Montgomery wants tougher Hibs as he teases new signings

There have already been three new arrivals this week in Luke Amos, Myziane Maolida, and Emi Marcondes but with Jimmy Jeggo set for a move to Australia there could be further incomings along with the much-needed central defensive option.

"It's someone we have been looking at for a while," Montgomery said when asked about the potential signing on Friday. "It's just about monitoring the situation. But this is a live one that we are really confident we can bring in and who can help us from now until the end of the season."

The Easter Road boss has already spoken of the difficulties in recruiting players during January.

"I've mentioned many times, it's not easy. We had targets in other positions and circumstances change quickly. It's important to bring in players who can impact the team and help us get to where we want to be. We know we have a lot of players coming back as well so what we can't have is a lot of players coming back and no space for them. We know the international boys and the injured boys are coming back and they are top players who will definitely be in the squad starting or on the bench and we just have to monitor that."

With Riley Harbottle joining Colchester United on loan, Hibs are in need of bodies at the back. Left-back Jordan Obita was deployed as an auxiliary centre-half against Rangers in the absence through illness of Paul Hanlon and acquitted himself well in an unusual position, but Montgomery is keen to bring in a natural player for the position.

"He has got to be comfortable on the ball, he has got to be athletic and fit into the way that we play. It is my first time recruiting players for the club so it's important to try to bring in the type of players who can sustain the way you want to play."

Revealing that the target has played 'quite a few games this season' - unlike the trio of previous January signings - the Hibs head coach hinted that it could be a permanent deal rather than a loan.

"Unless you pay a big transfer fee it is hard to find someone who has been playing week in, week out. It's a player who has had quite a few games this season. I cannot say much more than that but we are really hopeful we can bring him in next week. 

"I think it is a permanent deal. That's something we have been discussing. The big picture is that we want players and we need players for next season. To get players in now gives them a good six months to get up to speed and then a pre-season, which I did not have this season, and an opportunity to bring them in for the long term. 

"It is good to have a couple of loans like we have brought in because it is very hard to sign the quality players that we have in Myziane and Emiliano on full contacts. It is always a different situation for every player. That is something we will work out in the next week."

Now four months into the job, Montgomery returns to the scene of his first match in Scottish football in Rugby Park, where Kilmarnock fought back from two goals down to record a 2-2 draw against Hibs back in mid-September. On Wednesday night he said: "I know where we're going but right now it's a bit of short-term pain." 

But he remains confident that the tide will turn following a 'mini-rebuild' this month as he looks to get more out of his team, whose last league win came away to Livingston on December 9.

“I came in after a pre-season and with the team near the bottom of the league. There’s been highs and lows, which I expected," he explained.

“Right now, we’ve been in a bit of a mini-rebuild in this window, and there will be more rebuilding into the summer. Most teams go through these transitions, but I feel firmly bedded in. I know the expectations at this club, I knew the challenge when I took the job on. It’s never an easy challenge coming into a big club with big expectations.

“That’s why it’s important that the players I bring in understand that this is a club with high expectations. I’m in a position where I’ll get praise when it goes well, and criticism when it doesn’t. Losing a game to a team with the quality of Rangers is not going to define me or the season, but I do want us to be harder to play against. Sometimes that’s putting your opportunities away at one end, and we don't want to concede soft goals, so we’re working on it all the time."