Exclusive:Hibs driven to end 50-year European wait - and why David Gray is so desperate for a return to UEFA competition
After Midtjylland, Partizan and Legia adventures, Easter Road side chasing historic back-to-back qualification
History is a great teacher, for any student willing enough to pay even passing attention. And lessons from the past can almost always add perspective to the scale of any present-day challenge.
As Hibs look to repeat last season’s achievement of qualification for European football, the size of the prize up for grabs should not be underestimated. After all, it has been half a century since Hibs graced proper, grown-up, full-fat UEFA club competition in back-to-back campaigns.
That’s a stat that looks and sounds wrong, doesn’t it? And, yes, some will point to the Easter Road club’s Intertoto Cup campaigns of the early 2000s in a bid to bolster the official European record. Please. Be serious.
UEFA’s ‘Inter-two-bob Cup’ doesn’t count
The last time Hibs spent a close season preparing to follow up one actual European campaign with a crack at another was in the sweltering summer of 1976. Should David Gray’s men finish fourth to guarantee themselves a place in the Conference League qualifiers, they’ll be ending a 50-year wait.
Gray, who likes to cite history as a way of inspiring his team, grinned when asked if he knew just how long it had been since Hibs did the whole back-to-back European adventure thing, telling The Evening News: “I don’t, actually. But I’m going to use it now!”
The Hibs boss, who loved every minute – well, almost – of this season’s encounters with Midtjylland, Partizan Belgrade and Legia Warsaw, added: “I know what the expectation is of this football club. But the history is we've not done it consistently enough.
“It starts by making sure you're in that top six year after year. As I said at the start, that is the minimum requirement of where a club should be. The history says we've not done that often enough.
“And I think to do that straight away, you've got to do something to build on. It gives you a bit of momentum.
“And now, as you've already said, we've finished third last season. We got to Europe last year.
“This season, there is still a strong chance to get European football again. Which should be our aim at the start of the season.
“That's a genuine ambition for the football club. And something that we set out right for the start of the season to do.”
Turnbull’s Tornadoes were European regulars
Looking back through the stats, Hibs did compete in some sort of UEFA-sanctioned football for three straight seasons in the early part of the century, ‘qualifying’ for the Intertoto Cup either side of their involvement in the 2005-06 UEFA Cup. But the Inter-two-bob, as it was known by fans who understood its value as a competition where clubs could simply ask to take part, should never be mistaken for genuine European football - and it was scrapped by UEFA in 2008.
Not quite the real thing ...
| 2004-05 | Intertoto Cup second round - Vetra |
| 2005-06 | UEFA Cup first round - Dnipro |
| 2006-07 | Intertoto Cup third round - Odense |
If we’re restricting discussion to the genuine article, then, you have to go back to the five-season run of consecutive European qualifications that ended in the 1976-77 campaign. Turnbull’s Tornadoes were regulars on the continental stage, as befitted a club who already boasted a proud history.
Five in a row for Eddie’s adventurers
| 1972-73 | Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final - Hajduk Split |
| 1973-74 | UEFA Cup second round - Leeds United |
| 1974-75 | UEFA Cup second round - Juventus |
| 1975-76 | UEFA Cup first round - Liverpool |
| 1976-77 | UEFA Cup second round - Oster |
Hibs have endured some lengthy absences over the years. They were gone for over a decade between season 78-79 and their return in September of 1989, while there was almost as long a gap between exiting the UEFA Cup in September of 1992 and returning to the same competition in season 2001-02.
In recent seasons, a sort of stop-start pattern has been established. Qualify for Europe. Then struggle in the league, missing out on a quick return. Before making it back into UEFA competition a season or two later.
Gray has a simple take on why it’s just so damned hard to qualifying on a more regular basis, declaring: “This is a technically easy answer. Because there's 11 other teams in the league here!
“I think there is a lot of strength and depth in competition. So even when you look at the Hearts ownership, how that changed. The job being done at Motherwell, Falkirk coming up this season.
“Rangers and Celtic are always strong in the league. The investment from Aberdeen. I know they've changed managers this season and are maybe in transition.
“But everyone's chasing that European football, the money that goes with it. They’re big football clubs in Scotland, all with high expectations. And I think that's what makes it so competitive.
“Look at what teams like Motherwell and Falkirk have done this season. That makes it even harder for everybody to be consistent.”
Currently three points behind Motherwell in the race for the final guaranteed qualification spot available via the Scottish Premiership table, Hibs hope to overtake the Steelmen during the closing six games of the domestic campaign. Finishing fifth will only secure a UEFA spot in the event of Celtic going onto win the Scottish Cup.
The fact that Hibs have become semi-regulars in continental competition, with three European campaigns under their belt in the last five seasons, is definitely a sign of progress. And the fact that they are widely considered realistic contenders to qualify certainly helps when it comes to attracting talent.
“When you're bringing players to the club, you do use it,” said Gray. “So when we spoke to players in January about trying to bring them, we were able to demonstrate what European nights look like at Easter Road, how great those away days can be.
“It demonstrated the connection between not just the size of the football club and the demands of playing for it, but also the great nights that can be achieved. That is something we can offer, hopefully. You can have a fantastic career having played a lot of games, especially down south, at a high level – but never have played in European football.
“And certainly me, when I think about it from a coaching point of view, what I experienced at the start of this season, it's certainly a massive driving force for me. And something I want to experience again, that's for sure.
“It is very different as a coach. Winning when you're a player and winning when you're a manager are two very different things. I don't think you enjoy the victory for as long when you’re a manager. But by and large I did enjoy the European experience – and I’ll be doing everything possible to get back there.”