Hibs saviour Sir Tom Farmer deserves a lasting Easter Road tribute to honour his memory

Name a stand in memory of his legacy. Erect a statue in his honour. Rebrand the entire place The Sir Tom Farmer Stadium at Easter Road, if you like.

In truth, the late Sir Tom wouldn’t have cared much for the sort of tributes and honours afforded many a lesser club kingpin in more showy corners of Planet Football. The very definition of an arm’s length owner, a man who protested his disinterest in the beautiful game just a little too much at times, Farmer was no PT Barnum type looking to rally the paying public around some sensational production.

But he was very much the saviour of Hibernian Football Club. The right man at the right time, willing to do what no-one else was by forking over £3 million – a considerable enough sum today that went a lot further back in 1990 – to stave off a very real threat to the sporting organisation that had come to represent his community over a century and more.

To the people of Leith and its surrounding areas, he bequeathed a future for Hibs. One that did not involve being swallowed whole by Wallace Mercer and city rivals Hearts. And, just as crucially, did not include a diversion into the no man’s land of administration.

Together with the fans who spearheaded the Hands off Hibs campaign, Farmer will forever be remembered as the man who saved the Hibees. In due course, he came to enjoy it when people would stop him in the street to thank him for what he did.

Long list of Scottish clubs - from Rangers to Dundee (twice) - went bust while Hibs stayed afloat

By the time he eventually sold out to Ron Gordon in 2019, insisting that he would hand over Hibs completely debt free, he’d been through the emotional wringer. Including being moved to tears by David Gray lifting the Scottish Cup at Hampden in 2016; the current manager spoke movingly yesterday about the joy he took from handing the trophy over to someone who had done so much for the club.

If you really want to understand the value of what Sir Tom delivered at Hibs, even during difficult times when fans were demanding more spending and faster progress, is to consider the following list: Rangers, Hearts, Dundee (twice), Motherwell, Dunfermline, Livingston. That is an incomplete tally of just some of the Scottish clubs who went bust, under one mechanism or another, during Farmer’s time as owner.

Speaking just after he’d welcomed in the Gordon family with kind words of confidence about their ability to take Hibs onto a new level of success, Sir Tom recalled: “Someone, a director at another club, not long after I took over said: ‘Tom, just remember, you don’t own Hibernian Football Club. You are a custodian of Hibernian Football Club. And you have to make sure it is right for generations to come’. I felt like saying to him: ‘Custodian? It’s caused me a fortune! I own this club!’ It took me a while to appreciate what he meant.

“Football is unique. I understand that now. I can go to football now and enjoy it while before it was not a case of not enjoying, I just didn’t really understand it. The truth of the matter is I worked every Saturday since I was 14.

“I worked after school, I worked on a Saturday job, and when I left school I worked on Saturdays and Sundays. That was it. Over the last ten years I have gone to more matches, and I know what emotion is, because when they won it, I was at Hampden…

“When I got involved 28 years ago I would not spend any time looking at the back pages. As the years went by I began to appreciate and realise how fortunate I was in many instances. I travelled the world for business, I met new people, I was doing new things all the time.

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“But, for many people, the two things they had was their family life and the football. I began to appreciate that. I also began to appreciate there were sometimes people said things and when you read it, you were a bit hurt.

“There was an obsession with the club, with football. They wanted things to be right. They got carried away. But a lot of people over the years changed (their tune) and became very good friends.”

In response to his passing at the age of 84, there will undoubtedly be a fitting tribute planned for next Saturday’s final game of the season. A minute’s applause, perhaps, to remember Sir Tom and show support for his family.

And after that? Well, given his role in completely rebuilding Easter Road, naming at least one stand after the man shouldn’t be considered an excessive gesture of gratitude, given the scale of his contribution.

Your next Hibs read: Gaffer Gray’s special Cup moment with Sir Tom is an emotional memory