If Stevie Clarke had taken the Hibs job when we hired Colin Calderwood

[Northernhibee]

One of those sliding doors moments, and one I commonly ponder on international weekends.

We were in the worst of the penny pinching days back then it seemed. I wonder what would have become of Hibs, Stevie Clarke and the Scotland team if he’d started off as a manager at us.

Would he have overseen a change in policy of investing in the playing team back then? Would ge have gone on to bigger things or would he have like almost every other manager back then ended up on the scrap heap, dropping down to the Scottish lower leagues to try and rebuild his career?

Would we have been relegated? Would things have gotten to the point where we hired Leeann Dempster and won the Scottish cup? Would we still be waiting?

Would the Scotland team be in with a shout for a second successive Euros appearance? Would Dykes, McTominay, Gunn, and others chosen Scotland as their international team?

I don’t think many managers could have succeeded at Hibs those days. We were a bit of a shambles.

Would be fascinating if you could simulate that with any accuracy to see how different things would be.

[ScottB]

‘Success’ with us is always going to be a fleeting thing, perhaps he would have came in, led us to a third place or even a cup, then he’d have been off and we’d have slumped back down again.

Would he have done better than Calderwood? I’d imagine that’s an absolute yes. Would he have turned Hibs around fully or just been a blip in the period of decline we were in at the time? Much harder to say…

[Northernhibee]

‘Success’ with us is always going to be a fleeting thing, perhaps he would have came in, led us to a third place or even a cup, then he’d have been off and we’d have slumped back down again.

Would he have done better than Calderwood? I’d imagine that’s an absolute yes. Would he have turned Hibs around fully or just been a blip in the period of decline we were in at the time? Much harder to say…
I do believe that relegation was necessary for us to carry out a hard reset of the club. The way we signed players and even recruited the manager changed with that out of necessity and I’m not sure the changes would have been as dramatic if we stayed up, Dempster or not.

[Edina Street]

One of those sliding doors moments, and one I commonly ponder on international weekends.

We were in the worst of the penny pinching days back then it seemed. I wonder what would have become of Hibs, Stevie Clarke and the Scotland team if he’d started off as a manager at us.

Would he have overseen a change in policy of investing in the playing team back then? Would ge have gone on to bigger things or would he have like almost every other manager back then ended up on the scrap heap, dropping down to the Scottish lower leagues to try and rebuild his career?

Would we have been relegated? Would things have gotten to the point where we hired Leeann Dempster and won the Scottish cup? Would we still be waiting?

Would the Scotland team be in with a shout for a second successive Euros appearance? Would Dykes, McTominay, Gunn, and others chosen Scotland as their international team?

I don’t think many managers could have succeeded at Hibs those days. We were a bit of a shambles.

Would be fascinating if you could simulate that with any accuracy to see how different things would be.

It is impossible to say really. I suspect that we would never have got relegated, and he would have probably done a much better job than both Colin Calderwood and Pat Fenlon. I doubt we would have suffered the 5-1 defeat to Hearts. The defeat might have been by a lower margin, and I doubt Malmo supporters would have been doing the conga. However, Steve Clarke would quite possibly have went on to become the Scotland manager without us winning the Scottish cup in 2016.

But that is all speculation.