin Thomson
Otso Virtnanen
Conrad Logan

and loans:

Liam Henderson
Islam Feruz
Hneri Anier
Nikklas Gunnarson
Anthony Stokes

I've highlighted in bold the ones I think could be described as a success. I accept the likes of Logan and Stokes are more remembered for a single game. I'd balance that by saying the likes of Reguero and Cerny weren't bad signings, they were brought in as back up keepers and served that purpose. However imo that is a fantastic strike rate of getting it right. Some made us money and some contributed for several seasons.

In the years since there has been a steady decline imo:

16/17:

Grant Holt
Ross Laidlaw
Brian Graham
Neil Eardley
Chris Humphrey
Brian McLean

Loans:

Ofir Marciano
Andrew Shinnie
Kris Commons
Efe Ambrose

17/18:

Danny Swanson
Simon Murray
Efe Ambrose (loan made permanent)
Ofir Marciano (loan made permanent)
Steven Whittaker
Deivydas Matulevičius
Vykintas Slivka
Anthony Stokes
Cammy Bell

Loans:

Brandon Barker
Scott Bain
Jamie McLaren
Faycal Rherras
Florian Kamberi
Scott Allan

18/19:


Players in

Florian Kamberi (loan made permanent)
Stevie Mallan
Daryl Horgan
Mark Milligan
Miquel Nelom
Charalampos Mavrias
Gael Bigirimana
Jonathan Spector
Tommy Block

Loans:

Adam Bogdan
Jamie Maclaren
Thomas Agyepong
Emerson Hyndman
Ryan Gauld
Stéphane Oméonga
Marc McNulty
Darnell Johnson

19/20:

Scott Allan
Adam Jackson
Joe Newell
Christian Doidge
Tom James
Josh Vela
Melker Hallberg
Ádám Bogdán
Paul McGinn

Loans:

Chris Maxwell
Glenn Middleton
Jason Naismith
Stéphane Oméonga
Marc McNulty
Greg Docherty

20/21:

Kevin Nisbet
Drey Wright
Alex Gogic
Stephen McGinn
Kyle Magennis
Matt Macey
Jackson Irvine
Chris Cadden

Loans:

Jamie Murphy
Dillon Barnes

21/22:

Jamie Murphy (loan made permanent)
Daniel MacKay
Jake Doyle-Hayes
David Mitchell
Dylan Tait
Chris Mueller
Elias Melkersen
Demetri Mitchell
Runar Hauge
Emmanuel Johnson

Loans:

James Scott
Nathan Wood
Ewan Henderson
Harry Clarke
Rocky Bushiri
Sylvester Jasper

Obviously with the most recent signings there is a huge element of juries out with a lot of them but to me there is a clear decline in our hit rate over the years, I accept some of that is subjective and people may disagree on some of my assertions but it's something that has to be sorted. We have a finite amount of money to spend and almost every other plan the club has hinges on a winning team on the park. We simply need to get more of our transfers right than we have done in recent years.

Looking at the majority of they signings are we really shopping in that much of a different market to dundee United and st mirren?

[DanishJohn]

"Mr Turnbull , Mr Hart wants to see you upstairs in his office"

" Fir Christ sake I'm busy"

" You better go up it sounds important"

Knock Knock!

" Come in Eddie and take a seat"

"Right Tam I'm pushed fir time, whits up?"

" Eddie I want to tell you my son Alan is going to start buying players for you, for your team like"

" Have you lost your ********G marbles ?!!!!"

" Tam go and take a F**ck wi that stupid nonsense !!!"

" What the ****** does he ken aboot ******ing fitba at ma level ? !!!

"Tam yer makin an erse o yersel and this fitba club, get tae Fu**!!"

SLAM!!



Makes you think doesn't it, about how absurd our current situation is ?

PS Alan is a great guy and a great Hibee.

[tamig]

"Mr Turnbull , Mr Hart wants to see you upstairs in his office"

" Fir Christ sake I'm busy"

" You better go up it sounds important"

Knock Knock!

" Come in Eddie and take a seat"

"Right Tam I'm pushed fir time, whits up?"

" Eddie I want to tell you my son Alan is going to start buying players for you, for your team like"

" Have you lost your ********G marbles ?!!!!"

" Tam go and take a F**ck wi that stupid nonsense !!!"

" What the ****** does he ken aboot ******ing fitba at ma level ? !!!

"Tam yer makin an erse o yersel and this fitba club, get tae Fu**!!"

SLAM!!



Makes you think doesn't it, about how absurd our current situation is ?

PS Alan is a great guy and a great Hibee.

I get the sentiment but things have moved on a bit over the past 50 years. You could substitute Alan Hart for a suitably qualified person and ET wouldn’t have been happy!

[Jones28]

I posted on another thread that the high point in our recruitment in recent years was under Stubss, Mathie and Craig. It was the one time we stuck fairly rigidly to the system that was put in place and several managers benefited from a number of the players signed in that period. For reference in 14/15 we signed:

David Gray
Farid El Alagui
Scott Allan
Liam Fontaine
Dominique Malonga
Frack Dja Djedje
Tomas Cerny
Fraser Fyvie
Aaaron Scott

and on loan:

Mark Oxley
Matty Kennedy
Dylan McGeouch
Jake Sinclair
Martin Boyle
Keith Watson

Then in 15/16 we signed:

James Keatings
Dan Carmichael
Martin Boyle (loan made permanent)
Mark Oxley (loan made permanent)
Antonio Reguero
Marvin Bartley
John McGinn
Dylan McGeouch (loan made permanent)
Darren McGregor
Jamie Insall
Adam Eckersely
Chris Dagnall
Kevin Thomson
Otso Virtnanen
Conrad Logan

and loans:

Liam Henderson
Islam Feruz
Hneri Anier
Nikklas Gunnarson
Anthony Stokes

I've highlighted in bold the ones I think could be described as a success. I accept the likes of Logan and Stokes are more remembered for a single game. I'd balance that by saying the likes of Reguero and Cerny weren't bad signings, they were brought in as back up keepers and served that purpose. However imo that is a fantastic strike rate of getting it right. Some made us money and some contributed for several seasons.

In the years since there has been a steady decline imo:

16/17:

Grant Holt
Ross Laidlaw
Brian Graham
Neil Eardley
Chris Humphrey
Brian McLean

Loans:

Ofir Marciano
Andrew Shinnie
Kris Commons
Efe Ambrose

17/18:

Danny Swanson
Simon Murray
Efe Ambrose (loan made permanent)
Ofir Marciano (loan made permanent)
Steven Whittaker
Deivydas Matulevičius
Vykintas Slivka
Anthony Stokes
Cammy Bell

Loans:

Brandon Barker
Scott Bain
Jamie McLaren
Faycal Rherras
Florian Kamberi
Scott Allan

18/19:


Players in

Florian Kamberi (loan made permanent)
Stevie Mallan
Daryl Horgan
Mark Milligan
Miquel Nelom
Charalampos Mavrias
Gael Bigirimana
Jonathan Spector
Tommy Block

Loans:

Adam Bogdan
Jamie Maclaren
Thomas Agyepong
Emerson Hyndman
Ryan Gauld
Stéphane Oméonga
Marc McNulty
Darnell Johnson

19/20:

Scott Allan
Adam Jackson
Joe Newell
Christian Doidge
Tom James
Josh Vela
Melker Hallberg
Ádám Bogdán
Paul McGinn

Loans:

Chris Maxwell
Glenn Middleton
Jason Naismith
Stéphane Oméonga
Marc McNulty
Greg Docherty

20/21:

Kevin Nisbet
Drey Wright
Alex Gogic
Stephen McGinn
Kyle Magennis
Matt Macey
Jackson Irvine
Chris Cadden

Loans:

Jamie Murphy
Dillon Barnes

21/22:

Jamie Murphy (loan made permanent)
Daniel MacKay
Jake Doyle-Hayes
David Mitchell
Dylan Tait
Chris Mueller
Elias Melkersen
Demetri Mitchell
Runar Hauge
Emmanuel Johnson

Loans:

James Scott
Nathan Wood
Ewan Henderson
Harry Clarke
Rocky Bushiri
Sylvester Jasper

Obviously with the most recent signings there is a huge element of juries out with a lot of them but to me there is a clear decline in our hit rate over the years, I accept some of that is subjective and people may disagree on some of my assertions but it's something that has to be sorted. We have a finite amount of money to spend and almost every other plan the club has hinges on a winning team on the park. We simply need to get more of our transfers right than we have done in recent years.

The highlighted ones are a damning indictment of the disastrous way our transfers have been handled the last few seasons.

Great effort PB

[DanishJohn]

I get the sentiment but things have moved on a bit over the past 50 years. You could substitute Alan Hart for a suitably qualified person and ET wouldn’t have been happy!

Nah you've lost me there.

You'll have to explain the change over the 50 years that makes a non qualified person suitable for a role that requires particular skills. In this scenario lets call it a knowledge of professional football.

[Alex Trager]

I posted on another thread that the high point in our recruitment in recent years was under Stubss, Mathie and Craig. It was the one time we stuck fairly rigidly to the system that was put in place and several managers benefited from a number of the players signed in that period. For reference in 14/15 we signed:

David Gray
Farid El Alagui
Scott Allan
Liam Fontaine
Dominique Malonga
Frack Dja Djedje
Tomas Cerny
Fraser Fyvie
Aaaron Scott

and on loan:

Mark Oxley
Matty Kennedy
Dylan McGeouch
Jake Sinclair
Martin Boyle
Keith Watson

Then in 15/16 we signed:

James Keatings
Dan Carmichael
Martin Boyle (loan made permanent)
Mark Oxley (loan made permanent)
Antonio Reguero
Marvin Bartley
John McGinn
Dylan McGeouch (loan made permanent)
Darren McGregor
Jamie Insall
Adam Eckersely
Chris Dagnall
Kevin Thomson
Otso Virtnanen
Conrad Logan

and loans:

Liam Henderson
Islam Feruz
Hneri Anier
Nikklas Gunnarson
Anthony Stokes

I've highlighted in bold the ones I think could be described as a success. I accept the likes of Logan and Stokes are more remembered for a single game. I'd balance that by saying the likes of Reguero and Cerny weren't bad signings, they were brought in as back up keepers and served that purpose. However imo that is a fantastic strike rate of getting it right. Some made us money and some contributed for several seasons.

In the years since there has been a steady decline imo:

16/17:

Grant Holt
Ross Laidlaw
Brian Graham
Neil Eardley
Chris Humphrey
Brian McLean

Loans:

Ofir Marciano
Andrew Shinnie
Kris Commons
Efe Ambrose

17/18:

Danny Swanson
Simon Murray
Efe Ambrose (loan made permanent)
Ofir Marciano (loan made permanent)
Steven Whittaker
Deivydas Matulevičius
Vykintas Slivka
Anthony Stokes
Cammy Bell

Loans:

Brandon Barker
Scott Bain
Jamie McLaren
Faycal Rherras
Florian Kamberi
Scott Allan

18/19:


Players in

Florian Kamberi (loan made permanent)
Stevie Mallan
Daryl Horgan
Mark Milligan
Miquel Nelom
Charalampos Mavrias
Gael Bigirimana
Jonathan Spector
Tommy Block

Loans:

Adam Bogdan
Jamie Maclaren
Thomas Agyepong
Emerson Hyndman
Ryan Gauld
Stéphane Oméonga
Marc McNulty
Darnell Johnson

19/20:

Scott Allan
Adam Jackson
Joe Newell
Christian Doidge
Tom James
Josh Vela
Melker Hallberg
Ádám Bogdán
Paul McGinn

Loans:

Chris Maxwell
Glenn Middleton
Jason Naismith
Stéphane Oméonga
Marc McNulty
Greg Docherty

20/21:

Kevin Nisbet
Drey Wright
Alex Gogic
Stephen McGinn
Kyle Magennis
Matt Macey
Jackson Irvine
Chris Cadden

Loans:

Jamie Murphy
Dillon Barnes

21/22:

Jamie Murphy (loan made permanent)
Daniel MacKay
Jake Doyle-Hayes
David Mitchell
Dylan Tait
Chris Mueller
Elias Melkersen
Demetri Mitchell
Runar Hauge
Emmanuel Johnson

Loans:

James Scott
Nathan Wood
Ewan Henderson
Harry Clarke
Rocky Bushiri
Sylvester Jasper

Obviously with the most recent signings there is a huge element of juries out with a lot of them but to me there is a clear decline in our hit rate over the years, I accept some of that is subjective and people may disagree on some of my assertions but it's something that has to be sorted. We have a finite amount of money to spend and almost every other plan the club has hinges on a winning team on the park. We simply need to get more of our transfers right than we have done in recent years.

I wonder then if it was when George Craig stepped down that things started to go wrong then?

Or when Lennon was brought in and the apparent structure allowed to be turned upside down?

It seems we were at our best at recruiting around the time of relegation and then the season after.

So what happened to the structure everyone is constantly talking about?

Was it as successful as people are saying?

Was it as prolonged as people are saying?

Or was it most successful for two seasons?

[3pm]

Started going south when someone thought Slivka was a decent replacement for McGinn and got worse from there!

[A Hi-Bee]

Quality players take real cash to bring in, cash that our manky lot over the city, now have much more of than us.
Bottom line is a good manager who is given a good amount to bring in good players, should result in a good team, I dont consider the current lot of players as very good, with some exceptions. We then start to build from this base, each year progressing a bit more than the year before, bringing in good players then after a couple of years selling on, rinse and repeat.
GGTTH