[[ this is a story that I was in the process of posting elsewhere, it was three seasons along when I lost the ability to continue it; since the original chapters aren't reachable I'm starting it over from the beginning here ]]
July/August 2010
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After an apprenticeship that spanned different roles in several clubs, I've accepted the offer to come manage underachieving Scottish Premier League side Hibernian in Edinburgh. Managing top-flight football in Edinburgh is always a bit of a challenge, it's a Rugby town, and the jewel stadium in the area is without question the national rugby stadium, Murrayfield, which seats over 67,000. Hibernian's Easter Road stadium in contrast seats only 17,400 (<aside>real life it's 20,400, not sure the discrepancy</aside>) - although in a different age, before top-flight stadia in Britain were required to be all-seaters for safety reasons, as many as 65,860 have attended an Edinburgh Derby at the ground. Those days are long past.... The club are considered to have excellent talent and depth, but haven't won anything for a long time. Of course any discussion in Scotland starts with how do you get deal with the imbalance in financing, talent and all the rest: it's always the Old Firm, the Glasgow clubs Celtic and Rangers; and then everyone else fighting for the scraps. For 2009/10, Hibs finished 4th with a record of 15-9-14, 54 points, just barely ahead of Motherwell. 58 goals for, 55 against; and the home record was only 9-4-6. They certainly didn't have the kind of fortress-like home performance that the top two did (Rangers 15-4-0, Celtic 14-4-1). Off last season's performance, the gap to a Champions League spot is 27 points (Rangers finished with 84, Celtic 81), but of course there have been squad changes since then. This looks like it will have to be a multi-year project.
While the club are considered stable financially, it's almost a smoke and mirrors act; we've only been given a tiny transfer budget (£200k), and we're already at close to the salary budget (spending 39k of 40.8k). In contrast, Rangers have 225k and Celtic 280k to work with in salary budgets, and of course much bigger transfer kitties too, although even those are disappointingly small, Scottish football finances are not at all healthy. The club started the season with 2.3m in cash, quickly swelled with season ticket renewals by about 1.5m, but also carrying three separate bank loans totaling 6.8m. As a result, I'm not going to get full value for any player sales, for now the board will let 55% go back in the kitty. I know part of the problem is I have to earn the trust of the board, because we're not quite as poor as the numbers we've been handed.
One bit of good news, we're set to enter the Euro Cup in the 3rd round, and I consider this competition, while certainly not as prestigious as the European Champions Cup (known to most as the Champions League), the best way to build the club's reputation and bring in a bit of cash. The Scottish cups are nice domestically, but they're not as lucrative and aren't going to increase our reputation outside Scotland.
15 of 23 current first-team players are out of contract at the end of the year; without understanding the quality of these players it's too early to offer renewals to any of them, and we can't afford any raises right now anyway. We're also saddled with two loans already arranged, a good left back from Middlesbrough, Jonathan Grounds, who's nonetheless overpriced for for our budget at £3800 per week (we could cover the position for a lot less I believe) and a Scottish striker from Bristol Rovers, Darryl Duffy, who's the lowest rated player in the senior squad by staff and yet we're on the hook for his salary of £2000. I'm wondering if I can terminate this loan - I'll need a replacement, though, as there's no depth up top, unlike the back line and midfield where we have plenty of players - quality as yet unknown to me, although staff have opinions that I'll lean on. There's very little else I can do in terms of salary savings, the two big wage earners (and I use "big" in a very club-relative sense) are two players we can't do without, our only quality striker, Derek Riordan (£3000) and our creative midfield player Liam Miller (£4000). Besides the loanees, only two other players are even at 2k.
I'd like to immediately upgrade our backroom staff, but can't afford anybody's salary. I'm still evaluating the playing staff, but there's no question we need a striker, and can't afford one of sufficient quality. It's possible I can bring in a loan signing, esp. if we can get rid of Duffy, but it's not clear if we can actually improve the position with the financial limitations.
Thus, we're going to have to largely run the course of the season with what we have, try to build up some funds, pick very carefully which players have the quality going forward to stay at the club, and try to make key moves to strengthen for the long run in next summer's window, including upgrading the backroom staff. And... stay employed until then so the moves can happen!
With the Euro cup the only way to "make a difference" that I can see, we need to least make the group stages and preferably go on into the knockout rounds. We've been drawn against the winner of Azerbaijani club Xəzər and Slovenian club ND Gorica. Must admit a shocking lack of knowledge of either. The first leg was drawn 1-1 in Azerbaijan.
After four friendlies (including an intra-squad), we've only made a single transfer signing, a young goalkeeper on a free who only wanted a youth contract, so it's cost basically nothing; we've sent a not needed keeper out on loan. I've offered for a young Swedish striker a loan+option, but we can't afford the option so I almost hope he doesn't work out. The staff really like him - he was one of the choices when I asked about loan options, and he's on a low wage so it costs us very little.
The 5th friendly is more of a test, and I have to make sure it's not built up to excessive importance, since because of the schedule we don't have a first choice type XI available. FC Lorient, with Kevin Gameiro up top, is the opponent. And that's too tough; we had a decent game statistically but played poorly when it counted, and had no answer for Gameiro who scored a hat trick largely on individual brilliance (1-3 final). The report considers the result "unlucky" but we had too many who didn't quite play well enough, and finishing was poor.
There's a bit of a rebound in the next friendly, against a much easier opponent, but there's clearly a problem: our finishing is wasteful, we've hit the woodwork a lot but worse we're shooting on frame a percentage much lower than I want. My Swedish youngster looks unlikely now as we've got competition for him, and one of them is much more prestigious, Juventus - and the offer is an immediate transfer, which we can't afford.
We finish our friendly season with Aston Villa which will be a major test, then we've got our Euro Cup qualifier with Xəzər, who prevailed in the second-round qualifier. After that, a week to heal up and get ready for the league season, which opens 15 August at Motherwell.
Villa were too much for us, although we kept it even for half an hour and in the end lost only 0-1. And we lost out on our striker target. I'm rather disappointed in how things are shaping up so far. We have a surplus of midfielders, we're low on strikers, left back is a problem if our pricey loanee is out, as he is at the moment.
So it's my first for-real match in charge. Two of the three injured players are almost back, the third out for some time yet. So we've got what we've got... Costa Rica striker Winston Parks is their key player, we'll see what we can do with that.
I'll shorten the match report form later, but as we get to know the club I'll list the lineups too.
Match: Xəzər -Hibernian (Euro Cup 3rd Qual Rnd, Leg 1)
First XI: GK Mark Brown, DL Paul Hanlon, DC Francis Dickoh, DC Chris Hogg, DR Michael Hart (MoM), ML Daniel Galbraith, DM Kevin McBride, MC Liam Miller, MR Edwin de Graaf, F Colin Nish, F Derek Riordan
Subs used: Souleymane Bamba (60, for Dickoh), Valdas Trakys (60 for Riordan), Lewis Stevenson (65 for Galbraith - inj)
Commentary: We get a lucky goal early, Hart picks up a loose ball and sends it goalwards from some distance, it deflects off a player, clips off the bar and then off the back of the hapless keeper, 1-0 in the 4th. We don't capitalize on a period of dominance, and the match is level on a headed corner in the 31st - one that Dickoh actually got to, but it glanced off his head and onto the head of the scorer and in. A little propping up at half time, but The game is not very compelling until we score on an own goal by Mardanov from a corner - so we've got two but haven't put it in the net ourselves! 58th. Xəzər have a golden chance on a through ball, the shot is off the underside of the bar but not in... although the chance was golden partly due to offside, wouldn't have counted (62). Just after moving out two players who don't seem to have come to play, ML Galbraith takes an injury and we'll go the final 25mins without further sub possibilities. Sub Trakys puts it away with a diving header in the 82nd - it's a goal on his Hibs debut.
Score: 1-3 (Aliyev 31 - Huseynov o.g. 4, Mardanov o.g. 58, Trakys 82)
Final Thoughts: Kind of a rough beginning, morale isn't that great yet, some players are having trouble fitting in still, and our passing style yielded a lot of possession but not many chances. Winning off two opponent own-goals is "interesting" but you do have to get the ball in play around the net for those to happen, so we'll take some credit!
Match: Hibernian - Xəzər (Euro Cup 3rd Qual Rnd, Leg 2)
First XI: Brown, Hanlon, Bamba, Hogg, Hard, Stevenson, McBride (MoM), Miller, MR David Wotherspoon, Nish, Riordan
Subs used: Trakys (57 for Stevenson), Ian Murray (66 for Hart), Steven Thicot (75 for Miller)
Commentary: The second match comes only five days later (it's a Thu-Tue schedule, the Tuesday date for TV purposes). We've got what should be a comfy lead for the home fans. The start is okay but we can't get through, and the shots are from distance and no real danger. Finally Hart sends a cross over and Stevenson heads in from the back post. Important for him, I've pretty much handed the ML spot to youngster Galbraith, but he's out injured for this one. 1-0 in the 25th. Wotherspoon picks up some junk and fires it in from 14, now it's completely sealed, 2-0 in the 37th. Nice shot from Riordan on 41 will hopefully help get him going, at the start of the friendlies he was great, then seemed to lose confidence. 3-0. McBride speculatively sends one from long ranges as it goes in, and a rout is on, 4-0 just before the break. Again capitalising on a poor clearance which Miller poked back to McBride. In the second half, Bamba is too strong on a corner, while he doesn't score with the head he then wins the ball and puts it in for 5-0. There's no more scoring after that.
Score: 5-0 (Stevenson 25, Wotherspoon 37, Riordan 41, McBride 44, Bamba 53). Hibernian win 8-1 on aggregate
Final Thoughts: The only complaint is the shooting let off a bit - thrilled we had 10 of first 13 on frame, last six were more widely spaced and all missed. Still... this should help club confidence heading into the league season.
Our reward is drawing a seeded team, since we're unseeded, and that will be FC Porto, certainly not the easiest choice in the field. They were third in the Portuguese Liga, their 68 points from 30 league matches considerably more impressive than our haul in what's considered a much weaker league by UEFA. So maybe my dream of making a bit of a run in the competition was too ambitious? I'm not going to talk about that publicly.
Match: Motherwell - Hibernian
First XI: Brown, Jonathan Grounds, Hogg, Bamba, Hard, Galbraith, Thicot, McBride (MoM), Miller, Nish, Riordan
Subs used: Stevenson (65 for Galbraith), Hanlon (71 for Hart), Wotherspoon (71 for Thicot)
Commentary: League opener. Beautiful start, when we get control we're stroking the ball around and then suddenly a pass over the top launches Riordan, and he has enough to hold off the recovering defenders and score from the right, 1-0 on 9 minutes. Rather poor goalkeeping to allow a near-post goal from what ended up being a steep angle, but we'll take credit! Reasonable amount of control of the match for the next patch, although Motherwell are also passing well. We think we can take advantage height and it hadn't been happening, but then Nish heads in a corner - another that goes in a tiny space between keeper and man on post and perhaps could have been kept out. 2-0 on 22. Not much to correct at the half, encouragement. Motherwell start the second half well, but we stabilise and control most of the rest of the way. A little last-ditch defending and it's a clean sheet.
Score: 0-2 (Riordan 9, Nish 22)
League Position: 3rd (level on points with five others)
Final Thoughts: 60% possession in an away match, not bad. There were no draws the first matchday, so there are six joint leaders on points.
Match: Hibernian - Porto (Euro Cup 4th qual. rnd, leg 1)
First XI: Brown (MoM), Hanlon, Hogg, Bamba, Hart, Galbraith, Murray, Miller, Wotherspoon, Nish, Riordan
Subs used: Thicot (62 for Miller), Rankin (62 for Murray), Trakys (78 for Riordan)
Commentary: We've got a TV match again, this one makes our schedule for this tie be Tues-Thurs which is better for our schedule than last round's Thu/Tue: we've got a league fixture with Rangers in the middle. We get, maybe, a bit of a break in that Porto are missing Falcao, Helton and Guarin, but they do have Hulk, Moutinho, and their other stars. In the pre-match meeting staff let me know they think Porto have big advantages in aggression, determination, flair, speed and dribbling. Whee, thrills. Maybe to counter that is that Porto have not started their season well, losing their first two for-real matches 0-1. We open well, Galbraith finding space on the left of the box and getting found by Nish, a little sloppy on the defending there, 1-0 6th minute. Terrible job of tracking back and Hulk walks in from the left to score on 35. Score even at the break, but to be honest the signs were ominous the final 15. The fullbacks are struggling. Astonishing save by Brown as he spills a shot from the left, then dives back to snare the shot off the rebound (56), we're still in this one with a chance. I figure we have one shot to push things a little bit late, and it happens to pay off right away, from a throw Wotherspoon sneaks through to score from the near post, 2-1 on 83. And wow! Porto get a little flustered at the back as they're trying to push, concede a corner with a silly back-pass, and Bamba has knifed in to score with the header, it's 3-1 in stoppage!
Score: 3-1 (Galbraith 6, Wotherspoon 83, Bamba 90+2 - Hulk 35)
Final Thoughts: I think we were outclassed for a good bit of the match, but the boys showed some grit and scored a superb win. Clearly the tie isn't over, we'll have to battle in Portugal to hang on, but we've already given a better account of ourselves than I think most expected. The fans were very pessimistic coming in.
Match: Hibernian - Rangers
First XI: Brown, Grounds, Dickoh, Bamba (MoM), Hart, Stevenson, McBride, Miller, de Graaf, Nish, Riordan
Subs used: Duffy (45 for Nish), Galbraith (66 for Riordan), Thicot (69 for de Graaf)
Commentary: Gamble time. Really want to knock off Porto, so some players get a rest here, most importantly my impressive pair of wingers who each potted a goal against Porto. In making selections, I run up against the irritating SPL rule of needing three outfield U21's in the squad. Sigh. I know the logic here is to promote the development of Scottish youth but I don't see it, I've got the two wingers I'm happy to play, but it happens they need a rest, and all of a sudden it's difficult finding three. We'll see Gers two more times for sure, and once more if we're on the same side of the split, so it's useful to make a good statement..... of course I don't want to give away points, but still, you have to make a choice sometimes, and it's to focus on Porto in the Euro Cup. The first part of the match we can't play ball control with Rangers, and have to gradually shift to a counterattacking more direct style. This goes better, except when Brown can't snag a quick shot - it's through his hands, but luckily off the bar. Rangers have a second ball off the woodwork moments later, whew. Good sequence as the game opens up, Riordan maybe should have scored. First half ends scoreless. We have more trouble in the early part of the hour, then some signs of life from us past that mark, including a woodwork shot of our own. It all breaks down in the 74th as Weiss is allowed to make a long run down the right and pick out a player in the box, Naismith, who scores it. When Miller goes out injured very late I figure we've lost the gamble, but Bamba sneaks through on the back post and taps in a corner in stoppage time for 1-1, and despite giving up an even later corner we hang on to the draw, and a point!
Score: 1-1 (Naismith 74, Bamba 90+1)
League Position: 4th (2nd-5th are level on points)
Final Thoughts: A draw with Rangers, even at home, feels absolutely fine after we went behind. This club must have some determination after all (it's not rated a huge strength in general reports). Unfortunately, Miller's injury is serious, our best midfielder so far, a torn hamstring which should keep him out three months. We still have Zemmama out on a knee injury, we're not thin in numbers at midfield but the quality is starting to look less than it should be.
The draw for the Scottish League Cup 3rd round is up, this is where the last eight (seeded) teams, including us, enter. We've drawn Queen of the South on 21 Sept, at home.
Match: Porto - Hibernian (Euro Cup 4th qual. rnd, leg 2)
First XI: Brown (MoM), Grounds, Hogg, Bamba, Hart, Galbraith, Murray, McBride, Wotherspoon, Nish, Riordan
Subs used: Thicot (61 for Nish), Dickoh (72 for Murray), Hanlon (78 for Hart)
Commentary: Porto had a bit of an advantage, they didn't play over the week-end. The first half is our least impressive performance of the season so far, and even a mid-way tactical adjustment doesn't do much. I'm not sure how we've escaped scoreless, we're outshot 14-2 and Porto have had 65% of the ball. Porto's first breakthrough comes pretty early in the 2nd, a deflected shot from distance from Fernando, 0-1 on 49. Now we're on pins and needles, another goal puts us down on away goals. We need a goal of our own and I have no idea where it's coming from. And out of 76 minutes of nothing, we suddenly have a little passing sequence in the attacking third, and Riordan, almost invisible all day, turns, attacks, and slides it past the keeper! Wow! Only our 3rd shot, first of the second half, but there it is, 1-1 in the match and 4-2 on aggregate - and we've erased that away-goal problem. Shortly after we're back defending again as Porto win their 12th corner. 10 minutes left now... 8... 6... 4... 2... there will be two minutes of stoppage. And a couple of unpenalised dives later it's all over!
Score: 1-1 (Fernando 49 - Riordan 77) Hibernian win 4-2 on aggregate
Final Thoughts: I'm surprised and very pleased winning this tie. (Stepping out of character: remember this is the season in which Porto won the Euro Cup in real life). I can't pretend I think we were the better side over anything other than this tie, but we were just opportunistic enough, while Porto were not. In this match we were outshot an astonishing 27-4, and 47-15 over the complete tie.
We've qualified for the Euro Cup group stage then (I keep having trouble keeping track of this as UEFA change the format all the time). The win, and qualifying for the group stage, win us about £1m in prize money, which is a nice bonus for a club that had just under 3m in cash at the start of the season. We're in the 4th seed pot so it will be a challenge no matter what group we have. Indeed of the 48-team field, we have the third-lowest UEFA points, ahead of only Moldova's Sheriff and Finland's MyPa. We're in group E... 3rd pot: Denmark's OE, 2nd pot: Germany's Bayer Leverkusen, 1st pot: Villarreal. The two killer teams (based on five-year points) are Liverpool and Sevilla, and we did dodge those, but it still won't be easy.
Well, that should just about do for any chance at transfers, I've had to offer a contract renewal to Daniel Galbraith, certainly one of the players we'd want to retain longer term, he's only 20 (just) and was attracting attention from Aston Villa and Everton. Problem is, we had about 2500/week in salary space, and the renewal takes us down to 1000. With the premium placed on having youth in the squad by SPL rules I'd go for some kids, but I can't even find them - well, I've found them but they're all at Rangers/Celtic and all as expensive as senior players. I've got two other youngsters, Paul Hanlon and David Wotherspoon, who together with Galbraith are the three highest rated "potential" in the squad; they deserve new contracts too but I can't give them and unlike Galbraith they're not in the final year of their contracts yet.
Match: St. Mirren - Hibernian
First XI: Brown, Hanlon, Dickoh, Welsh, Stevenson (MoM), Rankin, Thicot, de Graaf, Duffy, Trakys
Subs used: Nish (60 for Duffy), Hart (70 for Welsh), Galbraith (70 for de Graaf)
Commentary: We have to switch out a lot of the side due to tiredness. We have some success early with an attacking approach even though its an away match, trying to put the supposedly weaker Saints under pressure. However, we don't actually profit, and are fortunate when a St Mirren header loops into the net that the taker was judged to have fouled in making space, and it's a scoreless first half. We've fallen off some; I know the previous two matches were really tough ones, Rangers and Porto, but it's now two goals in five halves, and a lot of that time seeming outplayed - you can take that back another two halves for the first Porto match if you want. It's a sign we're not that good, at least not yet. And as if to emphasize, we make a meal of a play in the back and the Saints score in the 47th. We crack on another set piece just moments later, it's 0-2. The utterly useless Duffy misses three shots... but de Graaf, whom I'm similarly ready to brand useless, gets his head to a cross and pulls one back for us, 1-2 on 62. His replacement (exhausted) at MR, Galbraith, celebrates his new contract by doing the same late, 84th minute, we've drawn level. Is there a winner for either side? Almost for Nish, but keeper Gallacher came out correctly to cut it off. We've got another go, Nish looking to run onto a ball, he's taken down by the defender. It's a good card to take, as we've shown no aptitude at scoring off central free kicks. Rankin sends it off the wall for a corner, could have been a late chance but it's taken poorly.
Score: 2-2 ((McGowan 47, Potter 50 - de Graaf 62, Galbraith 84)
League Position: 5th
Final Thoughts: Good comeback after a poor beginning. Both sides looked vulnerable to the ball pumped into the box from the side, in our case it was a pair of set-play situations, in St Mirren's it was the deep cross from the sides. A win and two draws from our opening matches leave us 5th.
I'm thrilled to see an international break, we're really exhausted and we don't have many callups, so this is a chance to get back onto a more even keel. Including the friendlies, we've played 13 times in 51 days, with five of the first seven matches that count being of the high-pressure variety, and we were down first one of our creative midfielders, then two.
Our international callups are Ian Murray for Scotland, Valdas Trakys for Lithuania, Souleymane Bamba for Ivory Coast, and Paul Hanlon and Daniel Galbraith for Scotland U21. Okay, after writing this, one more - Francis Dickoh for Ghana.
It's pointed out to me that one player, Merouane Zemmama, has a contract expiring at an odd time, 1st March - six months out. I can't offer him an extension as I've never seen him play. He's in his 5th year, one of which was a loan to Al-Sha'ab in UAE, statistically he seems to have played pretty well, but with the knee injury, I've not seen him at all. I think he's expecting a big contract, at 26 he ought to be entering his prime and the measly 1500/week we pay him, which is about all that fits in the budget during this season, is almost certainly not going to keep him here. For his own flexibility, if he stays for another year he'll be eligible for GB citizenship - he ought to do that, but that will be his decision. In fact a gentle testing suggests his agent is going to ask for 7500, which is so completely out of the park for the club's current financial structure that I'm now sure there's no chance he stays.
Match Summary:
Friendlies:
Hibernian - Hibernian Reserves 3-1
Hereford - Hibernian 0-3
Raith - Hibernian 1-4
Gillingham - Hibernian 0-1
Hibernian - FC Lorient 1-3
Stevenage - Hibernian 0-2
Hibernian - Aston Villa 0-1
Regular Season:
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Xəzər 1-3 Hibernian (Euro Cup 3rd Qual Rnd, Leg 1) (Aliyev 31 - Huseynov o.g. 4, Mardanov o.g. 58, Trakys 82)
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Hibernian 5-0 Xəzər (Euro Cup 3rd Qual Rnd, Leg 2) (8-1 agg) (Stevenson 25, Wotherspoon 37, Riordan 41, McBride 44, Bamba 53).
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Motherwell 0-2 Hibernian 0-2 (Riordan 9, Nish 22)
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Hibernian 3-1 Porto (Euro Cup 4th qual. rnd, leg 1) (Galbraith 6, Wotherspoon 83, Bamba 90+2 - Hulk 35)
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Hibernian 1-1 Rangers (Naismith 74, Bamba 90+1)
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Porto 1-1 Hibernian (Euro Cup 4th qual. rnd, leg 2) (2-4 agg) (Fernando 49 - Riordan 77)
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St. Mirren 2-2 Hibernian (McGowan 47, Potter 50 - de Graaf 62, Galbraith 84)
End of month table summary (mostly three played)
1. Rangers 7 +5
2. Hearts 7 +4, 6gf
3. Aberdeen 7 +4, 5gf
4. Celtic 6
5. Hibernian 5
...
10. St Mirren 1 -3
11. St Johnstone 1 -6
12. Inverness CT 0 (2 played)
The transfer summary is really unfortunate and frustrating - I had a number of moves made for me before I arrived, including players I wouldn't really want. Here's the info for what's happened since I arrived:
In: GK James Dunn, 18, free, youth ctr. (spent time at Millwall, Fulham, most recently Arsenal)
Out: ML Mark Lancaster, 17, contract expired
Loan out: GK Thomas Flynn, 19, to Neath
And loan activity I didn't control:
In:
ST Darryl Duffy, 26, from Bristol Rovers (£2000)
DL Jonathan Grounds, 22, from Middlesbrough (£3800)
Out:
ST Kurtis Byrne, 20, at East Fife (contrib £200/400)
DL Callum Booth, 19, at Brechin (contrib £130/250)
DC Ewan Moyes, 20, at Brechin (contrib £0/350)
DR/MC Kevin McCann, 22, at Inverness CT (contrib full £600)
These are a disappointment; Grounds is a good DL, better than we otherwise have, but we're overpaying compared to like quality of players in the club, and we've only got him through January. Duffy, on the other hand, is rated by staff as the weakest player on the senior squad, and we're paying a salary which would equate to one of our starters - he's joint 4th highest paid. I know I'm repeating myself from the beginning of the report, but I'm that irritated. I'll probably repeat it again.
Many targets indicated no interest in us, a disappointing result. Only one actually got to a stage of negotiation then turned us down, and that's understandable, a famous Italian club offering a full ride vs. our offer of a loan. It's too early to give up on the job, and the fact that just about the whole squad will go out of contract at the end of the year does give me more flexibility than usual. But there's no doubt I find this more frustrating than I expected. Not being able to sign ANYBODY (except one youth goalkeeper) was not my expectation. And having so many players out of contract (19 total at the club) doesn't help as much as it could; if we're going to be in Europe again next year we need to be able to fill the 4/8 homegrown requirement again, which means I have to keep enough players in those categories; and there's almost nothing of value sitting in the U19 program - I've got a right midfielder and a right defender who have the potential to maybe become senior squad players, but not better (unless, of course, I'm getting poor evaluations).
Staff wise, we made two additions, after a hunt for unemployed/cheap options: we added one much better scout (I'll keep looking for more as the board allows six here, we have only two); and a coach to specialize in strength/aerobic, where we seemed to be quite poor. Coaching coverage is still very thin, so training ratings across the board are much less than I'd like; and we have three youth coaches where we probably don't need to (inherited, but board also says we should have only one). We could add two more coaches in theory - a first-team coach and a regular coach.
July/August 2010
After an apprenticeship that spanned different roles in several clubs, I've accepted the offer to come manage underachieving Scottish Premier League side Hibernian in Edinburgh. Managing top-flight football in Edinburgh is always a bit of a challenge, it's a Rugby town, and the jewel stadium in the area is without question the national rugby stadium, Murrayfield, which seats over 67,000. Hibernian's Easter Road stadium in contrast seats only 17,400 (<aside>real life it's 20,400, not sure the discrepancy</aside>) - although in a different age, before top-flight stadia in Britain were required to be all-seaters for safety reasons, as many as 65,860 have attended an Edinburgh Derby at the ground. Those days are long past.... The club are considered to have excellent talent and depth, but haven't won anything for a long time. Of course any discussion in Scotland starts with how do you get deal with the imbalance in financing, talent and all the rest: it's always the Old Firm, the Glasgow clubs Celtic and Rangers; and then everyone else fighting for the scraps. For 2009/10, Hibs finished 4th with a record of 15-9-14, 54 points, just barely ahead of Motherwell. 58 goals for, 55 against; and the home record was only 9-4-6. They certainly didn't have the kind of fortress-like home performance that the top two did (Rangers 15-4-0, Celtic 14-4-1). Off last season's performance, the gap to a Champions League spot is 27 points (Rangers finished with 84, Celtic 81), but of course there have been squad changes since then. This looks like it will have to be a multi-year project.
While the club are considered stable financially, it's almost a smoke and mirrors act; we've only been given a tiny transfer budget (£200k), and we're already at close to the salary budget (spending 39k of 40.8k). In contrast, Rangers have 225k and Celtic 280k to work with in salary budgets, and of course much bigger transfer kitties too, although even those are disappointingly small, Scottish football finances are not at all healthy. The club started the season with 2.3m in cash, quickly swelled with season ticket renewals by about 1.5m, but also carrying three separate bank loans totaling 6.8m. As a result, I'm not going to get full value for any player sales, for now the board will let 55% go back in the kitty. I know part of the problem is I have to earn the trust of the board, because we're not quite as poor as the numbers we've been handed.
One bit of good news, we're set to enter the Euro Cup in the 3rd round, and I consider this competition, while certainly not as prestigious as the European Champions Cup (known to most as the Champions League), the best way to build the club's reputation and bring in a bit of cash. The Scottish cups are nice domestically, but they're not as lucrative and aren't going to increase our reputation outside Scotland.
15 of 23 current first-team players are out of contract at the end of the year; without understanding the quality of these players it's too early to offer renewals to any of them, and we can't afford any raises right now anyway. We're also saddled with two loans already arranged, a good left back from Middlesbrough, Jonathan Grounds, who's nonetheless overpriced for for our budget at £3800 per week (we could cover the position for a lot less I believe) and a Scottish striker from Bristol Rovers, Darryl Duffy, who's the lowest rated player in the senior squad by staff and yet we're on the hook for his salary of £2000. I'm wondering if I can terminate this loan - I'll need a replacement, though, as there's no depth up top, unlike the back line and midfield where we have plenty of players - quality as yet unknown to me, although staff have opinions that I'll lean on. There's very little else I can do in terms of salary savings, the two big wage earners (and I use "big" in a very club-relative sense) are two players we can't do without, our only quality striker, Derek Riordan (£3000) and our creative midfield player Liam Miller (£4000). Besides the loanees, only two other players are even at 2k.
I'd like to immediately upgrade our backroom staff, but can't afford anybody's salary. I'm still evaluating the playing staff, but there's no question we need a striker, and can't afford one of sufficient quality. It's possible I can bring in a loan signing, esp. if we can get rid of Duffy, but it's not clear if we can actually improve the position with the financial limitations.
Thus, we're going to have to largely run the course of the season with what we have, try to build up some funds, pick very carefully which players have the quality going forward to stay at the club, and try to make key moves to strengthen for the long run in next summer's window, including upgrading the backroom staff. And... stay employed until then so the moves can happen!
With the Euro cup the only way to "make a difference" that I can see, we need to least make the group stages and preferably go on into the knockout rounds. We've been drawn against the winner of Azerbaijani club Xəzər and Slovenian club ND Gorica. Must admit a shocking lack of knowledge of either. The first leg was drawn 1-1 in Azerbaijan.
After four friendlies (including an intra-squad), we've only made a single transfer signing, a young goalkeeper on a free who only wanted a youth contract, so it's cost basically nothing; we've sent a not needed keeper out on loan. I've offered for a young Swedish striker a loan+option, but we can't afford the option so I almost hope he doesn't work out. The staff really like him - he was one of the choices when I asked about loan options, and he's on a low wage so it costs us very little.
The 5th friendly is more of a test, and I have to make sure it's not built up to excessive importance, since because of the schedule we don't have a first choice type XI available. FC Lorient, with Kevin Gameiro up top, is the opponent. And that's too tough; we had a decent game statistically but played poorly when it counted, and had no answer for Gameiro who scored a hat trick largely on individual brilliance (1-3 final). The report considers the result "unlucky" but we had too many who didn't quite play well enough, and finishing was poor.
There's a bit of a rebound in the next friendly, against a much easier opponent, but there's clearly a problem: our finishing is wasteful, we've hit the woodwork a lot but worse we're shooting on frame a percentage much lower than I want. My Swedish youngster looks unlikely now as we've got competition for him, and one of them is much more prestigious, Juventus - and the offer is an immediate transfer, which we can't afford.
We finish our friendly season with Aston Villa which will be a major test, then we've got our Euro Cup qualifier with Xəzər, who prevailed in the second-round qualifier. After that, a week to heal up and get ready for the league season, which opens 15 August at Motherwell.
Villa were too much for us, although we kept it even for half an hour and in the end lost only 0-1. And we lost out on our striker target. I'm rather disappointed in how things are shaping up so far. We have a surplus of midfielders, we're low on strikers, left back is a problem if our pricey loanee is out, as he is at the moment.
So it's my first for-real match in charge. Two of the three injured players are almost back, the third out for some time yet. So we've got what we've got... Costa Rica striker Winston Parks is their key player, we'll see what we can do with that.
I'll shorten the match report form later, but as we get to know the club I'll list the lineups too.
Match: Xəzər -Hibernian (Euro Cup 3rd Qual Rnd, Leg 1)
First XI: GK Mark Brown, DL Paul Hanlon, DC Francis Dickoh, DC Chris Hogg, DR Michael Hart (MoM), ML Daniel Galbraith, DM Kevin McBride, MC Liam Miller, MR Edwin de Graaf, F Colin Nish, F Derek Riordan
Subs used: Souleymane Bamba (60, for Dickoh), Valdas Trakys (60 for Riordan), Lewis Stevenson (65 for Galbraith - inj)
Commentary: We get a lucky goal early, Hart picks up a loose ball and sends it goalwards from some distance, it deflects off a player, clips off the bar and then off the back of the hapless keeper, 1-0 in the 4th. We don't capitalize on a period of dominance, and the match is level on a headed corner in the 31st - one that Dickoh actually got to, but it glanced off his head and onto the head of the scorer and in. A little propping up at half time, but The game is not very compelling until we score on an own goal by Mardanov from a corner - so we've got two but haven't put it in the net ourselves! 58th. Xəzər have a golden chance on a through ball, the shot is off the underside of the bar but not in... although the chance was golden partly due to offside, wouldn't have counted (62). Just after moving out two players who don't seem to have come to play, ML Galbraith takes an injury and we'll go the final 25mins without further sub possibilities. Sub Trakys puts it away with a diving header in the 82nd - it's a goal on his Hibs debut.
Score: 1-3 (Aliyev 31 - Huseynov o.g. 4, Mardanov o.g. 58, Trakys 82)
Final Thoughts: Kind of a rough beginning, morale isn't that great yet, some players are having trouble fitting in still, and our passing style yielded a lot of possession but not many chances. Winning off two opponent own-goals is "interesting" but you do have to get the ball in play around the net for those to happen, so we'll take some credit!
Match: Hibernian - Xəzər (Euro Cup 3rd Qual Rnd, Leg 2)
First XI: Brown, Hanlon, Bamba, Hogg, Hard, Stevenson, McBride (MoM), Miller, MR David Wotherspoon, Nish, Riordan
Subs used: Trakys (57 for Stevenson), Ian Murray (66 for Hart), Steven Thicot (75 for Miller)
Commentary: The second match comes only five days later (it's a Thu-Tue schedule, the Tuesday date for TV purposes). We've got what should be a comfy lead for the home fans. The start is okay but we can't get through, and the shots are from distance and no real danger. Finally Hart sends a cross over and Stevenson heads in from the back post. Important for him, I've pretty much handed the ML spot to youngster Galbraith, but he's out injured for this one. 1-0 in the 25th. Wotherspoon picks up some junk and fires it in from 14, now it's completely sealed, 2-0 in the 37th. Nice shot from Riordan on 41 will hopefully help get him going, at the start of the friendlies he was great, then seemed to lose confidence. 3-0. McBride speculatively sends one from long ranges as it goes in, and a rout is on, 4-0 just before the break. Again capitalising on a poor clearance which Miller poked back to McBride. In the second half, Bamba is too strong on a corner, while he doesn't score with the head he then wins the ball and puts it in for 5-0. There's no more scoring after that.
Score: 5-0 (Stevenson 25, Wotherspoon 37, Riordan 41, McBride 44, Bamba 53). Hibernian win 8-1 on aggregate
Final Thoughts: The only complaint is the shooting let off a bit - thrilled we had 10 of first 13 on frame, last six were more widely spaced and all missed. Still... this should help club confidence heading into the league season.
Our reward is drawing a seeded team, since we're unseeded, and that will be FC Porto, certainly not the easiest choice in the field. They were third in the Portuguese Liga, their 68 points from 30 league matches considerably more impressive than our haul in what's considered a much weaker league by UEFA. So maybe my dream of making a bit of a run in the competition was too ambitious? I'm not going to talk about that publicly.
Match: Motherwell - Hibernian
First XI: Brown, Jonathan Grounds, Hogg, Bamba, Hard, Galbraith, Thicot, McBride (MoM), Miller, Nish, Riordan
Subs used: Stevenson (65 for Galbraith), Hanlon (71 for Hart), Wotherspoon (71 for Thicot)
Commentary: League opener. Beautiful start, when we get control we're stroking the ball around and then suddenly a pass over the top launches Riordan, and he has enough to hold off the recovering defenders and score from the right, 1-0 on 9 minutes. Rather poor goalkeeping to allow a near-post goal from what ended up being a steep angle, but we'll take credit! Reasonable amount of control of the match for the next patch, although Motherwell are also passing well. We think we can take advantage height and it hadn't been happening, but then Nish heads in a corner - another that goes in a tiny space between keeper and man on post and perhaps could have been kept out. 2-0 on 22. Not much to correct at the half, encouragement. Motherwell start the second half well, but we stabilise and control most of the rest of the way. A little last-ditch defending and it's a clean sheet.
Score: 0-2 (Riordan 9, Nish 22)
League Position: 3rd (level on points with five others)
Final Thoughts: 60% possession in an away match, not bad. There were no draws the first matchday, so there are six joint leaders on points.
Match: Hibernian - Porto (Euro Cup 4th qual. rnd, leg 1)
First XI: Brown (MoM), Hanlon, Hogg, Bamba, Hart, Galbraith, Murray, Miller, Wotherspoon, Nish, Riordan
Subs used: Thicot (62 for Miller), Rankin (62 for Murray), Trakys (78 for Riordan)
Commentary: We've got a TV match again, this one makes our schedule for this tie be Tues-Thurs which is better for our schedule than last round's Thu/Tue: we've got a league fixture with Rangers in the middle. We get, maybe, a bit of a break in that Porto are missing Falcao, Helton and Guarin, but they do have Hulk, Moutinho, and their other stars. In the pre-match meeting staff let me know they think Porto have big advantages in aggression, determination, flair, speed and dribbling. Whee, thrills. Maybe to counter that is that Porto have not started their season well, losing their first two for-real matches 0-1. We open well, Galbraith finding space on the left of the box and getting found by Nish, a little sloppy on the defending there, 1-0 6th minute. Terrible job of tracking back and Hulk walks in from the left to score on 35. Score even at the break, but to be honest the signs were ominous the final 15. The fullbacks are struggling. Astonishing save by Brown as he spills a shot from the left, then dives back to snare the shot off the rebound (56), we're still in this one with a chance. I figure we have one shot to push things a little bit late, and it happens to pay off right away, from a throw Wotherspoon sneaks through to score from the near post, 2-1 on 83. And wow! Porto get a little flustered at the back as they're trying to push, concede a corner with a silly back-pass, and Bamba has knifed in to score with the header, it's 3-1 in stoppage!
Score: 3-1 (Galbraith 6, Wotherspoon 83, Bamba 90+2 - Hulk 35)
Final Thoughts: I think we were outclassed for a good bit of the match, but the boys showed some grit and scored a superb win. Clearly the tie isn't over, we'll have to battle in Portugal to hang on, but we've already given a better account of ourselves than I think most expected. The fans were very pessimistic coming in.
Match: Hibernian - Rangers
First XI: Brown, Grounds, Dickoh, Bamba (MoM), Hart, Stevenson, McBride, Miller, de Graaf, Nish, Riordan
Subs used: Duffy (45 for Nish), Galbraith (66 for Riordan), Thicot (69 for de Graaf)
Commentary: Gamble time. Really want to knock off Porto, so some players get a rest here, most importantly my impressive pair of wingers who each potted a goal against Porto. In making selections, I run up against the irritating SPL rule of needing three outfield U21's in the squad. Sigh. I know the logic here is to promote the development of Scottish youth but I don't see it, I've got the two wingers I'm happy to play, but it happens they need a rest, and all of a sudden it's difficult finding three. We'll see Gers two more times for sure, and once more if we're on the same side of the split, so it's useful to make a good statement..... of course I don't want to give away points, but still, you have to make a choice sometimes, and it's to focus on Porto in the Euro Cup. The first part of the match we can't play ball control with Rangers, and have to gradually shift to a counterattacking more direct style. This goes better, except when Brown can't snag a quick shot - it's through his hands, but luckily off the bar. Rangers have a second ball off the woodwork moments later, whew. Good sequence as the game opens up, Riordan maybe should have scored. First half ends scoreless. We have more trouble in the early part of the hour, then some signs of life from us past that mark, including a woodwork shot of our own. It all breaks down in the 74th as Weiss is allowed to make a long run down the right and pick out a player in the box, Naismith, who scores it. When Miller goes out injured very late I figure we've lost the gamble, but Bamba sneaks through on the back post and taps in a corner in stoppage time for 1-1, and despite giving up an even later corner we hang on to the draw, and a point!
Score: 1-1 (Naismith 74, Bamba 90+1)
League Position: 4th (2nd-5th are level on points)
Final Thoughts: A draw with Rangers, even at home, feels absolutely fine after we went behind. This club must have some determination after all (it's not rated a huge strength in general reports). Unfortunately, Miller's injury is serious, our best midfielder so far, a torn hamstring which should keep him out three months. We still have Zemmama out on a knee injury, we're not thin in numbers at midfield but the quality is starting to look less than it should be.
The draw for the Scottish League Cup 3rd round is up, this is where the last eight (seeded) teams, including us, enter. We've drawn Queen of the South on 21 Sept, at home.
Match: Porto - Hibernian (Euro Cup 4th qual. rnd, leg 2)
First XI: Brown (MoM), Grounds, Hogg, Bamba, Hart, Galbraith, Murray, McBride, Wotherspoon, Nish, Riordan
Subs used: Thicot (61 for Nish), Dickoh (72 for Murray), Hanlon (78 for Hart)
Commentary: Porto had a bit of an advantage, they didn't play over the week-end. The first half is our least impressive performance of the season so far, and even a mid-way tactical adjustment doesn't do much. I'm not sure how we've escaped scoreless, we're outshot 14-2 and Porto have had 65% of the ball. Porto's first breakthrough comes pretty early in the 2nd, a deflected shot from distance from Fernando, 0-1 on 49. Now we're on pins and needles, another goal puts us down on away goals. We need a goal of our own and I have no idea where it's coming from. And out of 76 minutes of nothing, we suddenly have a little passing sequence in the attacking third, and Riordan, almost invisible all day, turns, attacks, and slides it past the keeper! Wow! Only our 3rd shot, first of the second half, but there it is, 1-1 in the match and 4-2 on aggregate - and we've erased that away-goal problem. Shortly after we're back defending again as Porto win their 12th corner. 10 minutes left now... 8... 6... 4... 2... there will be two minutes of stoppage. And a couple of unpenalised dives later it's all over!
Score: 1-1 (Fernando 49 - Riordan 77) Hibernian win 4-2 on aggregate
Final Thoughts: I'm surprised and very pleased winning this tie. (Stepping out of character: remember this is the season in which Porto won the Euro Cup in real life). I can't pretend I think we were the better side over anything other than this tie, but we were just opportunistic enough, while Porto were not. In this match we were outshot an astonishing 27-4, and 47-15 over the complete tie.
We've qualified for the Euro Cup group stage then (I keep having trouble keeping track of this as UEFA change the format all the time). The win, and qualifying for the group stage, win us about £1m in prize money, which is a nice bonus for a club that had just under 3m in cash at the start of the season. We're in the 4th seed pot so it will be a challenge no matter what group we have. Indeed of the 48-team field, we have the third-lowest UEFA points, ahead of only Moldova's Sheriff and Finland's MyPa. We're in group E... 3rd pot: Denmark's OE, 2nd pot: Germany's Bayer Leverkusen, 1st pot: Villarreal. The two killer teams (based on five-year points) are Liverpool and Sevilla, and we did dodge those, but it still won't be easy.
Well, that should just about do for any chance at transfers, I've had to offer a contract renewal to Daniel Galbraith, certainly one of the players we'd want to retain longer term, he's only 20 (just) and was attracting attention from Aston Villa and Everton. Problem is, we had about 2500/week in salary space, and the renewal takes us down to 1000. With the premium placed on having youth in the squad by SPL rules I'd go for some kids, but I can't even find them - well, I've found them but they're all at Rangers/Celtic and all as expensive as senior players. I've got two other youngsters, Paul Hanlon and David Wotherspoon, who together with Galbraith are the three highest rated "potential" in the squad; they deserve new contracts too but I can't give them and unlike Galbraith they're not in the final year of their contracts yet.
Match: St. Mirren - Hibernian
First XI: Brown, Hanlon, Dickoh, Welsh, Stevenson (MoM), Rankin, Thicot, de Graaf, Duffy, Trakys
Subs used: Nish (60 for Duffy), Hart (70 for Welsh), Galbraith (70 for de Graaf)
Commentary: We have to switch out a lot of the side due to tiredness. We have some success early with an attacking approach even though its an away match, trying to put the supposedly weaker Saints under pressure. However, we don't actually profit, and are fortunate when a St Mirren header loops into the net that the taker was judged to have fouled in making space, and it's a scoreless first half. We've fallen off some; I know the previous two matches were really tough ones, Rangers and Porto, but it's now two goals in five halves, and a lot of that time seeming outplayed - you can take that back another two halves for the first Porto match if you want. It's a sign we're not that good, at least not yet. And as if to emphasize, we make a meal of a play in the back and the Saints score in the 47th. We crack on another set piece just moments later, it's 0-2. The utterly useless Duffy misses three shots... but de Graaf, whom I'm similarly ready to brand useless, gets his head to a cross and pulls one back for us, 1-2 on 62. His replacement (exhausted) at MR, Galbraith, celebrates his new contract by doing the same late, 84th minute, we've drawn level. Is there a winner for either side? Almost for Nish, but keeper Gallacher came out correctly to cut it off. We've got another go, Nish looking to run onto a ball, he's taken down by the defender. It's a good card to take, as we've shown no aptitude at scoring off central free kicks. Rankin sends it off the wall for a corner, could have been a late chance but it's taken poorly.
Score: 2-2 ((McGowan 47, Potter 50 - de Graaf 62, Galbraith 84)
League Position: 5th
Final Thoughts: Good comeback after a poor beginning. Both sides looked vulnerable to the ball pumped into the box from the side, in our case it was a pair of set-play situations, in St Mirren's it was the deep cross from the sides. A win and two draws from our opening matches leave us 5th.
I'm thrilled to see an international break, we're really exhausted and we don't have many callups, so this is a chance to get back onto a more even keel. Including the friendlies, we've played 13 times in 51 days, with five of the first seven matches that count being of the high-pressure variety, and we were down first one of our creative midfielders, then two.
Our international callups are Ian Murray for Scotland, Valdas Trakys for Lithuania, Souleymane Bamba for Ivory Coast, and Paul Hanlon and Daniel Galbraith for Scotland U21. Okay, after writing this, one more - Francis Dickoh for Ghana.
It's pointed out to me that one player, Merouane Zemmama, has a contract expiring at an odd time, 1st March - six months out. I can't offer him an extension as I've never seen him play. He's in his 5th year, one of which was a loan to Al-Sha'ab in UAE, statistically he seems to have played pretty well, but with the knee injury, I've not seen him at all. I think he's expecting a big contract, at 26 he ought to be entering his prime and the measly 1500/week we pay him, which is about all that fits in the budget during this season, is almost certainly not going to keep him here. For his own flexibility, if he stays for another year he'll be eligible for GB citizenship - he ought to do that, but that will be his decision. In fact a gentle testing suggests his agent is going to ask for 7500, which is so completely out of the park for the club's current financial structure that I'm now sure there's no chance he stays.
Match Summary:
Friendlies:
Hibernian - Hibernian Reserves 3-1
Hereford - Hibernian 0-3
Raith - Hibernian 1-4
Gillingham - Hibernian 0-1
Hibernian - FC Lorient 1-3
Stevenage - Hibernian 0-2
Hibernian - Aston Villa 0-1
Regular Season:
Xəzər 1-3 Hibernian (Euro Cup 3rd Qual Rnd, Leg 1) (Aliyev 31 - Huseynov o.g. 4, Mardanov o.g. 58, Trakys 82) Hibernian 5-0 Xəzər (Euro Cup 3rd Qual Rnd, Leg 2) (8-1 agg) (Stevenson 25, Wotherspoon 37, Riordan 41, McBride 44, Bamba 53). Motherwell 0-2 Hibernian 0-2 (Riordan 9, Nish 22) Hibernian 3-1 Porto (Euro Cup 4th qual. rnd, leg 1) (Galbraith 6, Wotherspoon 83, Bamba 90+2 - Hulk 35)
Hibernian 1-1 Rangers (Naismith 74, Bamba 90+1) Porto 1-1 Hibernian (Euro Cup 4th qual. rnd, leg 2) (2-4 agg) (Fernando 49 - Riordan 77) St. Mirren 2-2 Hibernian (McGowan 47, Potter 50 - de Graaf 62, Galbraith 84)End of month table summary (mostly three played)
1. Rangers 7 +5
2. Hearts 7 +4, 6gf
3. Aberdeen 7 +4, 5gf
4. Celtic 6
5. Hibernian 5
...
10. St Mirren 1 -3
11. St Johnstone 1 -6
12. Inverness CT 0 (2 played)
The transfer summary is really unfortunate and frustrating - I had a number of moves made for me before I arrived, including players I wouldn't really want. Here's the info for what's happened since I arrived:
In: GK James Dunn, 18, free, youth ctr. (spent time at Millwall, Fulham, most recently Arsenal)
Out: ML Mark Lancaster, 17, contract expired
Loan out: GK Thomas Flynn, 19, to Neath
And loan activity I didn't control:
In:
ST Darryl Duffy, 26, from Bristol Rovers (£2000)
DL Jonathan Grounds, 22, from Middlesbrough (£3800)
Out:
ST Kurtis Byrne, 20, at East Fife (contrib £200/400)
DL Callum Booth, 19, at Brechin (contrib £130/250)
DC Ewan Moyes, 20, at Brechin (contrib £0/350)
DR/MC Kevin McCann, 22, at Inverness CT (contrib full £600)
These are a disappointment; Grounds is a good DL, better than we otherwise have, but we're overpaying compared to like quality of players in the club, and we've only got him through January. Duffy, on the other hand, is rated by staff as the weakest player on the senior squad, and we're paying a salary which would equate to one of our starters - he's joint 4th highest paid. I know I'm repeating myself from the beginning of the report, but I'm that irritated. I'll probably repeat it again.
Many targets indicated no interest in us, a disappointing result. Only one actually got to a stage of negotiation then turned us down, and that's understandable, a famous Italian club offering a full ride vs. our offer of a loan. It's too early to give up on the job, and the fact that just about the whole squad will go out of contract at the end of the year does give me more flexibility than usual. But there's no doubt I find this more frustrating than I expected. Not being able to sign ANYBODY (except one youth goalkeeper) was not my expectation. And having so many players out of contract (19 total at the club) doesn't help as much as it could; if we're going to be in Europe again next year we need to be able to fill the 4/8 homegrown requirement again, which means I have to keep enough players in those categories; and there's almost nothing of value sitting in the U19 program - I've got a right midfielder and a right defender who have the potential to maybe become senior squad players, but not better (unless, of course, I'm getting poor evaluations).
Staff wise, we made two additions, after a hunt for unemployed/cheap options: we added one much better scout (I'll keep looking for more as the board allows six here, we have only two); and a coach to specialize in strength/aerobic, where we seemed to be quite poor. Coaching coverage is still very thin, so training ratings across the board are much less than I'd like; and we have three youth coaches where we probably don't need to (inherited, but board also says we should have only one). We could add two more coaches in theory - a first-team coach and a regular coach.
Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 Hibernian (Euro Cup Group E) (Ballack 30 pen, Kiessling 35, Erden Derdiyok 89 - Welsh 82)
