strangest season ever?

[SonOfDavidFrancey]

Opening weeks - 5 wins, 2 draws; every bit as good as Hearts in the opening weeks; looked half decent in Europe
Came unstuck after Porteous red card at Ibrox
Terrible league form, yet great LC results - DU, Rangers - could easily have won LC if Kyogo hadn’t played
Out with Ross (probably a mistake in retrospect) but 2 wins for Moloney to start
Boyle exit
Crap run after Xmas …. yet with just a couple of bits of luck (melkerswn’s miss etc) and we’d have been in top 6 and still in hunt for Europe
And the semi - that Craig Gordon save … who knows?

I mean on one level it’s been purgatory.
On the other, weirdly ‘so near’ as well as ‘so far’

[H18 SFR]

Fine margins...

[JamesHFC]

I find it difficult to blame anything other than recruitment tbh. Obviously very unlucky with injuries but in a season we qualified for Europe we sign Scott, Wood, Tait, MacKay and JDH in the summer?

Selling Boyle and letting Murphy go without some sort of goalscorer coming in was ridiculous, especially with Doidge struggling with injury and Nisbet out of form.

[Jones28]

I find it difficult to blame anything other than recruitment tbh. Obviously very unlucky with injuries but in a season we qualified for Europe we sign Scott, Wood, Tait, MacKay and JDH in the summer?

Selling Boyle and letting Murphy go without some sort of goalscorer coming in was ridiculous, especially with Doidge struggling with injury and Nisbet out of form.

Recruitment and injuries have both been awful.

Tait and McKay were bizarre signings - wtf was the point of them joining us if all that was going to happen is they get punted put on loan. McKay in particular started a couple pre season games, scores against Arsenal and then nothing?

[JamesHFC]

Recruitment and injuries have both been awful.

Tait and McKay were bizarre signings - wtf was the point of them joining us if all that was going to happen is they get punted put on loan. McKay in particular started a couple pre season games, scores against Arsenal and then nothing?

Fraser Murray is obviously better than him if you compare the both at Killie this season, worrying signing. Let’s hope we can get something from them next season, Tait suffered a nasty injury but was apparently a regular in the Killie team before that. Perhaps we can get something out of him.

[Northernhibee]

I switch between anger and apathy with it.

Anger about wasting time and money on shocking signings that don’t address the weaknesses and gaps in the team, appointing a manager who if you spoke to for longer than three minutes you’d realise was a self absorbed wet blanket and never a leader and blowing chance after chance of something to cling onto in the season.

[wookie70]

Fraser Murray is obviously better than him if you compare the both at Killie this season, worrying signing. Let’s hope we can get something from them next season, Tait suffered a nasty injury but was apparently a regular in the Killie team before that. Perhaps we can get something out of him. Fraser Murray looks as good as any of our recent attacking midfield signings imo and that is in an attacking sense. he looks a good deal better when his team don't have the ball than Jasper, Mueller and Henderson

[Jones28]

Fraser Murray is obviously better than him if you compare the both at Killie this season, worrying signing. Let’s hope we can get something from them next season, Tait suffered a nasty injury but was apparently a regular in the Killie team before that. Perhaps we can get something out of him.

I thought he was the best player on the park last week against Arbroath.

[offshorehibby]

Fraser Murray looks as good as any of our recent attacking midfield signings imo and that is in an attacking sense. he looks a good deal better when his team don't have the ball than Jasper, Mueller and Henderson

I liked FM, he has been getting regular game time at Killie since he moved probably why he has seemingly improved. Would he have got the same game time if he had stay.

Dylan Tait is anoying, was getting regular MOTM's while still at Raith.

[Since452]

Injury to Magennis was a huge turning point.

[JamesHFC]

Injury to Magennis was a huge turning point.

Selling Boyle was the biggest imo. Magennis was great but at least we were beating the likes of Rangers, Aberdeen and Dundee Utd when he was out before Boyle left.

[hibee1875]

Injury to Magennis was a huge turning point.

That was September. A club our size should have the ability to fix that void somehow over the next 7 months.

[AFKA5814_Hibs]

Crazy season indeed. We start off by only losing 1 out of our first 13 games by the end of September. We end by glad that Dundee and St Johnstone are crap so we don't get relegated. In between we have a pumping of the Huns at Hampden, two manager sackings and an inevitable derby defeat at Hampden, along with selling our best player. Welcome to being a Hibs fan.

[WestStandWillie]

We said it often enough that we relied too heavily on Boyle. Our chickens came home to roost this season.

Throw in injuries, managerial changes and poor recruitment in January and it’s been a complete ***** show.

Only highlight I can see from this season was the 3 great kits. Sad but that’s how it is

[The Wireless]

Recruitment and injuries have both been awful.

Tait and McKay were bizarre signings - wtf was the point of them joining us if all that was going to happen is they get punted put on loan. McKay in particular started a couple pre season games, scores against Arsenal and then nothing?
Tbf The boy McKay was injured and the lad Tait who looked a player in the pre season friendly never given a chance. We were looking ahead with both these signings however blew it all into touch with the Jack Ross departure

[Real Emerald]

Selling Boyle was the biggest imo. Magennis was great but at least we were beating the likes of Rangers, Aberdeen and Dundee Utd when he was out before Boyle left.

With the problems we were having up front, selling Boyle was absolutely ridiculous. Regardless of folk feeling he deserved a move his sale has left our club in a shocking position. We were in no way ready to sell Boyle in January and the decision to do so could have a huge long lasting financial impact for our future . If Boyle had still been here we would still be looking at a European place and perhaps a Scottish Cup final. Season tickets will also be down. He should have been made to stay until the end of the season until we were free from injuries and had time to bring in a replacement.

[cameronw-hfc]

Tbf The boy McKay was injured and the lad Tait who looked a player in the pre season friendly never given a chance. We were looking ahead with both these signings however blew it all into touch with the Jack Ross departure

We were told Tait was coming back to play games for the first team, not get loaned out again. Maloney clearly didn't fancy him

[Stuart93]

Opening weeks - 5 wins, 2 draws; every bit as good as Hearts in the opening weeks; looked half decent in Europe
Came unstuck after Porteous red card at Ibrox
Terrible league form, yet great LC results - DU, Rangers - could easily have won LC if Kyogo hadn’t played
Out with Ross (probably a mistake in retrospect) but 2 wins for Moloney to start
Boyle exit
Crap run after Xmas …. yet with just a couple of bits of luck (melkerswn’s miss etc) and we’d have been in top 6 and still in hunt for Europe
And the semi - that Craig Gordon save … who knows?

I mean on one level it’s been purgatory.
On the other, weirdly ‘so near’ as well as ‘so far’

It’s been absolute pish. Let’s not try sugar coat it as anything else. Very much looked like the pre relegation hibs again.

[MWHIBBIES]

We wrote the season off when we hired a rookie and sold Boyle. Absolutely dreadful decisions.

[Spike Mandela]

We played most of the season without Doidge, half the season without Boyle and a large chunk of the season with an off the boil Nisbet.

That’s a heck of a lot of goals and assists to lose out of any team.

I came away from the first game of the season after coming back twice at fir park to win 3-2 convinced we were in for a great season. Things were looking good, then dipped, then came Boyle’s hat trick v Rangers and a league cup final.

Nobody will convince me that sacking Ross wasn’t a giant mistake but hopefully the new owner has learnt from this. Maloney appointment was imaginative but coming in to a team with so many injuries and without it’s star player was a tough gig for the guy and I am a bit sorry for him he was dealt a bad hand and didn’t have the experience to steer us to top six and Europe.

All in all, it’s fair to say the season offered much but the ship crashed on the rocks a wee bit. Football wasn’t as good football as previous years but a mediocre season every now and again isn’t the end of the world. It wasn’t fireworks but wasn’t a disaster either.

I am still encouraged by Ron Gordon’s vision and I am hopeful that we are generally heading in the right direction.

[CL0762]

We never recovered from Porto’s red card at Ibrox.

I thought we started the season really well & felt we were so unlucky to get knocked out of Europe the way we did.

Porteous getting his red card & then Magennis getting his injury really knocked us way off course and put us into a hole we’ve never even looked like crawling out of except the Rangers game at hampden.

[LunasBoots]

We never recovered from Porto’s red card at Ibrox.

I thought we started the season really well & felt we were so unlucky to get knocked out of Europe the way we did.

Porteous getting his red card & then Magennis getting his injury really knocked us way off course and put us into a hole we’ve never even looked like crawling out of except the Rangers game at hampden.

This. Fell apart after that and JRs lack of backing for Porto. A club like us shouldn't have such a threadbare squad where we don't have a replacement for Boyle or MaGennis

[SonOfDavidFrancey]

It’s been absolute pish. Let’s not try sugar coat it as anything else. Very much looked like the pre relegation hibs again.

I wasn't saying it wasn't pish. Just that it has been weird as well. I've been watching this team a long time.

[danhibees1875]

We wrote the season off when we hired a rookie and sold Boyle. Absolutely dreadful decisions.

I don't think we had much option on the Boyle front. Sounds like the opportunity/money, for us and him, was too good for us to get in Boyle's way of the deal happening.

[500miles]

Fraser Murray looks as good as any of our recent attacking midfield signings imo and that is in an attacking sense. he looks a good deal better when his team don't have the ball than Jasper, Mueller and Henderson

I disagree with Henderson there, I really rate him and think he'll be key next season. I think Jasper could be a real threat as well.

Fraser was unfortunate at Hibs, he came into the team during the group stages of the league cup and was tearing it up. Then Lennon left him out of the league games - despite us crying out for a creative midfielder (Pre Scott Allan loan) and then he got a broken leg.

Came back, now with a lot of compition with money spent on his position and in his brief cameos made a couple of defensive errors. He did also make a wonderful assist against Aberdeen for a McNulty goal - an absolute piece of filth. His loan to Dunfermline started well, but faded - largely due to Liam Henderson taking his spot.

I believe we got rid too soon - or rather, we didn't give him the chance to make his mistakes. He's got a bit of athleticism about him that some of our other midfielders don't, as well as that creative edge. I'd have him over Mueller every day of the week.

[500miles]

Update - Fraser Murray won Killie's POTY.

[I'm Spartacus]

Opening weeks - 5 wins, 2 draws; every bit as good as Hearts in the opening weeks; looked half decent in Europe
Came unstuck after Porteous red card at Ibrox
Terrible league form, yet great LC results - DU, Rangers - could easily have won LC if Kyogo hadn’t played
Out with Ross (probably a mistake in retrospect) but 2 wins for Moloney to start
Boyle exit
Crap run after Xmas …. yet with just a couple of bits of luck (melkerswn’s miss etc) and we’d have been in top 6 and still in hunt for Europe
And the semi - that Craig Gordon save … who knows?

I mean on one level it’s been purgatory.
On the other, weirdly ‘so near’ as well as ‘so far’

9 games without our best player over a season, who is fit and sits in the stand, that helps nobody.

Losing Boyle with zero succession planning, helps nobody.

Signing players and benching them, helps nobody.

What a complete **** show of a season. Do you want the good news? IT CAN ONLY GET BETTER, RIGHT?!!

[Pagan Hibernia]

Very strange season. I think back to that league cup final with Celtic. On the one hand we really didn’t deserve to win it. Yet we could easily have done so (keep a bit of composure for a couple of minutes after the goal, nisbet putting that header against the post, penalty shout, Hanlon blazing over in front of goal). And then we’d be looking at one of our best seasons since the 1950s even though we’ve been almost unwatchable for most of it.

All in all, it’s been horrendous.

[Pagan Hibernia]

9 games without our best player over a season, who is fit and sits in the stand, that helps nobody.

Losing Boyle with zero succession planning, helps nobody.

Signing players and benching them, helps nobody.

What a complete **** show of a season. Do you want the good news? IT CAN ONLY GET BETTER, RIGHT?!!

good news is that it’s only another couple of weeks and this season can be banished to the garbage bin of history where it belongs and we can try and forget it ever happened for a couple of months

[Pagan Hibernia]

We played most of the season without Doidge, half the season without Boyle and a large chunk of the season with an off the boil Nisbet.

That’s a heck of a lot of goals and assists to lose out of any team.

I came away from the first game of the season after coming back twice at fir park to win 3-2 convinced we were in for a great season. Things were looking good, then dipped, then came Boyle’s hat trick v Rangers and a league cup final.

Nobody will convince me that sacking Ross wasn’t a giant mistake but hopefully the new owner has learnt from this. Maloney appointment was imaginative but coming in to a team with so many injuries and without it’s star player was a tough gig for the guy and I am a bit sorry for him he was dealt a bad hand and didn’t have the experience to steer us to top six and Europe.

All in all, it’s fair to say the season offered much but the ship crashed on the rocks a wee bit. Football wasn’t as good football as previous years but a mediocre season every now and again isn’t the end of the world. It wasn’t fireworks but wasn’t a disaster either.

I am still encouraged by Ron Gordon’s vision and I am hopeful that we are generally heading in the right direction.

it’s been a disaster league wise. To go from 3rd to this and completely write ourselves out of that European cash next season is appalling. Two league wins since Boxing Day. And not many more than that since September. Those are statistics to get angry about.

the cups could have redeemed it but it’s the usual hard luck Hibs stories there.

[I'm Spartacus]

good news is that it’s only another couple of weeks and this season can be banished to the garbage bin of history where it belongs and we can try and forget it ever happened for a couple of months

Something I never understand with clubs in general, a Manager gets stale, gets sacked, new guy comes in and then a load of players are signed, the new manager gets punted along with his 3-4 year contract.

Imagine we had said to Jack Ross "Ok, things aren't going great and we would like you to overhaul the playing squad". We would then be able to use the funds from not paying him off, the funds we gave to Shaun to spend and the funds we have paid Shaun off with.

Aberdeen could have done the same with Deek.

[Keith_M]

Last season the teams played games in empty stadiums. Now that's what you call a strange season.


The fact we had a decent 7-8 games then fell apart is nothing new. I've seen us do that before quite a few times.