Originally Posted by
matty_f
I was all in on Monty when he was quoted for the job. I remember watching the YouTube video of the playoff final and overlooking the fact that his team talk with the players was *really* uninspiring in favour of going with the performance and result his side put in, which were really inspiring.
The talk of the photo on the wall that the players wanted to get their photo onto as winners and the reputation he had for having a team play above its level had me completely sold on him.
I thought it was great that he said he'd play young players and followed that up by playing Whittaker - especially since Johnson before him had explained away a poor January transfer window by saying he needed space in the squad to play young players that he proceeded to ignore for the rest of his time.
His interviews were a concern from early on, he was very uninspiring - genuine, yes, but did I ever get the feeling that he'd have the players running through walls for him like Lennon, Stubbs, or Ross did? No. Far from it.
But interviews weren't important if he delivered on the pitch. We DID have some good performances under Monty but you could count them on one hand.
Far more often we watched teams let us have the ball until we made a mistake, then they'd punish us. Occasionally we'd get it right and it would look great - Tavares at Dundee, for example, or the win at St Johnstone.
But we suffered from having a coach who put his own ego and philosophy before the good of the team, and he rightly paid the price for it.
The style of play he was trying was awful. Dull, boring and, crucially, completely ineffective. Neither the fans nor the players enjoyed it, in fact the only folk who did enjoy it were our opponents.
To bring in the talent in January that he did, at a time where we still had a realistic shot at fourth place, and finish eighth, was piss poor and absolutely sackable.
Every manager has ups and downs with things they can't control, but persistent with Whittaker, for example, did nobody any favours other than our opponents. Insisting on the passing patterns when opponents had us sussed our did nobody any favours.
He seems like a great guy, and I'm sure he did his best at Hibs, I've nothing to criticise for effort or how he conducted himself but he was an awful head coach, we didn't see any players improve under him as we have with Gray, and we're far better without him.