Mickey Weir: Hibs must use money from Martin Boyle sale to buy someone of pedigree

Unfortunately I felt it was inevitable Martin Boyle would be leaving Hibs as soon as I heard about the bid coming in.
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I'm not sure what the final fee was, but I knew it would be more than the two million offer which was previously rejected and that it would be enough for the player to move on. That kind of money for Hibs, in the current climate, is just too good to turn down. That's just football, though. Players move on.

Martin has been great for Hibs. He's got so much credit with the fans for everything he's done for us, going from being a dangerous squad player on the cup-winning team, then helping us to win promotion and being a big player in teams that got back into Europe and reached another couple of finals.

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It's nice to see there is a deal in place which will mean Boyle can come straight back to Hibs once his adventure in the Middle East is over. Though I would urge some caution. He's 28 now and will be 30 in a couple of years. Two years is a long time in football. He might not come back the same player, so we'll need to keep an eye on that situation as things develop over time.

Hibs star Martin Boyle was sold to Saudi Arabian side Al-Faisaly in the January transfer window. Picture: SNSHibs star Martin Boyle was sold to Saudi Arabian side Al-Faisaly in the January transfer window. Picture: SNS
Hibs star Martin Boyle was sold to Saudi Arabian side Al-Faisaly in the January transfer window. Picture: SNS

Regardless, he'll be sorely missed. It's very difficult to replace the Martin Boyle' s of this world. I think that'll show. His goals, assists and just his general threat made him a big player for Hibs.

I can't see us getting the points on board that we want or maybe would've got if he'd remained at the club. You can't have it both ways. You can't sell a player of Boyle's quality and still expect to push up the table. If it happens it would be great and we have strengthened in other areas with the players signed this month. But Boyle's departure will certainly affect us.

The most important thing now is to make sure we invest again and not go down the loan route. I've said that many a time, for a club to go forward you need a concrete base and loan deals don't provide that.

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I've said for a while now, we lack pedigree in a lot of areas. We've got too many players who are about potential. We need guys who have been there and done it. If you go down the route of buying for potential every year you'll come up short.

At a club like Hibs you need a core that have been round the course and build the team around that, because it won't work otherwise. You can have a couple of players with potential, but too many makes it very risky.

It will be difficult to get players in during the January window. Seven days is a big ask to go and bring someone in of quality, unless manager Shaun Maloney has been notified well in advance that the plan was to sell Boyle. Hopefully that was the case and he's already identified someone.

What's certain, from the money we've received from the sale of Boyle, some of that has to go to Maloney to strengthen his squad. There's no doubt it needs it.

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