Hibs transfer rumours

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Do you honestly believe that we will bring in (on top of the 3 already announced) an additional 6 players and then bring in more in Jan? Whether its needed or not is a different question but I would have expected Pat to have put a case to Rod to say that this size of overhaul is probably a 2 or 3 window job.

Truthfully, no.

What I'm saying is, this is what we need - talk of us leading the challenge to Celtic next season (McPake in the Record) or making the top half of the SPL are woefully premature IMO.

We've signed a couple of reasonable defenders and a midfield player from SFL One - provided Pat has done his homework, good.

Pat is talking about other signings - good.

But right now he's operating with a skeleton staff; at last count the squad was as follows:

Goalies - Mark Brown (who I understand hasn't yet agreed terms?) and Paul Grant (very inexperienced).

Defenders - Tim Clancy, James McPake, Paul Hanlon, Pa Kujabi, Sean O'Hanlon (who has been told he can look for another club), Scott Smith (very inexperienced), David Stephens, and Callum Booth (who's hardly played since the early part of last season).

Midfielders - David Wotherspoon, Jorge Claros, Danny Galbraith, Lewis Stevenson, Ivan Sproule, Isaiah Osbourne, Sam Stanton, and now Paul Cairney. Of those the only 2 I'd say were reasonably consistent last season were Osbourne and Stevenson; Claros and Wotherspoon didn't impress, Galbraith hardly played, Ivan was mainly used as a sub, and not terribly successfully IIRC, Sam Stanton's brand-new and very inexperienced, and Paul Cairney, who is to most of us an unknown quantity.

Strikers - Eoin Doyle, Ross Caldwell, and (looking less and less likely by the minute) possibly the all-singing, all-dancing, star of stage and screen, Garry O'Connor.

Even with the three new guys, that's a bottom-six squad and if we're unlucky with injuries, we're in deep, deep doo-doo.


Using only signed players, I think we're looking at a team like this - Grant; Clancy, McPake, Hanlon, Kujabi; Wotherspoon, Cairney, Osbourne, Stevenson; Doyle and Caldwell. Reserves are wafer-thin.

This isn't about whether we can afford to sign players - we can't afford not to. And since we're in this position thanks to the leadership of the White Knight and the Great Helmsman Rod, it's they who need to sort this out - or at least give Pat F the resources to sort it out.

If they DON'T sort it out, we're in real trouble.