'It's like popcorn' - Why Lee Johnson didn't call on Hibs kids during bad run and how they stand to benefit from January rejig

There was a point during Hibs’ dismal run of form in the autumn where Lee Johnson made an off-the-cuff remark during a press conference as he responded to questions about the chances of him parachuting in some of the team’s talented youngsters in a bid to arrest the slump.
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“If we’d won the game, we wouldn’t be discussing this.” The manager had a point – had Hibs won the previous game with the ease in which they defeated Kilmarnock at the weekend, or Aberdeen last month, the clamour for some of the under-19s to be given a chance may not have been quite so deafening.

Fast forward two or three months and a handful of youngsters are regularly training with the first-team squad and occasionally getting gametime and, Johnson says, the plan is for that to continue.

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Since Johnson’s arrival at Easter Road Murray Aiken, Jacob Blaney, Robbie Hamilton, Ethan Laidlaw, Jacob MacIntyre, Oscar MacIntyre, Reuben McAllister, Kanayo Megwa, and Josh O’Connor have all been involved with the first-team squad on matchday to some extent.

Hibs defender Kanayo Megwa has been in and around the first-team squad for some time nowHibs defender Kanayo Megwa has been in and around the first-team squad for some time now
Hibs defender Kanayo Megwa has been in and around the first-team squad for some time now

"We’re constantly evaluating our young players and they’ve always got a chance,” Johnson told the Evening News in an exclusive interview. “At training last week we had Ethan, Kanayo, Oscar, and Josh O’Connor. They trained, they’ve been in and around the squad, they played well in the in-house game. If you watch the Inside Training video that came out recently you’d have seen Reuben was involved as well.

"These boys are getting exposure, and it’s not just about us needing numbers in the first team so we bring one over for that. This is planned around giving them exposure and earning their stripes with the senior lads. It’s a big change in tempo, in speed of thought, in physical strength, stuff like that but a lot of those boys have gone beyond youth football now – Jacob Blaney, Ethan, Josh O’Connor, Oscar, Robbie as well. For me, their youth football is done and the Dortmund game was a nice, if bittersweet, ending to their Youth League campaign.”

Johnson uses an interesting gastronomical analogy to describe how he views the youngsters, and points out that the club has a duty of care to the talented kids not to hang them out to dry.

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"As a team, the under-19s are outstanding. They’ve been together a long time but now they are going to break up – whether that’s with loan spells, or getting through into the first team or whatever. It’s almost like when you put popcorn in the microwave – it all pops at different times, and it’s the same with the players. Everyone pops at different times and sometimes it’s physical, sometimes it’s emotional, sometimes it’s on a psychological level in terms of being able to cope. We just want to do what’s right.”

Lee Johnson is keen to integrate more youngsters into his senior squadLee Johnson is keen to integrate more youngsters into his senior squad
Lee Johnson is keen to integrate more youngsters into his senior squad

He circles back to the debate of when to introduce youngsters to first-team activity, particularly in a match scenario, and explains that it’s about protecting them. Oscar MacIntyre’s two first-team appearances so far came against St Johnstone last season, when Hibs were comfortably ahead, and again in last month’s 6-0 victory over Aberdeen, for example.

“The idea that we should just chuck a young lad in ‘because we’re losing anyway’ is understandable, but you can easily make the team worse, and I think that’s what is sometimes overlooked. What I would rather do is get that core 14 or 15 players who can compete at the level we want to compete and at that point that’s when, say, Oscar is coming in next to a left-sided centre-half who is performing well, and behind a winger who he can give the ball to and overlap, and a central midfielder who can get on the inside. It’s about exposing him to the big environments, and the big atmospheres.

"We’re always trying to evaluate the potential and the attributes, which we know they’ve got, but then it’s the performance it takes to be ready. If we played our first team against the youngsters, the first team would smash them. But pull one or two good players, and hopefully three or four over the next 18 months, and all of a sudden you’ve got a player who has unbelievable pride playing for the club. Green blood rather than red, in terms of the way they think.”

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The youngsters have certainly benefited from the January upheaval that saw 12 players leave the club.

Hibs under-19s are 'outstanding' as a team, according to Lee JohnsonHibs under-19s are 'outstanding' as a team, according to Lee Johnson
Hibs under-19s are 'outstanding' as a team, according to Lee Johnson

"The young players are immersed in the culture and the big culture piece that I keep mentioning is what I choose to ignore and coach,” Johnson explains. “If I ignore bad behaviour or bad language from a first-team player then a young player thinks, ‘oh, I can do that’, if they’ve heard a player talk back to a coach or seen a player skip a gym session. No wriggle room. And that, over the last six to eight weeks, has made a huge difference.”

Johnson recalls friend and colleague Brian Marwood, currently the City Football Group’s Managing Director of Global Football, visiting Hibs in the midst of the poor run of form and then coming back last month and being dumbstruck by the change in mood.

"He thought it was unbelievable. He found everyone was polite, everything was clean, the training sessions were on point and the lads are fully at it. Mykola [Kukharevych] loves it, CJ Egan-Riley – who he knows from his time at Manchester City – loves it, and that’s what I’m proud of. In that six to eight week period we’ve gone from a malaise and average to poor discipline, and a swollen squad, to coming through a bad patch and getting results first and foremost in the league. The training standard has gone up, we brought two or three good players through the door, got 12 players out, and the young lads are grateful to be in and around it. That’s a big difference.”

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