'Hibs support will be eternally grateful to Sir Tom'
Despite the defeat at Parkhead, Hibs came out of last weekend's fixtures in a marginally stronger position than we went into it. St Mirren's win over Dundee United means we can't finish lower than fourth, and with Aberdeen's defeat damaging their goal difference more than Celtic did to Hibs', it means Hibs will finish in third place if they better or match Aberdeen's result against Celtic when we face St Mirren on Wednesday night.Nicky Cadden won the club's men's player of the year award on Sunday night; he's had a great impact on the team and is a deserving winner. My own vote went for Jack Iredale, but I could have picked from four or five players, so there are no complaints for 'Nadden' picking up the award. He can feel slightly aggrieved at not winning the 'moment of the season' award for his injury time equaliser against Aberdeen in November. Aberdeen, of course, went ahead again that night, only for Rocky Bushiri to steal a late equaliser with seconds to spare and subsequently pick up the award.It was a pivotal moment in the team's season, and it's brilliant to see Rocky get the recognition after also picking up the players' player of the year award. We're all hopeful he extends his stay at Easter Road beyond this summer.Finally, the Hibernian family were rocked with the sad news that Sir Tom Farmer had died on Saturday morning. Sir Tom is a hugely significant figure in Hibs' history, stepping in at a time of crisis to save the club from the clutches of then Hearts chairman Wallace Mercer, who sought to wipe the club out.Not only did Sir Tom keep the lights on at Hibs, but he also facilitated the rebuild of Easter Road into the modern ground we have today - the biggest football stadium in Scotland's capital - and the build of our training centre in East Lothian. He also helped deliver, finally, the Scottish Cup in 2016. The Hibs support will be eternally grateful to Sir Tom and my thoughts go to his family and friends.Matty can be found at Longbangers, external
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Hearts posted a £1.2m operating loss, and a £4.4m overall loss, in their accounts for season 2023/24 when they also did not play European group-stage football. 'It's a big gap, there's no doubt about that,' he acknowledged. 'We're not looking to decrease the investment in the squad, so the Tony Bloom investment is very important to allow us to do that for at least a season. We don't want to just spend the Tony Bloom investment on plugging gaps, but the timing is quite important whilst we establish a better player trading model than we've had. When we talk about the analytics, bringing in better players, there's two pieces to that. Firstly, we're better on the pitch and we do better. But then if those players do better and we do better, then their value is likely to increase and we're likely to sell. Brighton EPL progress and USG title win in Belgium 'If you look at the models of Brighton and Union, that's the way it works. 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Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'So, the investment that we're expecting to come in soon will be very helpful in allowing us almost to transition and change the business into a business that does break even. We're not looking to make profits, we're looking to get all the money back into the club. We're not looking to pay dividends or anything like that. It's to break even, but part of that will be significantly better player trading.' Which means players being sold when their value peaks. Trimming the squad is something Hearts are actively working on. 'Some of it will depend on who goes out because I think fundamentally, and we've talked about this previously, but Derek shares the view that the squad's a bit bloated at the moment. It's a bit too big,' admitted McKinlay. 'We've had some out of contract but not that many. There are others that are more on the side. 'That's always the risk in football. It's quite often that you bring in before you go out and that's always quite nervy from a board perspective. We're comfortable with the direction that, by the end of the window closing, we will hopefully have the squad size that we want with the quality of player that we want.' • Read the second edition of our exclusive three-part interview with Andrew McKinlay on Wednesday at
