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Mackay tips 'impressive' Gray to attract suitors

Mackay tips 'impressive' Gray to attract suitors

BBC Newsa day ago
Hibs sporting director Malky Mackays says "there will be suitors" for David Gray if he continues to impress as head coach.Former skipper Gray, 37, recovered from a nightmare start last season - one win in their opening 14 Premiership games - to steer Hibs to a third-place finish.This term, Gray's side took Midtjylland to extra time in Europa League qualifying and then won 2-0 away to Partizan Belgrade to bolster hopes of reaching the Conference League."It really is such a tough job for a young head coach these days, how little time they get to actually bed in but I think David has handled it really well," said Mackay."No matter how you're feeling, projecting calmness makes a big difference and David's been very impressive in terms of that. I know that if we continue to do well, there will be suitors in for him. That's just life."But I would rather that than us not doing well. I think he's done a great job, and long may it continue that he's here."Hibs were bottom of the table almost four months into last season but Mackay was always convinced the club had made the right managerial choice in Gray."I did an extensive two-and-a-half-hour interview way back when we were actually deciding who was going to be the new head coach and he really impressed me that day," Mackay added."We had a new young head coach settling into his job, who was having to deal with the flux of incomings and outgoings of a squad that had been pretty unbalanced over three years with three managers and was finding his own team."It was always going to take time. I'm fortunate that our ownership and the board gave him that time when he was under a lot of pressure. From a sporting director's point of view, where you've actually got context, you can show that to a board of directors."That's where you could see that we had the players, that training was really high quality. We had sending-offs, missed penalties and teams were winning games with five minutes to go, so there were lots of contributing factors that made you think when this settles down, we've not been playing that badly."As the season went on, you then really started to see his tactical awareness. I'm really delighted for him because he's a really good front for our football club."
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