Malky Mackay exclusive on transfers, Foley investment, Youan interest

Call running into call running into call is the reason, perhaps a little reassuringly to Hibs fans on tenterhooks for summer signings, for the slightly late start to our interview. These corridors will begin to liven up again over the next few weeks, bolstered by the presence of new faces, and that ringing will remain constant. 

It is a big job Mackay has taken on. Hibs have lost key players, yet still have too many overall. Better recruitment is vital, with Brian McDermott now exiting stage left (his departure was announced after this interview was conducted). There is pressure for the appointment of David Gray - the fifth head coach in as many years - to break the cycle of managerial upheaval. Disillusioned fans must be brought back onside, but the apathy that seeped in throughout a dreary 2023/24 will not be completely shifted without significant changes.

In choosing Gray, a living legend who served under four previous managers and knows the club inside-out, Mackay feels that they have, among plenty other reasons for hiring him, given themselves a head-start. "Obviously, we have to deal with recruitment," says the sporting director, a process he will spearhead. But what does that actually involve under his guidance, and how does he envisage Hibs operating in an area which has become dysfunctional?

“We need to have a structure that works, making sure that there are reporting lines, and that it's not a scattergun approach," says Mackay. "Ultimately, everything ends up through a technical board, which I will lead. Myself, the head coach, [new technical performance manager] David Marshall, and the recruitment team – which we’re still in the process of moving around. As to how we’re going to work, it’s something I’ve got a big, big belief in – talent identification and that whole area is an absolute science, and the structure and process is something I’ve believed in since I got my first job. I was educated by a sporting director 15-20 years ago as to how we go and hunt down players.

"If you look at it, the head coach and his staff are playing every Saturday and Tuesday night, so they can’t go and watch players.  We’ve got various ways of doing it now, like Wyscout and watching on computers. It’s that hybrid blend of data and people with eyes on players. There needs to be both of that for me, where you look at the data online and then that feeds into sending people to watch and compile a number of reports. That, eventually, comes up the tree to the point where, speaking for example’s sake, I’ve got three left-backs and I go to the head coach and see what he thinks of them, and then we’ll see if we can go and get one of them.

“There’s a measured approach, a financially-balanced approach in that I know what we can afford. In that area, we’ve done lots of talking, lots of phone-calls, we’ve gone through the process, and it’s ‘here’s what we can get for the bang for our buck’. That’s the way we’re going to go about it, so there’s not a scattergun approach, not a wildcard thing that just comes out of the blue. Again, you’ve got to be balanced about everything – something could pop up out of nothing where we all go ‘wow, let’s make sure we go and do that’."

The involvement of Black Knight FC - now 25 per cent stakeholders in Hibs - adds another layer of expertise, and another source of investment. Led by billionaire Bournemouth owner Bill Foley, they acquired the stake for £6million earlier this year, their arrival on the scene has created understandable excitement among supporters keen to see how the link-up will be maximised for Hibs' benefit.

READ MORE: Malky Mackay exclusive - The inside story of why Hibs appointed David Gray

Mackay has already been in regular contact with senior group figures, including the likes of Bournemouth technical director Simon Francis, and says Hibs have their 'backing in all parts of the high performance department'. There's also the expectation that players within the group will find their way to Easter Road, as was agreed pre-injury with Owen Bevan in January. Mackay, though, stresses the club are committed to assessing whether any recommended player 'can hit the ground running in the Scottish Premiership' before signing off on a deal. As for the money available via the partnership this summer, Mackay strikes a cautious tone.

“There’s a lot more headline to that than the reality of what it is, what the investment looks like, how it’s structured, and the conversations the Gordon family and the Black Knights have had about what that money will be invested in," he says. "There’s a much more longer term relationship and plan there as to how that money is structured and what it will be invested in.

"‘There’s a lump, that’s what I’ve got to go and spend today’ – good luck with that, because that’s never happening. These are serious businesspeople, the Gordons and Mr Foley. There’s a structure to it, we’ve already seen the investment going into the stadium and the commercial side. That’s important because it brings in revenue and makes people want to go to the stadium. People will say ‘why not just throw it into the team?’ Some of that should, but there’s a lot which should be going into the infrastructure so that there’s a long term, sustained success, and money is coming back into the club regularly."

That being said, Hibs do need players, and quite a few of them, over the next few months. Assuming Riley Harbottle remains surplus to requirements, the departures of Paul Hanlon and Will Fish leave Rocky Bushiri as the only senior centre-back. David Marshall has retired, and a not-inconsiderable number of goal contributions left the building with Myziane Maolida. More could follow if Elie Youan is sold, with Mackay confirming previous reports, saying:  “There’s been significant interest in him. You can’t stop people putting bids in, and there’s a point where someone’s value reaches the worth of the football club, and it’s something we have to talk about. We’re not quite there yet, but there seems to be a number of people who are now heavily enquiring on him."

So, while immediate re-enforcements are required, the overall vision will be a multi-window process, with a key aim being to stop Hibs finding themselves in this state of squad imbalance again.

“We certainly a need a goalkeeper and we certainly need centre-backs, Will Fish has gone back and Paul Hanlon is gone," says Mackay. “There are also goals that have gone missing from the team, we’re going to need to try and replace those as well. After that, it’s ‘what can we do with what’s left?’

READ MORE: Brian McDermott to leave Hibs after 'extended discussions'

“The midfield area is quite bloated with the amount of players in there at the moment. The squad is not balanced. Ideally, you want a starter, a cover, and a development player for every position. We have the development players but we don’t have ‘there’s the starter, and there’s the covering player to come in’. We’re nowhere near that, and it’s going to take time to get there.

“What we’ve got to get to is a position where we’re going two windows ahead. We’re nowhere near that at the moment. We are in this window, right now. But if we structure things properly with good people working in good departments, you start to be able to move that out. Once you start to sign good pros and good people on longer contracts, then you can start to say ‘we don’t need to bother with that area just now because we’ve got this person for three years, let’s move on to this position…’

“You try to build that up to a point where every position has starters, cover, and developments. If one is going out of contract or we’re selling one, the next one can step up, the kids can come in, or we just need to go and get one or two players rather than wholesale change. I want us to get to a point of stability where we’re only bringing in two or three players in a window."

With 19 players out on loan last season, there will be several faces reporting for pre-season testing at East Mains suspecting that their long-term future lies elsewhere. Hurrying that process along, though, can be frustratingly slow. Despite the overload of personnel assembled by a number of different managers, Hibs actually have relatively few players out-of-contract. Several of those likely earmarked surplus to requirements have another year remaining, and Mackay expects it will be summer 2025 before he is able to fully clear the decks.

"We’re in a situation at the moment where we don’t have that many of out of contract this year, and that being the case along with the amount of loans that have left, there are gaps to plug in the squad," he says. “There are a variety of managers’ players here that have been out on loan, and I think there’s a hell of a lot that are out-of-contract next summer, and you’re maybe talking about a clean sheet of paper.

“That’s not the way it is right now. There are immediate holes that need to be plugged, and we need to do the best that we can with the resources that we have, to make sure David and myself can work on putting a team out on the pitch that gives us a real chance. But, at the same time, the squad is probably too bloated and needs to be trimmed. That’s not always easy when you’ve got people in contract that are not easy to shift.

“It [a huge turnover] can’t be this summer. There’s two categories with the players on loan – those that are young and there’s plans for them, they’re out to build up to give them to break into the first team. Then, there’s those out on loan who are professionals, who haven’t been in the manager’s plans over the last year, or last couple of years.

READ MORE: Alan Stubbs exclusive -Hibs icon on the job facing David Gray

“That group will come back in, and David will have his own thoughts over whether they are part of the plan, or if it’s better they try and start their career somewhere else. But that person also has to decide whether they want to do that or not, whether they want to sit in or go out on loan again, because a contract is a contract.

“There’s only a few out of contract this summer, but next summer it’s almost that blank sheet of paper with contracts running down no matter whether the player wants to be here or not. That’s what we’ve got to deal with as well, and it’s not straightforward."

Click HERE to read part one of our exclusive interview with Malky Mackay, revealing the inside story of why Hibs hired David Gray.