Michael Weir: Forget fans’ frustration - we need to give Hibs’ new signings a bit more time

Much of the focus among Hibs fans has been on the recruitment this summer, but I’d be inclined to give the new boys a bit longer before I make a proper judgment.

Hibs have brought in ten new players this summer. Pic: SNS

The supporters are worried about the quality of the signings but, in fairness to the manager, he’s not had a proper chance to get all of the ones he wants fully up to speed and into the team yet.

The majority of the players who have been playing recently were already at the club. For me, it’s too early to say we’ve had a disastrous transfer window, but equally it’s too early to say we’ve had a strong transfer window. Some have played a few games and others have barely played at all, but we haven’t really seen enough to make a proper call on any of them. Melker Hallberg and Jason Naismith haven’t played yet, Glenn Middleton has only played a few games, Tom James has been injured and Josh Vela is still getting up to speed.

From what I’ve seen so far, none of the new boys have jumped out and grabbed me and made me think they’ve got something special to add to Hibs, but I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that we see some of them make a proper impact in the weeks ahead.

It’s entirely natural that supporters will want to form opinions on the new boys straight away, but I think they deserve a bit more time to settle in before we go writing them all off as duds. Some players hit the ground running at a new club, but others can take a bit more time.

A few of them do look like they’ve struggling a bit with the expectation and the pace of the game up here, but one way or another they need to get themselves acclimatised quickly and step up and perform. There are high demands at Hibs and players can’t just turn in a performance every third or fourth week – it needs to be on a regular basis. Over the next couple of weeks, hopefully the manager can get more of the new boys into the team, in the heat of high-profile Premiership and Betfred Cup games, and then we can see what they’re properly made of.

I understand entirely why supporters are fearing the worst, but I’m willing to give the summer signings a bit longer to prove themselves.