[0762]

We've been atrocious for years now, all the talk about the process but we are currently going nowhere with zero progress on the pitch, David Gray won't last until Christmas, shouldn't have been put in the position in the first place.

Re David Gray, one must remove the emotional "legend" element regarding his tenure "at the helm". I think he has been compromised from the very beginning. However, my perception of SDG is that he was never an individual who wanted to be a manager at HFC. Very good managers "want to be managers" of football clubs and that is normally evident in the way these guys progress their careers and enhance their skills in the process. David Gray's record is dreadful and the damning thing about this record is he keeps making the same mistakes and choosing certain players who shouldn't even be in Hibs player squad at all - awful players and that includes the goalkeeper! He also trained these guys for months at EMTC and professed "things are getting better"??? Not so!! I'd love to know who made the final decision to sign the goalie, Bursik, because that action is totally unsatisfactory and highly questionable as any fool could quickly see, within weeks, he is a poor goalkeeper with very little "presence" about him - not Hibs required standard at all! Big Ross Laidlaw, an ex-Hibee at Ross County, would've been a far more logical signing than this lad, as well as Mitov who I would've expected Hibs to at least try to seriously move for such a decent Bulgarian international goalie!! What also strikes me about the Gordon family's time at HFC (as well as Ben Kensell btw!) is how quickly, on the "football front" (not the obsessive "corporate" side of things!), the Hibs 1st team has been alarmingly run down from an average/accountable group of players to the present day sham "under their watch". I perceived the "dilution" of HSL shares (and other affected shareholders like myself!) as highly questionable and unnecessary when announced at the last AGM earlier on this year. It's another strand of disaffection I have with the Gordons and Kensell as I believe a Hibs fans' presence on the shareholding side of things is a form of existential protection as debated many years ago by Sir Tom Farmer and Rod Petrie. Regarding the football side of things and SDG, I think there is a very thin "ray of hope" leading up to the sold out derby match at ER Stadium whereby a precious win and three pts would be hugely welcome at this time. Our opponents have a Euro match on Thursday and that match commitment must be seized upon by the Hibs manager to impose a solid initiative on all the players to the effect that "we can win this match v a potentially leg-weary team". My only problem with SDG is the fact I don't think he is capable of setting up (and motivating-instructing players!!) this kind of strategy in fully focusing on the opposition from Thursday to the match day on Sunday. I just hope he proves me wrong.