Rod’s blueprint/ 5 year plan...

[Viva_Palmeiras]

As I recall around one of the darkest hours Rod talked of having a plan but didn’t share details...

Did I imagine that (even put it on my sig). Bit of a Belter if it was ...

[Hibbyradge]

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As I recall around one of the darkest hours Rod talked of having a plan but didn’t share details...

Did I imagine that (even put it on my sig). Bit of a Belter if it was ...

I think it was talked about on here. As in "Does he have one?".

Then folk started talking about Rod's 5 year plan, usually to criticise its failure and another Hibs.net FACT was born.

No doubt folk will "definitely remember" him talking about it at an AGM or something like that, but I never saw or heard anything like that apart from on here.

Certainly nothing from RP.

[danhibees1875]

The only thing I remember was Collins claiming to have one and saying if he was backed accordingly he could deliver the title in that time.. I think.

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

Patience is a virtue, just ask BH! :-)

[MWHIBBIES]

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The only thing I remember was Collins claiming to have one and saying if he was backed accordingly he could deliver the title in that time.. I think.

It might've worked if him signing players wasn't part of it.

[PatHead]

Rod did talk about a five year plan at early working together meeting. We never found out what it was.

[oldbutdim]

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The only thing I remember was Collins claiming to have one and saying if he was backed accordingly he could deliver the title in that time.. I think.

Judas made that claim.

I can't remember whether it was weeks or months after that he started meeting with Dick A to discuss succession planning at Der Hun.

Judas indeed.

[Danderhall Hibs]

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Rod did talk about a five year plan at early working together meeting. We never found out what it was.

It was the “Hibernian way” wasn’t it? A group of fans came up with it and presented it to the club. They’ve implemented it and it works.

That was a good few years ago - I’m sure that some of that group post on here (one definitely does).

[Caversham Green]

Rod did talk about a five year plan. With hindsight I would suggest it involved:

Restructuring the finances so that we have no external debt and now receive interest rather than paying it,
Appointing a highly regarded sporting director and recruitment team,
Issuing shares direct to fans with the prospect of majority fan ownership,
Creating a share ownership company for fans who couldn't buy direct,
Creating two seats on the board for fan-elected directors with the promise of a third when a specified shareholding level is reached,
And probably most important,
Appointing arguably the best CEO in the business to implement it all.

Have a look at the OP in the 'Hibernian 2016-18 and beyond' thread, consider where the club was at the start of this process and where it is now and decide for yourself whether it has been successful or not.

[The Modfather]

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Rod did talk about a five year plan. With hindsight I would suggest it involved:

Restructuring the finances so that we have no external debt and now receive interest rather than paying it,
Appointing a highly regarded sporting director and recruitment team,
Issuing shares direct to fans with the prospect of majority fan ownership,
Creating a share ownership company for fans who couldn't buy direct,
Creating two seats on the board for fan-elected directors with the promise of a third when a specified shareholding level is reached,
And probably most important,
Appointing arguably the best CEO in the business to implement it all.

Have a look at the OP in the 'Hibernian 2016-18 and beyond' thread, consider where the club was at the start of this process and where it is now and decide for yourself whether it has been successful or not.

What about any on field ambition in the 5 year plan? I’m sure Rod didn’t plan to appoint a succession of managers, each worse than their predecessor, culminating in a relegation that has been on the cards for a few years. I’d struggle to make a case for his 5 year plan being a success when it took someone else coming in to a club on it’s knees. With a fan base disconnected from the club, a scouting system that used Wikipedia and a rotten culture Petrie had to come out and admit needed addressed, before we could move forward again.

Petrie has of course done good things over his tenure, but the only real positive at the end of his fabled 5 year plan was, belatedly, admitting he wasn’t up to the job and bringing in Dempster who is a miracle worker.

[CRAZYHIBBY]

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It might've worked if him signing players wasn't part of it.

Thats unfair ...collins unearthed a few gems in torben joneliet, yves makalamby and allan obrien

[Dancehibs]

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Rod did talk about a five year plan. With hindsight I would suggest it involved:

Restructuring the finances so that we have no external debt and now receive interest rather than paying it,
Appointing a highly regarded sporting director and recruitment team,
Issuing shares direct to fans with the prospect of majority fan ownership,
Creating a share ownership company for fans who couldn't buy direct,
Creating two seats on the board for fan-elected directors with the promise of a third when a specified shareholding level is reached,
And probably most important,
Appointing arguably the best CEO in the business to implement it all.

Have a look at the OP in the 'Hibernian 2016-18 and beyond' thread, consider where the club was at the start of this process and where it is now and decide for yourself whether it has been successful or not.

We don’t have a sporting director. You forgot the previous 25 years

[IWasThere2016]

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I think it was talked about on here. As in "Does he have one?".

Then folk started talking about Rod's 5 year plan, usually to criticise its failure and another Hibs.net FACT was born.

No doubt folk will "definitely remember" him talking about it at an AGM or something like that, but I never saw or heard anything like that apart from on here.

Certainly nothing from RP.

Certainly wrong. He spoke about it.

[matty_f]

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It was the “Hibernian way” wasn’t it? A group of fans came up with it and presented it to the club. They’ve implemented it and it works.

That was a good few years ago - I’m sure that some of that group post on here (one definitely does).

IIRC, that superseded the five year plan.

[PatHead]

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IIRC, that superseded the five year plan.

Did you present that to the board Matty?

[matty_f]

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Did you present that to the board Matty?

Yeah, was just sharing the excellent work that the group put into it.

[Caversham Green]

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What about any on field ambition in the 5 year plan? I’m sure Rod didn’t plan to appoint a succession of managers, each worse than their predecessor, culminating in a relegation that has been on the cards for a few years. I’d struggle to make a case for his 5 year plan being a success when it took someone else coming in to a club on it’s knees. With a fan base disconnected from the club, a scouting system that used Wikipedia and a rotten culture Petrie had to come out and admit needed addressed, before we could move forward again.

Petrie has of course done good things over his tenure, but the only real positive at the end of his fabled 5 year plan was, belatedly, admitting he wasn’t up to the job and bringing in Dempster who is a miracle worker.

I'm in no doubt that the events I listed were elements of a plan. I don't know the time-scale, but since they occurred not long after Rod mentioned a five-year plan it doesn't seem unreasonable to me to assume this is what he was talking about. The plan was mentioned towards the end of the succession of managers you mention and its purpose was to a) improve the finances available to further the club's onfield ambitions and b) reconnect the fans with the club, both of which appear to have been achieved reasonably successfully. The appointment of Leann Dempster was an integral part of the plan. As an aside I suspect the earlier appointments of Scott Lindsay and Fife Hyland were an abortive attempt to implement a similar plan. Finally it wasn't "Rod's fabled plan" it was a plan formulated by the board and (almost certainly) the owner (and possibly the working together group - I don't know) which Rod happened to mention. Rod doesn't have the capacity to formulate and implement such a plan on his own.

These are my assumptions, no doubt you disagree but I don't really see much point in debating something that can never be proved so I'm out now.

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We don’t have a sporting director. You forgot the previous 25 years

No, I haven't forgotten the previous 25 years during which the club was transformed from a dead-in-the-water basket case with a virtually derelict stadium into a vibrant forward-looking club with the best football stadium in the city, it's just that Rod Petrie never mentioned a five year plan 25 years ago.

And I'm sure most people will know to whom I refer when I mention a sporting director, but for those who don't I meant George Craig our Head of Football Operations.

[The Modfather]

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I'm in no doubt that the events I listed were elements of a plan. I don't know the time-scale, but since they occurred not long after Rod mentioned a five-year plan it doesn't seem unreasonable to me to assume this is what he was talking about. The plan was mentioned towards the end of the succession of managers you mention and its purpose was to a) improve the finances available to further the club's onfield ambitions and b) reconnect the fans with the club, both of which appear to have been achieved reasonably successfully. The appointment of Leann Dempster was an integral part of the plan. As an aside I suspect the earlier appointments of Scott Lindsay and Fife Hyland were an abortive attempt to implement a similar plan. Finally it wasn't "Rod's fabled plan" it was a plan formulated by the board and (almost certainly) the owner (and possibly the working together group - I don't know) which Rod happened to mention. Rod doesn't have the capacity to formulate and implement such a plan on his own.

These are my assumptions, no doubt you disagree but I don't really see much point in debating something that can never be proved so I'm out now.



No, I haven't forgotten the previous 25 years during which the club was transformed from a dead-in-the-water basket case with a virtually derelict stadium into a vibrant forward-looking club with the best football stadium in the city, it's just that Rod Petrie never mentioned a five year plan 25 years ago.

And I'm sure most people will know to whom I refer when I mention a sporting director, but for those who don't I meant George Craig our Head of Football Operations.

It was a master stroke by Petrie in self preservation, throw out an unquantifiable soundbite of the 5 year plan. We will never know how successful it was or not. It just sticks in my craw when I see where we are now as a club and the 5 year plan potentially becoming entwined. Credit to Petrie for bringing in Dempster, but it was her who was the miracle worker to take a club Petrie ran into the ground to where we are now.

Anyway, as you said. We have differing opinions and the truth will probably be somewhere in the middle so not much to be gained by flogging the dead horse of this debate.

[Wakeyhibee]

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As I recall around one of the darkest hours Rod talked of having a plan but didn’t share details...

Did I imagine that (even put it on my sig). Bit of a Belter if it was ...

He nicked the idea off me when I e-mailed him to complain about selling Kenny Miller and general lack of ambition. I questioned if Hibs had a 5 or 10 year plan?

[matty_f]

Regarding the plan, Working Together had a group that out together a broad outline of where we thought the club could focus to get back where we should be, which was put into a proposal called 'Winning the Hibernian Way'.

This was presented to the board, and was well received at the time, though it wasn't for months afterwards that anything happened with it.

IIRC, integral to the proposal being brought to life was Leeann Dempster's recruitment to the club, I met with two of the board shortly before she started and they shared the plans with me at that point - as a courtesy really, to follow up on the presentation to the board.

Following that, I was grateful to get some time with Leeann to interview her for a blog I did, and prior to the interview starting, she showed me a large document which covered in great detail the plans and structure to bring success back to Hibs, and right at the heart of that was the proposal from the Working Together group.

Essentially, Dempster took that and bright it to life, building on it and improving it.

When we see things like better community engagement, more seats filled, better recruitment, players buying into the club and relating to the supporters in a way that I can't remember ever happening before - none of this is accidental - it has happened by design, and although we have been helped hugely by winning the Scottish Cup, we were already showing signs of getting back to where we should be before then.

There is no lack of ambition in the board, imho - from my perspective I think they are a bit ahead of where they thought we would be but we had a record points finish last season, our longest European run in ages, a Scottish Cup win, promotion, derby wins, wind against the Glasgow teams, semi finals and finals in that period.

Our team is littered with internationals, our youth dude win the double, and we have players representing their countries at most, if not all, age groups.

It might not be Rod's five year plan that was originally mentioned, but there certainly is a plan in place, and it has been (to this point, at least) successfully carried out.

[Hibbyradge]

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Regarding the plan, Working Together had a group that out together a broad outline of where we thought the club could focus to get back where we should be, which was put into a proposal called 'Winning the Hibernian Way'.

This was presented to the board, and was well received at the time, though it wasn't for months afterwards that anything happened with it.

IIRC, integral to the proposal being brought to life was Leeann Dempster's recruitment to the club, I met with two of the board shortly before she started and they shared the plans with me at that point - as a courtesy really, to follow up on the presentation to the board.

Following that, I was grateful to get some time with Leeann to interview her for a blog I did, and prior to the interview starting, she showed me a large document which covered in great detail the plans and structure to bring success back to Hibs, and right at the heart of that was the proposal from the Working Together group.

Essentially, Dempster took that and bright it to life, building on it and improving it.

When we see things like better community engagement, more seats filled, better recruitment, players buying into the club and relating to the supporters in a way that I can't remember ever happening before - none of this is accidental - it has happened by design, and although we have been helped hugely by winning the Scottish Cup, we were already showing signs of getting back to where we should be before then.

There is no lack of ambition in the board, imho - from my perspective I think they are a bit ahead of where they thought we would be but we had a record points finish last season, our longest European run in ages, a Scottish Cup win, promotion, derby wins, wind against the Glasgow teams, semi finals and finals in that period.

Our team is littered with internationals, our youth dude win the double, and we have players representing their countries at most, if not all, age groups.

It might not be Rod's five year plan that was originally mentioned, but there certainly is a plan in place, and it has been (to this point, at least) successfully carried out.

Nah. Rod got lucky when he appointment LeeAnn to take the flak away from him.

Wibble.

[Wilson]

Hasn't it been well reported that we looked at Southampton 's model and copied that?

Talks of Rod' s plan or this group's plan are fanciful. We looked at what was working elsewhere and followed suit.

[Hibbyradge]

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Hasn't it been well reported that we looked at Southampton 's model and copied that?

Talks of Rod' s plan or this group's plan are fanciful. We looked at what was working elsewhere and followed suit.

In your first sentence, you ask a question.

Presumably by the time you wrote your second, you'd received a definite answer.

I haven't seen it reported at all, never mind well reported, but maybe I don't have the same sources of information as you.

[The Modfather]

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Nah. Rod got lucky when he appointment LeeAnn to take the flak away from him.

Wibble.

Has anyone said he got lucky appointing Dempster? He did very well to appoint her, she has worked even bigger wonders turning around the shambles we were on and off the park when she came in.

[Hibbyradge]

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Has anyone said he got lucky appointing Dempster? He did very well to appoint her, she has worked even bigger wonders turnimg around the shambles we were on and off the park when she came in.

A few folk, with anti RP agendas, have suggested exactly that.

[Hibbyradge]

Regards Southampton, I was being too flippant. I think Hibs have visited St Mary's, or whatever it's called these days, to see what they're doing right, but this was long after what Matty described happened.

[The Modfather]

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A few folk, with anti-inflammatory RP agendas, have suggested exactly that.

Fair enough, haven’t seen those posts. I just assumed from your condescending post you were referring to posts on this thread and not some other thread.

[Hibbyradge]

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Fair enough, haven’t seen those posts. I just assumed from your condescending post you were referring to posts on this thread and not some other thread.

Condescending?

I thought it was sarcastic.

[Hibby Kay-Yay]

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Regarding the plan, Working Together had a group that out together a broad outline of where we thought the club could focus to get back where we should be, which was put into a proposal called 'Winning the Hibernian Way'.

This was presented to the board, and was well received at the time, though it wasn't for months afterwards that anything happened with it.

IIRC, integral to the proposal being brought to life was Leeann Dempster's recruitment to the club, I met with two of the board shortly before she started and they shared the plans with me at that point - as a courtesy really, to follow up on the presentation to the board.

Following that, I was grateful to get some time with Leeann to interview her for a blog I did, and prior to the interview starting, she showed me a large document which covered in great detail the plans and structure to bring success back to Hibs, and right at the heart of that was the proposal from the Working Together group.

Essentially, Dempster took that and bright it to life, building on it and improving it.

When we see things like better community engagement, more seats filled, better recruitment, players buying into the club and relating to the supporters in a way that I can't remember ever happening before - none of this is accidental - it has happened by design, and although we have been helped hugely by winning the Scottish Cup, we were already showing signs of getting back to where we should be before then.

There is no lack of ambition in the board, imho - from my perspective I think they are a bit ahead of where they thought we would be but we had a record points finish last season, our longest European run in ages, a Scottish Cup win, promotion, derby wins, wind against the Glasgow teams, semi finals and finals in that period.

Our team is littered with internationals, our youth dude win the double, and we have players representing their countries at most, if not all, age groups.

It might not be Rod's five year plan that was originally mentioned, but there certainly is a plan in place, and it has been (to this point, at least) successfully carried out.

I still have that presentation Matty. Remember going over it with you and a director at Costa at the Gyle 👍🏻

[The Modfather]

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Condescending?

I thought it was sarcastic.

That was my interpretation of “wibble”, but tone in writien form can be difficult to judge.