Official Site: JACK ROSS CONFIRMED AS HEAD COACH

***s.a.m*** · 18-11-2019 09:49 AM

Hibernian FC‏Verified account @HibernianFC 7m7 minutes ago More

| Jack's had his tour of HTC, which he's contractually obliged to call a 'state of the art facility' in his forthcoming Hibs TV interview.

He bumped into a few of our younger players in the gym, along with our MYSTERY TRIALIST GOALKEEPER.

***Groathillgrump*** · 18-11-2019 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by madhatter

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Do we think it will be a lunchtime interview?

The wait between the announcement and the unveiling is a bit strange. I know contractually he wont have started until today but I dont understand why they didn't wait until today to announce him. There will be a reason, I'm sure.

Sure I read a tweet yesterday from Sky Sports News that he would be formally introduced to the press around 2pm.

**Since452** · 18-11-2019 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by Carheenlea

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A copy and paste of Jack Ross speaking with The Times -

“I didn’t fail at Sunderland, says new Hibernian manager Jack Ross’’

Jack Ross was out shopping late one night, buying some milk near his home in Northumberland. There was one other person in the shop who walked over to him. “I’m sorry you lost your job,” the man said to Ross. “It’s OK, I’m all right,” he replied.
Ross went down another aisle. “He walked past me again and gave me a tap on the shoulder,” Ross says. “You know the way people do when they’re offering you sympathy. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!”

Ross, set to be unveiled as the new manager of Hibernian today, is laughing again.
That the 43-year-old was out of work for only 38 days after being dismissed by Sunderland, the Sky Bet League one club, says much. He is returning to Scotland with his reputation enhanced. Sunderland, a club that did not have enough players to make a full team when he arrived, did not win promotion but he stopped a rot, and in his words, turned ‘a huge club around and pointed it in the right direction’.

Last week Ross was back in Scotland to give a presentation to coaches, entitled: ‘Getting it right, getting it wrong and somewhere in between’.

“Where does Sunderland fit in?” he says. “The answer will always be in between. You can’t get it all right. That’s impossible, but I’d like to think I got more right than I got wrong. We lost ten out of 80 competitive games, we were at Wembley twice, we scored in 45 out of 46 league games and there was one defeat in 16 months at the Stadium of Light.
“We didn’t get promoted. I said that’s what I came to do. If you want to be as black and white as that, no I didn’t achieve what I went there to do, but given all the challenges, I can’t say I failed.”

Returning north from his family home in the north east of England to one of Scotland’s big four remains a long way from Ross’s first start coaching at Dumbarton eight years ago, on £100-a-week, where he would wait for the public pitches at Toryglen to clear so he could set up his cones and take his sessions at eight o’clock twice a week.

He rose quickly. Taking over and transforming Alloa Athletic, leaving the club second in Scottish League One and then moving to St Mirren, where the side won the Scottish Championship. He was PFA manager of the year in Scotland then and impressed Stewart Donald, the Sunderland owner, so much in interview that he drove personally to pick him up and persuade him not to join Ipswich Town, who were a league above at the time.

“No, I never regret taking the job,” Ross says. “It has made me a much better manager and a much better person. I’m proud of how I felt with things. It was tough, it has hurt me, but I have to deal with loads of things other managers will never have to deal with.”
Like watching only ten players walk out for his first day at training, some of them on more money than a League One club’s annual income. Like never having a budget. Like losing his top scorer Josh Maja to Bordeaux in January. Like being told to liaise with potential new owners this summer about who he wanted to sign, new owners who never even took over.
“I had a desire to put a more structured plan in place, more than just the budget,” he says. “The club has come out recently and said they will invest in recruitment, and I had all the conversations and we never managed to get there. For the club to move, it needs to do that.”

Sunderland were sixth, four points off second place in League One with a game in hand, when a planned meeting had its order of minutes changed dramatically on October 8. Instead of talking about the future, in his own office, with director Neil Fox, Ross was sacked.

“I didn’t see it coming,” he says. “It’s a brilliant football club to get the opportunity to manage, but it’s hard, a lot harder than what people know. Everyone says the same, not because they’re weak, it’s just really, really challenging. I think the resilience you build up in that period, and I did May to October, just being the manager, it encases you.
“I spoke to my wife Heather first. She’s very protective and her first reaction was one of anger and indignation. She thought it was unjust.”

Ross had to persuade his angry backroom staff to take the team’s EFL Trophy game with Grimsby Town. There were tears from his office staff, and he went, on invitation, for a meal with the club’s kitchen workers.
It was more pain to go with the 94th-minute play-off final defeat by Charlton Athletic back in May.
“I had to speak after that game and I had to do it in a relatively controlled manner, but if I were to have said what I felt inside, I would have cried,” Ross says. “This was the same. I was gutted at losing that job. I’d put so much work into the last 16-17 months. Under a lot of circumstances people didn’t see, I thought I did the job well.”

He rankles at the suggestion that his team would sit back and look for draws or a lack of a desire to kick on and win by greater margins.
“Nah, it’s complete fake news,” Ross says. “There was only one time I was happy with a point and that was Barnsley away. It was blowing a hurricane.
“We came back the most from losing positions. Half-time in the Checkatrade final [in March] I was talking about everything we did well, ‘keep doing it and we’ll score more goals’, so it is the complete polar opposite to what people have said. Portsmouth made a change and went direct and we couldn’t get out. It’s not a computer game. It’s played by human beings who get nervous and make mistakes.”

Now, it is a new challenge in Edinburgh, where both Hibs and Hearts wanted him. Hibs, who have given Ross a three-and-a-half year contract, have hired a relentless worker, there is no doubt of that.
“It’s not easy to win football matches and my record is about 50 per cent,” Ross says. “I’m a better manager now than when I joined Sunderland.”

But but but Hearts didn't want him at all they just had him in for a catch up...

**04Sauzee** · 18-11-2019 06:17 PM

Some Jambos smarting on Kickback 😂

stuart500 stuart500

Posted 17 minutes ago
The truth is when he realised we weren't going to offer him the job, he's been forced to settle for Hibs.

He's not even their preferred option either but hey ho lets just all sweep that under the carpet.

**WillowbraeHibby** · 18-11-2019 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by 04Sauzee

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Some Jambos smarting on Kickback 😂

stuart500 stuart500

Posted 17 minutes ago
The truth is when he realised we weren't going to offer him the job, he's been forced to settle for Hibs.

He's not even their preferred option either but hey ho lets just all sweep that under the carpet.

Always the way with them.. Maybe they are just not as big a deal, as they like to think they are.

**Since452** · 18-11-2019 06:31 PM

Originally Posted by 04Sauzee

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Some Jambos smarting on Kickback 😂

stuart500 stuart500

Posted 17 minutes ago
The truth is when he realised we weren't going to offer him the job, he's been forced to settle for Hibs.

He's not even their preferred option either but hey ho lets just all sweep that under the carpet.

Who was our preferred option? Amazing how the Jambos have inside info none of us Hibs fans know about.

***Vault Boy*** · 18-11-2019 06:47 PM

Potter has decided on leaving Black Cats to join Hibs according to a journo from 'derland.

**heretoday** · 18-11-2019 07:11 PM

He's such a solid citizen. I feel good about this appointment.

***matty_f*** · 18-11-2019 07:36 PM

Originally Posted by bingo70

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Why not?

It’s quite a common tactic for managers trying to see out games.

I think it was quite clear with Heckingbottoms sides we tried to see our games rather than get another goal.

Think the St Johnston game at home when we drew 2-2 was an example of that.

I'm sure Sunderland fans will also say it was really clear that Ross set out his team to hang on to the one goal lead. That's the point I'm making.

Just because it looked that way doesn't make it so.

**007** · 18-11-2019 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by 04Sauzee

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Some Jambos smarting on Kickback ��

stuart500 stuart500

Posted 17 minutes ago
The truth is when he realised we weren't going to offer him the job, he's been forced to settle for Hibs.

He's not even their preferred option either but hey ho lets just all sweep that under the carpet.

It's funny how they are counting us wanting to speak to John Kennedy as us offering him the job and being turned down (meaning JR is our 2nd choice) even though it has been reported that we didn't make a formal approach to speak to him.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/...-hibs-20878981

However, them going after Derek Adams and being turned down because of his non-legally binding verbal acceptance of the Morecambe job, somehow doesn't count as missing out on the 1st choice.

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.c...k-adams-919725

That's a heck of a slap in the face someone preferring to go to the team in 2nd bottom place in the English 4th tier when he could've easily backed out of it if he'd wanted to.

**0762** · 18-11-2019 11:17 PM

Welcome JR. Hope its a rip roaring success.
Hears to getting us playing football again and winning ways.

**Tambo** · 19-11-2019 04:55 AM

Do you think jack will get more out of mallan?

**Since452** · 19-11-2019 05:22 AM

Originally Posted by Tambo

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Do you think jack will get more out of mallan?

He was outstanding under Ross. Mallan will feel all his xmas's have come at once

**sean04** · 20-11-2019 10:53 AM

Sunderland fans realising they made a huge mistake wanting jack Ross gone. Pleasing

**Smartie** · 20-11-2019 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by Tambo

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Do you think jack will get more out of mallan?

This is a huge challenge for Ross.

He did get a lot out of Mallan, but in Allan's role and Allan is better at it.

Unfortunately Ross is going to have a learning curve when it comes to Mallan. We were unrecognisably better without him plodding about deep in midfield and if we (and Ross) go back to trying to fit him into the team then we're in deep trouble.

A new manager isn't going to be able to do anything about Mallan's shortcomings as a player other than to play him in the right position.

**The Leith Dutch** · 20-11-2019 01:35 PM

Originally Posted by Smartie

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This is a huge challenge for Ross.

He did get a lot out of Mallan, but in Allan's role and Allan is better at it.

Unfortunately Ross is going to have a learning curve when it comes to Mallan. We were unrecognisably better without him plodding about deep in midfield and if we (and Ross) go back to trying to fit him into the team then we're in deep trouble.

A new manager isn't going to be able to do anything about Mallan's shortcomings as a player other than to play him in the right position.

Great summary.

Mallan gets it tight but we were playing him in totally the wrong role.

Mallan is the best at the club for free kicks and shooting from distance.
His long range passing is strong and he's a fairly good set up man.

Played where Allan plays he'll come good for Hibs if his confidence isn't shattered.
100% on Allan being a comfortable first choice in that position but having him to substitute on for Allan is a great option (for Hibs at least) in that case.

**HUTCHYHIBBY** · 20-11-2019 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by The Leith Dutch

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Great summary.

Mallan gets it tight but we were playing him in totally the wrong role.

Mallan is the best at the club for free kicks and shooting from distance.
His long range passing is strong and he's a fairly good set up man.

Played where Allan plays he'll come good for Hibs if his confidence isn't shattered.
100% on Allan being a comfortable first choice in that position but having him to substitute on for Allan is a great option (for Hibs at least) in that case.

What is a set up man?