Former Hibs boss in emotional 'Sunshine on Leith' admission amid 'let down' claims over contract dispute
Bobby Williamson on finding Broony - and training-ground antics of Riordan and O’Connor
For a man effectively handed his jotters by Hibs as a surprise birthday present, Bobby Williamson retains a remarkable degree of goodwill when talking about his old club. Easter Road will always, he insists, hold a special place in his heart.
So, sure, he’s happy to lay out the details of how it all ended. The much-travelled manager certainly doesn’t pull any punches with his allegations of fast dealing in relation to a five-year contract that, in retrospect, he should have read more closely before signing.
David Gray as popular as Franck Sauzee
Yet there’s genuine warmth and real emotion as he talks about the footballing culture around the club. He loves telling stories about some of the wild young bucks he helped through their first steps in the senior game.
There’s an understanding, on his part, of why supporters kept signing the name of Franck Sauzee even after Williamson had replaced the living legend as gaffer. And a belief that fans will retain a similar level of affection for David Gray.
A man who has travelled the world, fought cancer and penned a no-holds-barred autobiography full of surprise revelations, Williamson is far from a soft-hearted sentimentalist.
Which makes it all the more surprising when, visibly welling up, he reveals: “When Hibs finally ended all those years of waiting by winning the Scottish Cup, I defy anyone not to be moved by those scene. I’ve got a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat just thinking about it now, the fans singing Sunshine on Leith – magical scenes.”
In conversation with The Evening News, Williamson stressed: “I enjoyed my time at Hibs. I've been reading things about how it was turbulent and what not, but it wasn't, it wasn't like that.”
The former Kilmarnock, Plymouth Argyle, Chester, Uganda, Gor Mahia and Kenya gaffer famously likened replacing Sauzee at Easter Road to being asked to follow Frank Sinatra on stage. As a Scottish Cup winner with Killie, though, he was keen to face the challenge.
“Aye, Franck was a hard act to follow, to be honest,” said Williamson, whose book, Out of Easterhouse, is officially released next month. “He was very, very popular. And understandably, because he was a fantastic football player.
“For one reason or another, things never panned out for him, or worked out for him as a manager. But even when he left, the fans still loved him.
“Even when I was manager, they were chanting his name, which I never found a problem. You can understand why, because he was such a fantastic player.
“And I’m sure fans will be the same about David Gray. Because he’s another Hibs legend who did so much for the club.”
Scott Brown first sighting left gaffer convinced
Williamson’s own period at Hibs coincided with the emergence of some genuine top-class talent. Not least a hyperactive teenager by the name of Scott Brown.
Revealing just how this youngster had come to his attention, Williamson said: “Oh, that was on a pre-season run. I’d never seen him before.
“It was in a group of maybe 40 players, all doing the Arthur’s Seat run. I was at the finishing line, and I'm waiting for them all to come back.
“I see this wee boy coming down the hill. And I thought: ‘Is that one of ours?’ And then a big Mixu Paatelainen is about 50, 60 yards behind him.
“So wee Broony comes running all the way down, runs past me. And I shouted to him: ‘Are you cheating? Are you cutting corners?’ He tells me he ran the whole thing.
“So I asked Mixu if the lad had cut any corners. He said: “No gaffer, I just couldn’t catch him!’
“And I thought to myself: ‘If that boy can play, he’ll be in the team. Jeez, he’ll be playing.’ Anybody with eyes in their head would have realised he was going to be a player.”
Garry O’Connor and Derek Riordan were already in the first team when Williamson arrived. Whatever trouble the pair might have attracted away from football, the new gaffer found a strike pairing who loved the game.
“They were all easy, honestly,” he said. “They loved training. The only problem that caused was we only had one minibus to take us to training.
“Some players would take their cars to the training area, wherever we were training that day, and some would be on the minibus. And it would always end with the older players shouting at the young boys to get on the bus so they could get back and get changed and get away.
“But those two, they were always working on their skills, control and shooting, control and shooting. And I never had a problem.
“They had quite a lot of problems off the park, just with the people they ran about with, and things escalated once or twice. But as a manager, they weren't a problem.”
Five-year contract ... or so he thought
Williamson genuinely thought he was going to be at Hibs for the long haul. Which is why he committed to a five-year deal. Only to find out that the club weren’t quite so wedded to the idea.
Discussing the breakdown in relations with the late Rod Petrie that led to the gaffer joining Plymouth Argyle in April of 2004, he said: “Did I feel let down? Aye, big time.
“When I spoke to Rod and the directors, I said: ‘Look, I need a five-year deal.’ Because I knew we had to start from scratch, move older players out – because the Sky money had just gone from Scottish football, if you’ll remember.
“If we were going to develop youth, it wasn’t going to happen overnight. You get good games, bad games, indifferent performances … so I needed time.
“I thought I'd sign a five-year deal. And I never read the small print. To be honest, I'm not big on contracts.
“But about a year later, actually August 13, my birthday, I’m driving through to Easetr Road and my wife phones me to say we’ve got a registered letter for me from Edinburgh. I said: ‘Oh, I’ve got a good idea what that’s going to be …’
“She opened it and told me they’d put me on a year’s notice. There was a clause in the contract saying they could give me a year's notice at any time, without any reason.
“And so my contract was, in fact, just a year's contract, wasn't it? Not five years, like I thought.
“I know Rod was doing everything for the best for the club. And the money they offered me was too much for the club at the time because Sky pulled it, and they wanted me to renegotiate. So that's what happened.
“I signed it. But I felt it would be difficult to work with Rod after somebody looked me in the eye, knowing they'd pulled the wool over your eyes, actually. And I thought: ‘Well, I'm out of here when a chance comes along.’
“But as I said, it was all Rod doing what he thought was best for the club. And, whatever happened, I still loved my time with Hibs. That doesn’t change just because of how it ended.”
OUT OF EASTERHOUSE, The Bobby Williamson Story By Bobby Williamson (Pitch Publishing), publishes 12 October 2026, RRP £25.00