David Gray responds to ex-teammate who named Hibs ace 'embarrassing' with Scottish Cup hero landing response
The star won the Scottish Cup at Hibs and held nothing back on a current player - with Gray responding.
David Gray has responded to a former Hibs player’s comments on Elie Youan at the weekend.
2016 Scottish Cup-winning midfielder Marvin Bartley hit out at the Frenchman during Saturday’s 4-1 Premiership defeat to Dundee, as he did keepie-uppies directly after Jordan Obita was sent off. Hibs are back in action on Tuesday against Aberdeen at Easter Road.
A former teammate of the head coach, boss Gray insisted no malice in what Youan was doing as he responded to the comments. He said: "I think anyone who knows Élie Youan knows he loves football. That's when he's happiest; when he's on the pitch," the Easter Road head coach explained.
"I'd fully understand it if the game was about to go on, or I hadn't got the information on, or if I'd pulled all the players across and he wasn't over and was doing his own thing. Then I would understand exactly the magnitude of making the point about it.
"But I didn't see it at the time. My information went on very quickly as to what we wanted to do at the red card, especially for the next five minutes, which was to see what Dundee would do because of how well we started in the game. The plan was passed on very quickly, he knew exactly where he was, and he went into position very quickly.
"I think a lot's been made of it, but if you actually know him, I don't think there's any malice in what he was doing. I understand why the question would be asked, and why Marvin singled it out and gave his feelings on it."
Bartley had said: “It’s embarrassing. It sums it up at the moment that he’s been allowed to get away with this. Not only is he doing it, he’s got players looking at him and allowing him to do it.
“So either he does what he wants and he doesn’t listen anyway, OR, the players don’t care. I don’t know which one of the two it is. But that is not acceptable. You’ve just had a player sent off. Get across to your manager, find out what you’re going to do for the next 10 or 15 minutes to see this game out until half-time or whatever else it might be. But doing that… that just sums up the players.”