Boyle and Youan latest as Hibs chief gives recruitment update

The Australian internationalist's apparent refusal to play down speculation touting him for a move to the A-League when asked about links with Melbourne City and Perth Glory earlier in June prompted many fans to fear he would be on his way out of Easter Road this summer - a sobering thought given the uncertainty over Élie Youan's future as well.

But Gray has held 'honest conversations' with the 31-year-old and revealed his plans for Boyle now he is a senior player in the dressing room.

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“Martin is someone who is extremely effective in this league and a massive part of what I would like to do moving forward. It was a straightforward conversation along the lines of me telling him, ‘This is where I am, this is what I think of you, and I need you to be the type of player I know you can be’," Gray revealed this week. 

“He’s craving a little bit more responsibility within the group, not just on the pitch - because he’s delivered on many occasions for Hibs over the years - but every single day at the training ground. He’s a senior player now and younger ones will look up to him and rightly so, and he’ll continue doing what he has done which is take this club forward."

Malky Mackay also confirmed that while the club has received a number of calls about Youan, who has been linked with a summer departure, Hibs are yet to receive an official offer for the Frenchman. 

Youan will travel to the Netherlands with Hibs for their pre-season training camp next week but his future remains uncertain amid interest from France and Italy in the former Nantes youngster, who had 21 goal involvements last season. 

“There haven’t been any viable offers yet," Mackay explained. “So he’s our player at the moment, he’s an asset to the football club, and he continues to be until such times as we receive an offer that both he and we feel is the correct one for him to leave the club.”

Hibs won't budge if interested teams don't meet their valuation for the Frenchman, understood to be north of £2.5 million. 

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Meanwhile, Mackay has vowed to overhaul Hibs' recruitment department to 'take the risk factor down' when signing players. 

'We need a process and a defined way of recruiting players. All we’re trying to do is take the risk factor down in terms of players not working," he explained. 

"You want there to be a strong chance that, out of ten players [you sign], seven work out. There are always going to be one or two that don’t work out for one reason or another but you don’t want it to be just two out of ten that work out."

Transfer activity at Easter Road has come under scrutiny in recent seasons and rightly so, after a number of unsuccessful signings under various management teams. But Mackay is keen to take things back to basics, identifying players and ensuring Gray is heavily involved in deciding who the club should pursue, and who they shouldn't. 

“We will get to a point where there are a number of players for a position who we can afford, who we can get, and who will work well in our team or have potential. Once we get to that point a group of us, including David, will talk through the options. Nothing will be getting done at this football club without David’s complete involvement," Mackay promised. 

“We do this together, and we make sure that we bring in the correct characters. More leadership in the team is something we need. We want players to come in and hit the ground running and help to take the club back to where it should be.

“There’s going to be a lot of hard work involved. Some we’ll get, some we won’t, but we will work together and make sure that more often than not, the players who come in are going to be of benefit to Hibs on a longer-term basis by showing their skills on the pitch and pushing us up the league and getting us to finals and semi-finals.”