Exclusive – Hibs outline recruitment principles behind Black Knight tie-in
Five months on from the investment being rubber stamped, and well into a window that has seen Hibs work towards a desperately needed squad overhaul via a series of minor manoeuvres, supporters with a keen eye on the markets are entitled to ask some obvious questions. Like when, exactly, will the tie-in with billionaire Bournemouth owner Bill Foley begin to pay serious on-field dividends? And how many potential match winners might be borrowed/temporarily reassigned from other clubs in the Black Knight stable?
New Hibs sporting director Malky Mackay is in regular communication with Bournemouth counterpart Simon Francis, himself newly appointed to the top job after Liverpool swooped for technical director Richard Hughes. David Gray, the four-time interim head coach appointed manager during the brief close season, has spoken about augmenting the current squad – once a lot of the deadwood has been shifted – by quality additions on a par with, for instance, January loan signings Myziane Maolida and Emi Marcondes (who was a Bournemouth player).
The ambition is obvious. Hibs intend to carry out their own recruitment – Josef Bursik, Warren O’Hora and Marvin Ekpiteta so far – to build solid foundations. Before turning to Foley’s network for, they hope, a couple of marquee additions … potentially worth much more than the £6 million buy-in cleared by shareholders back in February.
Mackay insists any co-operation with Bournemouth will be done on the basis of what Hibs need, saying: “We’re certainly going to try, put it that way. Myself and Simon Francis is the communication angle, he’s new in his job but has been at the club; he’s now the sporting director now that Richard Hughes has gone. He’s going to have his own mindset on their needs in the new role.
“But we will have an ability to have conversations. I’m certainly going to go down, spend a bit of time down there. There are a lot of facets of sports science, the academy, best practices we can share.
“Obviously recruitment is the one area everyone wants to focus on. But that’s got to be based on a player, a very specific player who is going to come and make a difference to our team.
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