Malky Mackay names the Hibs transfer situation he wants to reach as he opens up on Luke McCowan pursuit

Hibernian sporting director Malky Mackay | SNS Group

Malky Mackay says he wants Hibs to get to the stage of one or two additions in transfer windows going forward.

A busy summer of comings and goings saw around 30 transactions by the sporting director’s count, during David Gray’s first summer as permanent head coach. It was also Mackay’s first summer in his role at Easter Road but he would prefer for this to be as busy transfer windows get.

Acknowledging an imbalance in the squad, Mackay says the goal for Hibs now is to get to a stage where an approach of just a few signings are made instead of many. He said: "It has certainly been hectic. I think overall we need to be pleased with the business that has been done.

“11 players have come into the club and 17 have left so there is a lot of business been done in the last three months. I think there's 30-odd transactions happened in 90 days so it's quite a lot that has gone into it. We've had a window bringing 11 players into the football club and I don't really want to be doing that every year.

“I want to get to a point where as the window goes by, we are really only adding one or two players to the squad. There was an imbalance in the squad and it's something I believe over time we need to make sure that's a more rounded group of players and there is a reason you can see every player is in the building, and what their status in their squad actually is.”

Deadline Day brought Nectar Triantis and Jack Iredale into Gray’s group, while they missed out on midfielder Luke McCowan as he joined Celtic amid Hibs pursuits for him. Jair Tavares meanwhile joined Motherwell on a season-long loan and Allan Delferrière moved to Racing Union Lëtzebuerg on loan. Mackay insists he expected that McCowan deal to head to the wire on a busy day.

He added to Hibs TV: "We came into the day looking to add two, maybe three players to the group, and it took all day to be honest. For various reasons, there were others that came up, a couple talked about leaving the club, Jair has left to go to Motherwell.

“We managed to get a couple in, and there was always one we were looking at and involved in actually bidding for that we knew was going to go right to the wire. There was a chance we'd certainly be in for him, for Luke McCowan, but always on the opportunity we might not get that one."