Marvin Bartley says David Gray will know “he’s running out of time” as Hibs head coach, after their 4-1 defeat against Dundee in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday.
Bartley still believes his former Hibs teammate can turn it around, but says they need a positive result in one of their next two games, against Aberdeen on Tuesday and Motherwell on Saturday.
“On his tenure so far, Dave will know that they’ve not picked up enough points,” Bartley told the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast.
“You get out of football what you deserve. Dave will know that he’s running out of time.
“He will really, really want to turn it around on a professional level, but also a personal level. It’s not been good enough. There’s no doubt about it.
“There’s a lot that’s been said about what’s happened in the boardroom level and above them, but in terms of the squad that they have they shouldn’t be bottom of the league.
“They can’t continue to lose games. They’ve got Aberdeen on Tuesday, Motherwell on Saturday, they need some results straight away.”
Hibs have only taken eight points from their thirteen league matches and sit bottom of the table.
The Easter Road side were far from favourites for relegation at the start of the season, but Bartley warned reputation counts for nothing, and the players need to start raising their standards if their fortunes are to change.
“They need to start winning games and start winning them quickly because no team’s too good to go down,” Bartley added. “It just doesn’t work in football.
“We’ve seen it before, they’re in a real relegation battle at this moment in time and until they get themselves further up the league, they can’t say they’re not.
“It’s time they show how much they really care about the manager. Are they really willing to go out there and work for him and keep him in the job?”