Why Hibs fans didn't see the best of Josh Vela - and the variables of recruitment

Sporting director Graeme Mathie explains why the midfielder struggled at Easter Road

Former Hibs midfielder Josh Vela failed to settle in Scotland, the club’s sporting director Graeme Mathie has revealed.

The 26-year-old joined the club from Bolton Wanderers in the summer when Paul Heckingbottom was manager.

As a teenager he had been the subject of a seven-figure bid from Liverpool and played nearly 200 times for the Trotters, including in the Premier League before arriving at Easter Road.

Josh Vela failed to settle at Hibs. Picture: SNS

After a solid start in the green and white, Vela struggled as the team languished in the bottom half of the Ladbrokes Premiership.

His performances provoked ire from Hibs fans with his final appearance coming in Heckingbottom’s last match, a 5-2 defeat to Celtic at Hampden Park in the Betfred Cup semi-final where he was hooked at half-time.

The midfielder left in January for Shrewsbury Town, but Mathie explained the difficulties the player encountered away from the field when talking about recruitment with Bradley Halsman on the What’s InMotion podcast.

“You’re actually talking about trading human beings,” he said.

“I’ll give you an example. We looked at a player like Josh Vela in the summer. Played a number of games in the Championship in England, a very highly regarded young player, really good guy, good character and he came to Scotland and he actually just didn’t settle.

“There were so many things going on in his life with various things in his family in the north of England.

“His performances on the pitch weren’t of a level he would have wanted or we would have wanted.

“I don’t necessarily look at that and think there was a very obvious mistake in the recruitment process as such but it was that ability to come away from a club he’s been at from an area he has lived all his life and to move.

“It was difficult for him.”

‘Heavily criticised’

Hibs’ summer recruitment came in for criticism during parts of the season. But as Mathie explained, there are so many variables when it comes to signing players and the club didn’t do anything they hadn’t done before

He said: “I’ll be honest, our recruitment at Hibs in the summer for a long period of time was pretty heavily criticised so we do look at it and think ‘what are the critical aspects when you go and recruit players’.

“We recruited a lot of players who had been relegated the year before so Joe Newell at Rotherham, Tom James at Yeovil, Melker Hallberg in Denmark, Josh Vela at Bolton. But then we look back at the number of years we’ve been here and we’ve actually done that on a number of occasions.

“John McGinn was relegated with St Mirren the year we signed him and he turned out well.

“It’s something to think about but it’s maybe not a critical factor. Have they played in Scotland before? Have they played in Britain before? We were getting a whole different feedback from that project. It wasn’t just cut and dried to say players who have played in Scotland before do better, players who haven’t don’t do better. That’s the challenge.”

Mathie added: “Sometimes from a head coach’s perspective you don’t know what the process has been for that player to come in. Sometimes certain individual managers get the best out of a player that fits their style and their systems.

“There’s so many different variables I guess that’s what keeps it challenging and exciting.”