Since Alex McLeish resigned as manager of Hibs in 2001 to move to Rangers, the Edinburgh side have had 8 different managers, including three in the last three years. While they have enjoyed some success during that time, with Bobby Williamson leading them to a League Cup final in 2004, Tony Mowbray getting them to play exciting football and finishing 3rd in the SPL, and John Collins winning the League Cup in 2007, since the departure of John Hughes in 2010, the club have had more struggles than successes.
Hughes had managed Hibs to a 4th place SPL finish at the end of the 09/10 season, getting the club a place in the Europa League. But a poor start last season saw him sacked in early October. He was replaced by Colin Calderwood, who had previously guided Northampton Town and Nottingham Forest to promotions from League Two and League One respectively, and had been part of Chris Hughton’s coaching staff as Newcastle won promotion back into the Premier League after a single season in the Championship.
Calderwood did not enjoy a successful spell at Hibs, despite a stunning 3-0 win at Ibrox against Rangers, and winning the manager of the month award in February. The current season didn’t start well for Hibs, as they won just four of their seventeen games under Calderwood, and he was sacked after a home defeat against Dunfermline on November 5th. Hibs replaced Calderwood with Irishman Pat Fenlon, who left Bohemians to come to Scotland. Fenlon has won the League of Ireland 5 times with Shelbourne and Bohemians, but has not enjoyed a successful spell at Hibs so far, as they lost five of his first seven games in charge before back-to-back wins over Cowdenbeath (in the Scottish Cup) and Dunfermline (in the SPL) in January. While Hibs have won in the next two rounds of the Scottish Cup, they’ve only picked up 5 points from their last 8 league games, and after a 2-0 defeat in the Edinburgh derby last weekend, they are just 4 points off the bottom in the SPL.
And it seems that all is not well behind the scenes at Hibs, with rumours this week that on-loan striker Leigh Griffiths had head-butted Fenlon, and punched assistant manager Billy Brown. While Hibs have denied those rumours, it does seem like there was some kind of altercation, and there’s also talk that midfielder Martin Scott was fined after failing to show up for a training session. Chairman Rod Petrie has come under increasing criticism from Hibs fans, as they have slipped from being capable of competing for a European place to struggling against relegation.
It is only a few years since Hibs were producing home grown talent like Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson, Garry O’Connor, Derek Riordan and Steven Whittaker, and making huge profits when it came to selling those players on. But they haven’t been able to develop players with the same talent levels since, and their decline has been dramatic.
Leigh Griffiths has been suspended three times for gesturing at fans, once at Rangers supporters, and twice at Hibs fans. Rumours persist that the players are not happy with Pat Fenlon’s tactics and training methods, and with Dunfermline replacing Jim McIntyre with the experienced Jim Jefferies, Hibs are in no way safe from relegation. It would be foolish for Petrie to try and replace Fenlon at this stage, and he has guided the club to a Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen, but their league form is a major concern. They have won just a single league game at home, and face tough home matches against Dundee United and Motherwell before the split.
The latest rumours of player unrest couldn’t have come at a worse time for the club. With Scottish football in the doldrums financially, relegation could cripple Hibs, and keep them out of the SPL for a long time. They may well be saved by Dunfermline’s inadequacies, but it is not a good time to be a Hibs fan.
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