Five questions for Hibs AGM as £7 million losses, Gordon family support and Black Knight plans top agenda

Nobody expects it to be all smooth sailing for the Hibs board as they face shareholders at tonight’s AGM. Losses in excess of £7 million for the most recent financial year on record will have to be addressed, obviously – and even those holding only a token investment in the club will be entitled to ask some tough questions of the current custodians.

With Ian Gordon and Black Knights representative Tim Bezbatchenko both on the top table, there should be no shortage of insight and expertise. Which means a lot will depend on the questions asked.

With that in mind, and without discounting the possibility of someone raising pies, toilets or the other genuinely important stuff that does so much to influence the match day experience, what should be the top five queries from the floor? Let’s take a stab at a handful of topics.

Should we be worried by the losses?

This cuts to the heart of everything. Ian Gordon has made it clear that the family will cover losses inflated by spending on the stadium and training ground, as well as the costs incurred in paying off two management teams in a single financial year.

The constant concern of supporters at every club in football, up to and including those owned and operated as national sporting arms of sovereign wealth funds, is what happens if/when this support is removed. You can’t just expect owners to keep throwing good money after bad, no matter how wiling they may be at the moment.

If the Gordon family announced that they were reining in their support from, say, this time next year, because they saw a path to self sufficiency for Hibs, it would be hard to argue with the logic. Depending, of course, on a number of other factors …

Bill Foley’s billions – what about them?

All over world football, rules on multiple investments – even dual ownership – are being relaxed. Hibs may have been pioneers of sorts in selling a minority stake in the club to Bournemouth owner Bill Foley in exchange for £6 million, but everyone and their cousin is now looking at multi-national, multi-club, multi-layered ownership structures.

As Foley’s representative on earth, Bezbatchenko is likely to face a few questions about his guv’nor promising – way back when – plenty of “help” in the transfer market as he talked up the prospect of making Hibs the undisputed third force in Scottish football. On the evidence of the last dozen or so games, David Gray is on track to do that this season … but fans understandably want to know if the Black Knight group are going to be putting more money on the table.

What will summer bring?

Related but not entirely the same, there will be questions about how/when the tie-in with the Black Knight stable – not just Bournemouth but Ligue 2 side FC Lorient and A-League leaders Auckland – will work moving forward. So far, it’s been fairly quiet on the transfer front, you’d have to say.

Garvan Stewart’s arrival as head of recruitment at Hibs was a Black Knight appointment following a summer when Hibs made 12 signings, none of them linked to Foley’s umbrella group. Alasana Manneh joining the team in January did nothing to change that overall picture. Heading into a summer when everyone expects massive turnover, thanks in no small part to the number of players out of contract, will all of that change?

Either by loaning players from within the group, or by providing help to sign talents otherwise beyond the reach of a club working in such a small market, the Black Knights should be able to deliver a significant step change in quality when it comes to recruitment. Should.

And the next chief executive is …?

We could start this one with a few questions about departing CEO Ben Kensell, who left his post not long before the financial results came out. There is, we’re assured, no relation between the two.

To be honest, fans don’t tend to get too excited about executive appointments until/unless things go wrong. Kensell was no favourite among supporters. Whether or not the next person appointed to the role generates any kind of feeling among the fan base may depend on events entirely beyond their control.

What about match day at Easter Road?

There are some very impressive facilities at Easter Road. So Ian Gordon claiming that Hibs offer the best match day experience in Scotland may carry some credence.

But, for ordinary season ticket holders not willing or able to pay extra for entry to a sports bar or other function suite, the overall feel remains on the basic side of comfortable. It wouldn’t take much to improve an experience that often begins with turning up early – a must for anyone travelling by car and looking to park within a mile of the ground - to find a pair of huge metal gates padlocked until exactly one hour before kick-off.

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Compared to thumping financial losses, concerns over investment and other worries, it may not seem like a priority. And Saturday’s win over Celtic couldn’t have come at a better team for the board. But you never know what topics are going to get fans excited on these occasions.

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