Wednesday, October 16, 2024

‘More alignment needed’ between Hibs & Foley

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[BBC]

BBC Scotland’s Edinburgh football reporter Brian McLauchlin has been answering your questions.

John asked: What has gone wrong with the Black Knights partnership?

Brian answered: It’s a great question, John, as it is close on a year now since news broke that Bill Foley and his Black Knights consortium were in discussions with the Gordon family and looking to invest around £6m in the club.

The deal was then formally agreed by Hibernian shareholders in February this year.

Whenever any new investment reaches a club the immediate thoughts of the supporters is how can this improve the team?

The club said at the time that while some of the money would be used to assist with the squad, funds would also go towards the infrastructure at both Easter Road and the training ground.

I am sure Foley and everyone at Hibs were not expecting to end up in the bottom six.

CEO Ben Kensell said the deal was “game changing” for Hibs, but in reality nothing on the football side has changed.

Over the next few months there must be a progress on a number of matters to enable the partnership to become successful.

On the pitch players have to deliver. David Gray inherited a bloated squad and it’s mightily difficult to move players on when they are on high wages.

Off the pitch there has to be more of an alignment between the club and Foley. Disputes behind the scenes are unhealthy for any organisation and when Foley comes out publicly, as he has done in questioning board decisions, that can only cause outcry.

So until they physically sit down and thrash out some agreement on how to move forward, there will always be people looking to criticise.

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