How Hibs legend Blackley's priceless advice - and Fergie's Man United standards - shaped gaffer Gray

Gray credits Easter Road legend for giving him the tools to score the biggest goal of his career, as Hibs burst their Scottish Cup hoodoo in spectacular fashion. | SNS Group

A one-liner from the Hibs legend they call Sloop taught David Gray a valuable lesson about management. And led to the Scottish Cup-winning captain’s finest moment in football.

The new Hibs boss, aiming to become famous for more than his late headed winner against Rangers at Hampden on one glorious day back in May of 2016, has been a student of management since long before he retired from playing to take on a coaching role under Jack Ross. As a young player coming through the ranks at Manchester United, where Sir Alex Ferguson’s influence and legacy was virtually baked into the foundations, he learned a lot about setting standards.

Yet he harks back to the less elite environment of a loan spell at Plymouth Argyle, where Easter Road legend John Blackley – Sloop, to give the Hibs Hall of Fame inductee his full Beach Boys-inspired nickname – was on the coaching staff, for one of the most lasting pieces of advice he ever received. A nugget he has already passed on to the Hibs players now under his guidance.

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“I worked with John Blackley who taught me something that will stay with me forever,” said Gray, taking a rare half hour – in between training sessions and meetings – to chat at the secluded training ground being used by Hibs for their training camp in the Netherlands, the former right back adding: “And I use it now, with heading the ball. I was told to ‘throw your eyes at the ball.’

“Just a little line that has stuck with me. It might be the reason I’m still at this football club - because I threw my eyes at the ball once in the 92nd minute!”

Gray is very much a hands-on coach. Someone who understands the importance of getting the small things right; anyone can put on a session, but proper coaching is all in the detail.

Having worked under all sorts of football folk, as a coach as well as a player, Gray feels like he’s got a decent library of knowledge, saying: “It’s all about picking up little nuggets of information and things you like. Nobody is a proper inventor in football. You’re always tweaking and adapting things, what you think is right and wrong and how you can make it better.

“Ultimately, I want to be the best coach I can possibly be. The only way to find out if you’ll get there is by having success at the end of it.

“It’s not until I got to 26 or 27 and I was doing my coaching badges that I stopped to think about simple things, like why is the training pitch or possession box a certain size. When I was 16 or 17, I never thought about that. Or how hard it is to put cones in a line! As a player you just take it for granted because everybody does it for you.

“But I got to that on my B Licence and from that point on, I started to think: ‘Why are we doing this?’ Rather than: ‘The manager is telling me to do something, so I’d better do it.’

“I would encourage players, not even at the end of their careers, to start looking at coaching, because I believe it improves you as a player. You start to think about the game a little differently. 

“I benefited from that; it made me think about what I wanted to do after football. Because at that point, it was just about being the best player I could be all the time. So it definitely helped me.

“Now, having retired from playing and having worked with the previous four managers, I can take what I believe are the good bits from people. But I’m also thinking about the coaches and managers I had as a player. What did I like about them, what did they do well, what did I not like?

Gray back in his Man United days. | SNS Group 0141 221 3602

“I was very lucky that when I was at Manchester United, they had the best manager in the world at the time, maybe the greatest ever – he certainly is from my point of view. But that understanding of what I felt at that age, the players there at that time, how the culture was. I was very, very lucky to be involved, although not at first-team level as often as I would have liked - I just wasn’t at that level.

“But you’re still working away; it filtered throughout the club - the standards that were set. And that’s definitely something I’ve taken a lot from. A lot of things I learned there I still use now, and I’ll continue to use them.”

Clearly a planner and a thinker, someone who will want the set-up for every session to be just so, Gray seems to understand the inherent madness – one that afflicts all coaches – of trying to impose order on a chaotic game like football. Because, whatever plan you might draw up on paper and rehearse on the training ground, the guy in charge of the opposing team will obviously have an impact on your team’s ability to deliver.

Invited to provide more detail about how HIS Hibs team will look, then, the 36-year-old said: “I’ve always said there’s no right or wrong way to play. But it changes so much in Scotland. 

“Going to Celtic Park and Ibrox is a completely different challenge to playing against Celtic and Rangers at home. The challenge always changes. Going up to Ross County is another completely different challenge. You need to be adaptable and flexible – and recognise that everyone can beat everyone in this league.

“All the work we’re doing on opposition teams, they’re doing on us. So we need to be flexible and adaptable and, if it’s not working, we need to find another way to work. And we will try to do that all the time, to make sure players are comfortable with that.

“It’s not about the system, there’s no right or wrong way to play. But there is a right or wrong way to play certain opponents.

“It’s important the players are comfortable with being in dual positions. Chris Cadden is a prime example of this; he can play anywhere up the right side. At times we’ll be able to flip and change without making a sub; being able to tweak it and having that flexibility in games.

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“That’s where it’s important to know the league and know the opposition, and the strengths and weaknesses of the players. I’m in the fortunate position of knowing all the players. I know what they can do.

“You’re not going to get it right all the time but it’s on me and the coaching staff to recognise when we need to make a change to help the lads.

“You want to give them every possible chance. If we can do that, along with the players putting in maximum effort and having that desire not to concede but also be a threat in the opposite box, then it should be a good recipe for success.”