At the beginning of October, would-be sporting directors were invited to gather in central Manchester to learn at the feet of the ‘Golden Quadrant of Leadership’.
VSI Executive Education hosted a forum with the goal of coaching football’s future leaders in the art of crafting a clear and compelling vision for their organisation.
This included implementing strategies with precision and effectiveness, navigating challenges and changes with resilience and agility and, last but not least, inspiring and empowering their team to reach their highest potential.
Preaching this ‘unwavering dedication to excellence in every aspect of leadership’ were four representatives of Hibernian’s senior management team.
Director Ian Gordon explained to Professor Rob Wilson just how his ‘golden quadrant’ — also featuring chief executive Ben Kensell, sporting director Malky Mackay and non-executive chairman Malcolm McPherson — planned to exploit a £6million multi-club tie-up with Texan billionaire Bill Foley to deliver excellence in every area of the Easter Road club.
Hibs manager David Gray has led them to just one victory in their 12 Premiership matches
News of the forum drew predictable hilarity. Far from providing excellence at every level, the Gordon family — owners of Hibs since the summer of 2019 — have struggled to deliver excellence on any level at all.
Handing one of the biggest jobs in Scottish football to a coach wearing ‘L’ plates is only one of the bad decisions made by the men running the show in Leith. It’s by no means an isolated example.
Bottom of the Premiership, Hibs have won one of their 12 games. Saturday’s home defeat to St Mirren was the latest in a series of damaging displays which raise pressing and legitimate questions over the future of manager David Gray.
The coach should not be the only head on the guillotine.
Irrespective of whether Hibs stick by their former captain or not, there’s now a bigger question at play.
Since sacking Jack Ross the week before the team’s appearance in the 2021 League Cup final, the club hierarchy have appointed four managers in three years. In two of those three, they’ve finished eighth in a 12-team league.
CEO Ben Kensell and sporting director Malky Mackay are part of a ‘golden quadrant’ at Hibs
Bill Foley, who has a 25 per cent stake in Hibs, says his input into key decisions was ignored
The untested Shaun Maloney was followed by Lee Johnson. Chosen ahead of current Sweden boss Jon Dahl Tomasson, the Englishman lasted 15 months. After that, came a short-lived experiment with Nick Montgomery.
Fans — much like major investor Foley — are entitled to ask why they would trust the hierarchy to get anything right from here.
Last month, Gordon and Kensell flew to Las Vegas for clear-the-air talks with the Texan businessman and his Black Knight Football Club lieutenants Ryan Caswell and Tim Bezbatchenko.
Since purchasing a 25 per cent stake in Hibs for £6million in March, Foley has complained that his input into key decisions has been ignored. It’s been reported that Mackay’s appointment as sporting director flew in the face of his wishes. Handing the job of head coach to Gray, a former player with no frontline management experience, felt like an unnecessary leap in the dark.
Bournemouth FC owner Foley, whose multi-club network includes Auckland and Lorient, went public on his Hibs discontent before the summit in Las Vegas, telling the BBC: ‘I am absolutely looking out for them. If the other ownership group at Hibernian listens to us, they will do better. So far, they really haven’t been listening to our input. I believe they will listen to our input now.’
Since then, Hibs execs have opened a weekly dialogue with Bezbatchenko to strengthen ties and bring the two sides closer together. In return for a few million bucks, Foley expects some serious bang.
Garvan Stewart, Bournemouth’s head of recruitment analysis, has been asked to fix the Edinburgh club’s scouting issues — and seems highly unlikely to be the only improvement recommended by Black Knight FC.
Ultimately, a football team is only as good as the player recruitment. Signing 56 players since the sacking of Ross in December 2021, the appointment of the patently unqualified Ian Gordon as head of recruitment between October 2021 and May 2023 was a preposterous business which typified a haphazard, dysfunctional approach.
Chris Mueller, a winger signed from Orlando City, left the club after one goal, 15 appearances and four months.
The sale of Kevin Nisbet to Millwall prompted the signing of 19-year-old Norwegian Elias Melkersen, a player who had never before played on a grass pitch.
In July 2022, Belgian defender Rocky Bushiri signed a three-year contract, a week after the club had announced he was leaving.
During Gordon’s spell, the club signed 30 players. The likes of James Scott, Nathan Wood, Jake Doyle-Hayes and Jamie Murphy failed to make any real impact and the list is by no means exhaustive.
A necessary overhaul of the football operations saw Gordon focus on matters upstairs. Mackay came in as sporting director, with former Hibs keeper David Marshall named technical performance manager.
The club handed the role of head coach to the untried Gray, while two new analysts and three new scouts were also hired. Gray can’t be exempt from criticism.
When the main attacking threats stem from 34-year-old Junior Hoilett and 35-year-old Dwight Gayle, a lack of attacking dynamism might owe as much to the natural ageing process as it does to laboured and one-dimensional tactics.
On-loan goalkeeper Josef Bursik has been unconvincing, while the club seem incapable of signing a solid pair of central defenders able to see a game out for 90 minutes.
The concession of late goals has contributed to the loss of 11 goals from winning positions.
While the loss of marquee signing Kieron Bowie to injury is down to simple misfortune, the hit-rate for signings remains dangerously low.
Failure comes at an unsustainable cost. Chief executive Kensell blamed last year’s £3.9million loss on a lack of sporting success, a wages-to-turnover ratio of 81 per cent telling the tale of a playing squad failing miserably on the pitch.
Not to mention a golden quadrant consistently failing to deliver sound leadership and value for money off it.