Hibs boss reveals crucial details of ambitious vision - with a promise to fans

Gray at the Hibs Training Centre this week. | SNS Group

Under new management and under pressure to perform, Hibs head into their first pre-season friendly knowing that today’s glorified bounce game against Edinburgh City is no more than a leg-stretching exercise for players who went through one of their toughest training days of the summer yesterday. But David Gray has been around long enough to know that supporters will still be watching closely. Looking for answers to a question that’s been asked since he was appointed gaffer earlier this month.

What does a Hibs team under Gray’s guidance look like? How, exactly, will his style and tactics differ from those of Nick Montgomery, Lee Johnson, Shaun Maloney, Jack Ross et al?

“I’m not one for philosophies,” is how the Scottish Cup-winning captain responds when asked the question, the former fullback adding: “I don’t like that word.”

Spend any time talking football with Gray and you’ll come to understand that he wants his team to have an “identity” partly based on their flexibility to adapt. That he was clearly growing frustrated in playing a supporting role as part of successive managers’ back room staffs.

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He’s got some fixed ideas. Including handing a more mature Martin Boyle a bigger leadership role in the group. And, on a personal level, leaning on the one quality that set Gray apart from his rivals for the job – his understanding of how it feels to be part of a successful Hibs team.

Admitting that he was hurt by last season’s failures and the subsequent departure of Montgomery, Gray stressed: “But the players are the most important part of a football club - and we need to try to get the best out of them all the time. It’s our job as coaches to maximise that.

“They also need to recognise the responsibility of playing for such a big club and the opportunity to play in fantastic stadiums like Easter Road, Tynecastle, Celtic Park, Ibrox, Pittodrie. I’ve had a taste of it, I’ve lived and breathed it - what it looks like and how successful it is.

“I can also relate to them because I’ve sat there. I know how good it can be and what it feels like when things are going well. It’s a message I’ll be putting to the players all the time.”

On the Xs and Os side of his planning for the new season, Gray stressed: “I like to have more of an identity to my team. It’s not about a fixed system, absolutely not. Working in Scotland and being around the leagues as long as I have, I know the need to be flexible and adaptable is really important.

“But whatever shape I’m playing there needs to be non-negotiables. The obvious ones is hard work with and without the ball - we attack with 11 and defend with 11 all the time. And I think if we can get to the point where we are fitter.”

The need to improve fitness was something Montgomery acknowledged when he inherited the squad from Johnson last September. The straight-talking Yorkshireman definitely had some questions about the pre-season programme of summer 2023.

Gray isn’t restricting his work to improving the athleticism of his charges, though, the 36-year-old pointing out: “My job as coach is to improve every player every day tactically, technically, physically and mentally. That’s the four key areas we will target every single day.

“Mentally is the big one for me at this moment in time. When you get it right at this club it’s a fantastic place to play. I’ve been so lucky to experience many highs here and that’s the message I will relay to the players all the time - how good this place can be if we get it right.

“But firstly how important it is to perform every Saturday because the fans will get behind you straight away if you’re showing that level of desire and intensity. That’s what my teams will always have, they’ll be fit and will play with an intensity and aggression with and without the ball.”

Stressing the importance of character to everything he’s trying to achieve, Gray explained: “When I think back to any successful team of which I’ve been a part, it’s been built on the core of the players who are there. It’s difficult when you lose the likes of Paul Hanlon, Lewis Stevenson, David Marshall - three big characters and exceptional professionals, which is why they’ve had the careers they’ve had for as long as they’ve had.

“When you lose guys like that, it’s important to replace that in your dressing room with some fresh blood, but with a mix of youthfulness and experience. You need to get the blend right. It’s so important.

“When you think about the investment and the position the club is in, we managed to get the likes of Emiliano Marcondes and Myziane Maolida on loan last season. If we can get the core of the squad right and sprinkle a bit of that over it, it bodes well for Hibs going forward and that’s what we’re working towards all the time.”

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Perhaps surprisingly to some, given his summer flirtations with A-League suitors, Boyle is being viewed as an important part of Gray’s rebuild. And the Socceroos winger may even become a foundation stone in the reshaped squad.

“Martin is someone who is extremely effective in this league and a massive part of what I would like to do moving forwards,” said Gray, who spoke with the veteran soon after taking over. “It was a straightforward conversation along those lines of me telling him: ‘This is where I am, this is what I think of you, and I need you to be the type of player I know you can be.’

“He’s craving a little bit more responsibility within the group, not just on the pitch because he’s delivered on many occasions for Hibs over the years, but every single day at the training ground. He’s a senior player now and younger ones will look up to him and rightly so, and he’ll continue doing what he has done which is take this club forward.”