Hibs aiming for "the very top" says Mackay as he preaches need for "sustainable" transfer model
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Hibs sporting director Malky Mackay insists the football department must be “prudent” and “respectful” of the money already ploughed into the club by the Gordon family, as he sets out a long-term plan to challenge “at the very top” of the Scottish Premiership. Mackay, speaking to club TV to reflect on a January transfer window that yielded just one signing in former Barcelona prospect Alasana Manneh, said the mid-season mission had been to look only for certain starters.
“We had to make sure that if we were going to bring players in, they were going to be someone that could affect the first team,” said the experienced former manager. “I think it's important that we don't break the team cohesion, the momentum that's going at the moment and that kind of culture among the squad.
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Hide Ad“So we brought in Alasana Manneh into our midfield and as far as the rest of the squad was concerned, we made sure that if anyone else was going to be considered, they had to actually make sure they could break into that starting XI. That wasn't the case.
‘Sense of excitment’
“And the model going forward is to make sure that our short-term and our long-term goals are sustainable. We've just got to make sure that what we do is best for the club.
“So our younger ones will go out and get experience. There'll be people who will be leaving the club at the end of the season.
“That brings a sense of excitement as far as we're concerned because it allows the squad to evolve again. It allows us to be able to be sustainable and make sure that the club is a going concern going forward in terms of making sure that there is a balance to the budget, the financial side of the football club.
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Hide Ad“We have got an alignment with our ownership model and the fact that they back us in the short term and also the longer term plan for the football club and the team evolving and the hopefully sustained success.
“We obviously want to try and get top six then we want to get to Europe, but you want that to be year in, year out like every club does. If players are here, there's a good reason that they're at the football club.”
Stressing the need to bring a financial balance to the team rebuild inevitable at a club with 15 players heading out of contract at the end of the season, Mackay said: “Obviously we look at every position in the pitch. We try and have a starter, a cover and then a development player for every position in the pitch. We'll sit down with David Gray, and we'll look at the amount of players that he wants to have generally and what a squad would look like.
“Who's going out of contract? Are those positions, are those players that are going to be kept by the football club if they want to?
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Hide Ad“The cost of each position, for each position for the actual budget where we have to be prudent in terms of what that is - and be respectful of our ownership and how much money they've actually put into the football club. We've got to make sure that that balances.
“Then we’ll go and try and get the best deal for the football club in each position so that when we start again in the summer, by the time we hit that first of September, we have a squad model that fits financially to the football club, fits in terms of a balance with each position, that there is a challenge in each position.
“That’s the biggest thing, to make sure that we keep evolving, that the quality of the players we can get are better than the ones that are leaving the football club. That’s said with the greatest respect, but we've got to keep trying to push to make sure that the people that go out there on a Saturday and wear that Hibs badge do it with pride.
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Hide Ad“We have to make sure there’s a reason our fans are there cheering them. Because they are top pros and top players that are actually going out there and actually managing to challenge at the very top of this division.”
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