Exclusive - Why Hibs drew a Black Knight blank during summer window

Owen Bevan was all set for a loan move from Bournemouth - until injury struck. Again.Owen Bevan was all set for a loan move from Bournemouth - until injury struck. Again.
Owen Bevan was all set for a loan move from Bournemouth - until injury struck. Again.
‘We wouldn’t make a signing just for PR,’ says sporting director

Owen Bevan was the one they all wanted to happen. A loan deal for the Bournemouth defender would have been sufficiently headline worthy, in any context, to underline the value of Hibernian’s involvement with the Black Knight group.

But Hibs weren’t interested in headlines. Only players who could pitch up and produce the goods – from day one – in a Scottish Premiership that demands a certain awkward cussedness from its frontline combatants.

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That’s why they wanted a proven performer like Wales Under-21 centre-half Bevan. And why, more pertinently, they rejected the chance to sign the magnificently monikered Bonke Innocent from FC Lorient. Not because Hibs didn’t want to take a player from another club within billionaire investor Bill Foley’s sphere of influence – but because David Gray felt Nectar Triantis was a safer bet.

With A-League expansion franchise FC Auckland yet to play a game and Lorient still gathering their resources after relegation from Ligue 1, it was always likely that any ‘intra-group’ moves would involve Hibs and Bournemouth. Which is why, despite Foley’s public comments expressing a degree of frustration with the Easter Road outfit, so many fans spent Deadline Day scouring the Cherries squad lists in search of a potential gem.

Hibs sporting director Malky Mackay understands why supporters desperately wanted to see something tangible emerge from the Foley buy-in, which saw the American invest £6 million in exchange for a minority stake in their club. But Mackay is adamant that no-one wanted to make a “PR signing” for the sake of silencing a few critics.

“Should there have been a player coming out of Bournemouth who could have come up here, hit the ground running and brought something to help us compete in the Scottish Premiership, it would have been done,” stressed Mackay, who delivered 11 new signings for new gaffer Gray during a busy summer window, the veteran manager adding: “The one that we all targeted, and thought was done, was Owen Bevan.

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“That would have been a signing. But, when that didn’t happen, it’s not a case of us saying to Bournemouth: ‘OK, what’s the next one, who else do you have?’

“It needs to be someone who can handle the Premiership in Scotland – but isn’t going to be around Andoni Iraola’s squad. Most importantly, there has to be the ability to handle football here in Scotland’s top division.

“There’s no point in us signing someone for PR. That’s not something that any of us want, just to sign someone because it looks good.”

Expanding on the long-standing interest in Bevan, who had actually signed on loan for Hibs back in January, only to be sent back south due to recurring injury, a sympathetic Mackay said: “He’s a young player who went to America on Bournemouth’s tour, did really well, then picked up an injury in the game against Wrexham out in the States. He was going to be out for a month or six weeks.

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“We realised he would be back around September 1. We accepted that, said we would delay and wait.

“We all understood that, OK, the season would have started, and you’d like it to be done sooner. But he would be just about there by the time the transfer window closed.

“But unfortunately, he reinjured himself during his rehab. I don’t need to say much more about that, except that obviously the move couldn’t happen.

“So as much as there was a willingness on all sides for that to happen, it was just unfortunate. I’m gutted for the lad. He’ll be back and he’ll be more than fine, because he’s going to be a really good player.”

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During that Bournemouth tour of the States, Foley went public with his concerns over Hibs “not listening” to his advice when it came to key appointments. That was interpreted by most as direct criticism of both Mackay and Gray as candidates for the two top jobs in the football department.

Insisting his dealings with Foley’s hands-on representatives had been nothing but positive, Mackay revealed: “I can only talk from the last three months, since I’ve come in. Quite quickly when I arrived, I had good conversations with Neill Blake, who was the CEO at Bournemouth. And with Simon Francis, who is the new sporting director.

“In the past month, there has been a new chair of the Black Knight group called Tim Bezbatchenko. He has a long history in MLS, and he’s now in post.

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“He came up and spent a really good few days together here. So the communication at the moment, the conversations I’ve had, I think the relationship is as good as it’s ever been, let’s put it that way. There is plenty of backwards and forwards going on.

“Obviously the focus is on Bournemouth just now. It’s going to be different in terms of Auckland, who haven’t actually started yet, and Lorient who were relegated in the summer, so they’re trying to get themselves ready to get promoted again.

“So the conversations with Black Knight representatives are a weekly thing now. I know everybody is asking the same thing. Have they got players for us? But there are other moving parts in terms of sharing best practice. It’s a useful partnership.”

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