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1999 / 2000 Season - 1999 Papers

15.12.99
Hamzo for Hibs ?

There is talk in the Swedish press (Dagens Nyheter 12/12/99) of forward Daniel Hamzo favouring a move to Hibernian as he becomes a free agent on the 31/12/99. Several european clubs including Standard Liege and Sampdoria are tracking the player who has been out of favour with his side Nacka for the past two seasons. Hamzo has played for Sweden U-15, U-18 and U-21.

My thanks to Joakim Sundstrom for what could be TPOE's first exclusive.

15.12.99
Crawford's fate settled ?

The Daily Express are saying this morning that Dunfermline have obtained Stevie Crawford on a permanent basis for a fee of £100,000. They appear to have jumped the gun on this story as no other paper, including tonight's Evening News, mention this 'signing'. However, I would not be surprised if something was in the offing. Hibs will be very keen to recoup some money for a player who cost £400,000 and whose contract is fast running out.

One or two papers are saying that Airdrie are keen to extend Paul Holsgrove's stay at the club, where he has been on loan for 4 weeks. I am sure Alex McLeish would be delighted to make that move permanent as he continues to clear out the players he no longer wants.

6.12.99
Hope springs eternal

I have not seen the highlights from Parkhead or read a single report. What's more, despite having a website to update, I have no intention of reading any. Sorry, but I can't face it. I switched on the radio on Saturday to hear one pundit saying, 'it was four going on fourteen' and that was enough for me. Whilst having to accept that we are playing in a league of 8 teams and that the Old Firm are untouchable, it is still heartbreaking to hear of your team taking such a tanking. We all know that it's a gigantic mismatch every time one of the 8 takes the field against the Glasgow duopoly -  Celtic's £5.5 million for Berkovic is probably more than we could sell our entire team for - and yet you cannot help hoping. Football fans are nothing if not hopelessly unrealistic.

4.12.99
Miller extension

Kenny Miller is to be offered a new deal, with 18 months of his existing contract still to run, we learn today. Makes sense, because the way the transfer market works now, in the final year of a player's contract even the value of a prized asset is dropping all the time. Witness what happened to Hearts with David Weir and looks likely to recur with Paul Ritchie. Personally, I would get Miller on a very long contract. He has got the potential, he has broken into the first team and I would get him on a five year deal similar to that we gave Brebner.

3.12.99
Striker for sale ?

The Evening News tonight carries a story saying Dunfermline are unwilling to meet Hibs valuation of Stevie Crawford, quoting a figure of £400,000. Hibs deny they have had any discussions about a fee for the player.

From what I know, which may not be much, I find it hard to understand Hibs approach. Stevie Crawford's contract is up at the end of the season, so the longer his loan deal goes on, the less he is worth. We got something like £40,000 for Lavety for exactly the reason that his contract was running out (which by the way is why talk of £400,000 for Crawford is absolute nonsense). I would either put Dunfermline on the spot and ask them to make an offer, or bring him back and see if his return to form amounts to anything useful to us in the Premier league.

29.11.99
Miller watched

The inevitable speculation that surrounds any young starlet has begun for Kenny Miller with the Evening News reporting today that Ray Wilkins of Chelsea and a Leeds United scout were seen in the stand at Saturday's game. Unfortunately for them, all they could watch for the first 80 minutes was how well the teenager sat on the bench.

22.11.99
Lambs to the slaughter

If you haven't read any of the weekend papers then, my advice would be, don't. Pretend Saturday didn't happen and look forward to the St. Johnstone game on Wednesday night.

17.11.99
Knee News

Some Hibs snippets from the Evening News whilst the majority of the papers concentrate on the Scotland England clash. John Hughes returned from keyhole surgery on his knee to play the full 90 minutes for the under-21's on Monday night. Meanwhile, not such good news for Paul Lovering who has been told that the only cure for a persistent knee injury is rest and a lot of it - he may be out until after the mid-season break.

8.11.99
King Kenny

It's amazing the effect that Hibs Saturday result has on my weekend and Monday morning. When the team is winning, buying the papers is a joy and something to take time over. I have read a lot of reports of the Kilmarnock game, as well as seeing the very brief Scotsport highlights. This really was the Kenny Miller show, with the teenage Hibs striker ripping through the Kilmarnock defence on several occasions. He could have had five goals quite easily - he scored two, hit a post and forced some great saves.

Apparently Kilmarnock had more possession but no cutting edge. Now how many times did we read that about Hibs in the first quarter of the season. In this game, we sat in and frustrated Kilmarnock and then hit them fast on the break. Good tactics away from home and another three points. We are up to fourth place and looking upwards rather than downwards - our aim has to be to overhaul Dundee United. Unfortunately for us, we have to wait two weeks for our next game, which is not what you want when the team is playing so well. Doubly unfortunately, our next game is at Ibrox, but with Miller in this kind of form, we must believe we can score against Rangers and get something from the match.

One other significant point in this match - a defence without Dennis (injured ?) and Gottskalksson (dropped) kept our first clean sheet of the season.

Finally, a transfer story that has been doing the rounds this week involves the swap of John Hughes with Morton for Paul Fenwick, a Canadian international, who I must admit that I have never heard of. It has gone quiet so I guess it will come to nothing.

1.11.99
Latapy talks

Russell Latapy gave an interview to Friday Sportscene on television which contained some worrying inferences. He again stated his desire to play in England before his career ends which is fair enough. He also described Hibs as a nice, little club which suggests he has his eyes on bigger things. He then said that if an offer from an ambitious club came in that was good for Hibernian and good for him, then he may move. The way he phrased this almost suggested that he had discussed the possibility with Hibs and had come to some arrangement.

I dare say, that if Russell Latapy continues his present electrifying form, then Hibs could cash in by selling him. My view would be that the money will never buy a replacement for this man and also, that it would display a lack of ambition by the club.

29.10.99
Moving out

There have been moves this week to slim down the squad size at Easter Road, with Barry Lavety joining St.Mirren after a loan spell, and Stevie Crawford setting off on what looks like a similar path with a loan deal at Dunfermline. McLeish has been saying for long enough that he needed to reduce the squad size, and consequently the wage bill, before he could consider bringing in more new players. It is just a pity that in the post-Bosman era with these players nearing the end of their contracts, Hibs will pick up very little in transfer fees.

23.10.99
Lavety to move permanently ?

According to radio reports today, Hibs have agreed a fee with St. Mirren for the permanent transfer of Barry Lavety. It all comes down to whether the player can agree personal terms. There are also rumours of a counter bid coming in from Dundee.

22.10.99
A thoroughly depressing story

I have read stories in the newspapers over the years which have depressed and annoyed me, but few as thoroughly as the one doing the rounds today about Russell Latapy. If you believe the rumour, which I don't, then Hibs are ready to sell him after one last chance in the Dundee game. This story supposedly came from a club insider.

McLeish, in a damage limitation attempt, says he did have a face to face with the player this week but there is no way Latapy is leaving.

This story makes no sense at all. One last chance ? Even to suggest such a thing is an insult to a player who has consistently shown what a class act he is and how lucky we are to have him at the club. If we lined up all the players at Easter Road in order of who should go out the door first, there would be a huge queue in front of Latapy.

Sure, we did not buy Latapy for his defensive qualities but he is so good offensively that we should not be asking him to do much chasing back. It would be a damning indictment of the team management if they are saying they cannot find a formation to accomodate this gifted individual.

Having said all that, I don't think there is anything in this story. I am just hoping it does not annoy or depress the player and that he will remain keen to stay at Hibernian. As for the 'insider' - I hope you are proud of yourself, you may have given the press the amunition to unsettle our greatest asset.

18.10.99
Another single point

I read a few of the Sunday and Monday papers and got the impression that although we led twice in this match, a point was as much as we deserved. Motherwell seem to have missed a hatfull of chances in this game and Gottskalksson apparently made some good stops. Still, at least we are scoring a few goals, and it seems like Paatelainen and Miller are combining well up front.

McLeish hinted during last week that there were two players struggling to be fit for this game and it appears it was the fullbacks, Renwick and Lovering. In came Dempsie and Tom Smith, who I had nearly forgotten we still had on the books. A bit of a makeshift defence so I guess we can make some allowances for the two goals against.

We desperately need a win - one point at a time makes little difference to your league position whereas a couple of three point results moves you swiftly up the table.

13.10.99
Hibs lose thriller

A thriller seems to be the verdict of the papers on last night's CIS Insurance League Cup encounter, where Hibs went down 3-2 at Kilmarnock. Hibs were, by all accounts, dire in the opening phase of this match and were 2-0 down to an Ally McCoist double before an incident in the 25th minute changed the run of play entirely. A clash between Pat McGinlay and Killie' goalkeeeper Colin Meldrum led to the keeper leaving the field and defender Gus MacPherson taking over in goals. Kilmarnock played the rest of the first half with ten men, hoping Meldrum would recover as they had no substitute keeper, before bringing on another outfield player at the start of the second half. Hibs spent over an hour bombarding the stand-in keeper and scoring twice, but still lost the match 3-2.

Your heart sinks when you read how bad we were at the start of this match and you wonder what the final score might have been if Kilmarnock had not lost the keeper. The fact that we could not beat a team who played for over an hour with a non-keeper in goals (and a small man at that), and 20 minutes of that period with ten men, is seriously worrying. Apparently McLeish had the team locked in the dressing room for over an hour after this match and I am not surprised.

One other point worth noting - McLeish chose to drop Gottskalksson for this game and played Colgan in goals.

6.10.99
Rumours abound

Yet another left back is being linked with Hibernian in this morning's papers - this time it is Patrick Guiullou of St. Etienne. We will wait and see if this one amounts to a real story or just another rumour.

4.10.99
Battling Hibees

Most of the reports from Pittodrie that I read over Sunday and Monday concentrated on Aberdeen's plight and gave match reviews from their perspective. The consensus seems to be that this was a dull match which exploded in to life in the last ten minutes. Most of the papers were of the view that Hibs did well to take a point, an opinion which McLeish appeared to back up in his post-match comments.

After weeks of reading that Hibs played excellently and took no points, it at least makes a change to read that we played pretty poorly but fought our way to a point. Not exactly what you would like to read, but a change nevertheless.

30.9.99
Building for the future

Plenty of coverage in today's press of the announcement that Hibs will rebuild the main stand at the end of this season. Not much signs of any investigative journalism however - I would have thought all the papers would be clammering to know where a club like Hibs, carrying forward debts, has found the money from, especially when they have shown they are also able to spend in the transfer market. Still, if the club can build a new stand and strengthen the team at the same time then I doubt many Hibs fans will be complaining.

Actually, the most interesting thing I learned from scanning the papers was not about the future plans but about the old stand. Apparently it was built, some 70 years ago, from the £5000 received from the sale of goalkeeper, Willie Harper, to Arsenal. That is a phenomenal amount of money for that era.(By comparison, estimates for the cost of the new stand are of the order of £6 million). He must have been some player.

27.9.99
The search continues

The Daily Record are reporting this morning that Hibs have turned to Tosh McKinlay, in their search for cover in the left back position. The big surprise with this story is, of course, Hibs actually getting a mention in a paper that shows scant regard for any team outside the Old Firm.

24.9.99
Abou thinks about it

Hibs are in talks with Samassi Abou, after agreeing a fee with West Ham - all the papers seem to agree on this one.

If you believe The Sun, then Hibs are after Cameroon right back, Pensee Billong. But then, who believes anything they read in The Sun.

23.9.99
Rumours, Rumours

Plenty of signing rumours in the papers today. The Daily Record saying that Hibs are trying to put a bid together for Samassi Abou, whilst also saying we are favourites to sign St. Johnstone right back John McQuillen. The Daily Express says we are still interested in Abou and also Fernando Di Ornelas (who, by the way, was Chinese player of the year last year - I believe he was playing for a Hong Kong club). The Evening News concentrates on the Abou rumour and this one certainly seems to be the most plausible.

If McLeish is interested in Abou, he will want him for the Celtic game which means he will have to move fast. If he does sign Abou, I would imagine that would preclude the signing of Di Ornelas - I can't believe the funds are endless and that we are going to sign two new strikers at the same time. The John McQuillen story sounds like nonsense. He is a good right back but we need a left back and neither McQuillen or Renwick look like left backs to me.

21.9.99
Doom and gloom

The mood of the papers on Monday morning mirrored that of the Hibs supporters on Sunday who are running out of patience with the side. Nice football is all very well, but there appears to be no cutting edge to this Hibs team. The statistics are worrying. We let in two goals a game on average and you won't win many games trying to overcome that defensive weakness. We have only scored nine goals in seven games (and six of those were in the first two matches). No striker has scored since the Dundee game. We have not won a home game. The list goes on.

I don't see where the goals are going to come from. The regular scorers from last season (Crawford, Paatelainen, McGinlay and Lovell) do not feature in the first choice goal scoring plans for this year. That is McLeish's decision and he may be right but the only goal threat he has brought in seems to be Lehmann. Henry and Brebner are competent, tidy midfielders who are helping us hold possession for long periods but I don't see many goals coming from them.

Despite all that, it is important that the fans stay behind the team. There is a real danger of a negative spiral where the players become edgy, the fans are nervous and with more poor results, the mood around the club can disintegrate - just look at Aberdeen. I know it is tough but a loyal, vocal support is imperative to help the side out of this current bad patch.

I missed the game on Sunday due to a disastrously inept piece of planning on my part. I then listened to agonisingly painful updates on the radio during the game and to compound the misery, I read several of the Monday papers. It has taken until now for my mood to improve enough to write this. Despite all that, I will go to the Celtic game in a positive frame of mind. One break in front of goal could change our fortunes.

16.9.99
Striker search continues

The Evening News is tonight touting Israeli striker, Ronen Harazi, as a possible signing target. He was with Hibs during the summer and McLeish will watch him play for Halpoel Tel Aviv tonight against Celtic. It seems pretty unlikely to me that Hibs will move for a player in contract when they had the chance to sign him as a free agent during the summer.

16.9.99
Diamonds want Hughes

The Daily Express has a piece this morning saying that John Hughes is a signing target for Airdrie. For Yogi, having just got back in the Hibs team, I can't imagine what the attraction would be of signing for a team struggling badly in the First Division.

15.9.99
Crawford on way out ?

The Evening News tonight has a lead story about Hibs being ready to listen to offers for Stevie Crawford, who has hardly featured at all this season. It emerges that Crawford's contract is up after this season and that the club and Crawford talked in May but failed to come to any agreement about an extension. If the two parties cannot reach agreement, then Hibs are right to try and get something for the player before his contract runs out and he can walk away for nothing.

Is this a case of a player that McLeish does not fancy or of the player asking for too much ? Who knows. What I find surprising though, is that we had four regular scorers last year and yet none of them seem to feature in the goal-scoring plans for this year. Crawford seems to be on the way out, Paatelainen and Lovell are bit players, and McGinlay has been used as a defensive midfield player and lately as a fullback. And we have only counterbalanced this by signing one recognised goal scorer in Lehmann. Unless, of course, McLeish has signings in the offing ?

13.9.99
Points not plaudits

The Sunday and Monday papers are pretty unanimous in their summing up of Saturday's defeat at Tannadice. Hibs played excellently, controlled the match for large parts and should have gone away with three points. Even Paul Sturrock, the Dundee United manager, quoting from The Scotsman, said 'Hibs are a really good team and they'll probably feel a little hard done by.' All very nice but it doesn't really ease the pain of recording a second, consecutive defeat.

This match confirms the widely held opinion that midfield is our strongest department and through this we are able to hold the ball and control the play. But up front, no striker has scored a goal since the second game of the season against Dundee. And at the back, we have lost 11 goals in six matches. We have to focus on big improvements in these two areas.

Getting the plaudits after the last two matches is all very well, but we need points. There are worrying signs of a break in the league forming between Hearts, Dundee Utd. and St. Johnstone above us and Motherwell, Dundee, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen below. We have to be competing in the upper part if this split continues.

10.9.99
Sauzee must stay

Franck Sauzee gave an interview to The Daily Express today and expressed his satisfaction with the way his move to Hibs has worked out. However, one thing I learnt from this interview, is that big Franck's contract is up after this season.

There was a lot of coverage in the papers about Russell Latapy and his contract negotiations, which thankfully ended up with the little Trinidadian signing an extension. I am surprised that we haven't heard anything about negotiations between Hibs and Sauzee, who after all is a key player. Surely we should be moving now to offer an extension to his contract, before it gets anywhere close to running out, for the same reasons that we wanted Latapy to sign an extension. After all, the player ends this interview by saying he is happy at Hibs just now but who knows what might happen after this season. Lets make sure he doesn't leave.

8.9.99
Media brides

The Daily Express ran a story today under the heading, 'McLeish is "jealous" of Hearts £8m windfall.' In this, McLeish, whilst wishing good luck to Jim Jefferies, expresses the regret that a deal could not have been done for both Edinburgh teams, citing the example of several commercial deals that have been done for both sides of the Old Firm.

He also says it piles the pressure on Hibs and revealingly adds, 'It is a great shame that we cannot match it.' The fact that McLeish expressed these views and this last quote in particular, suggests to me that Hibs are not even off the starting blocks in trying to find similar investment. And I say this despite the statement from Rod Petrie in the same paper, that Hibs had established contact with several similar organisations.

One final comment. It is entirely wrong to describe Hearts £8 million as a 'windfall'. What they have done is take a calculated risk. They have sold 20% of the club for £3.5 million and have been loaned a further £4.5 million which can, and undoubtedly will, be converted into further shares, taking SMG's holding when that happens up to 37.5% and making them the principal shareholder in the club.

7.9.99
Money matters

The Evening News devotes a fair bit of space tonight to an analysis of Hibs annual report. The headline figure is, of course, the loss of £2.2 million for the year in the First Division. Rod Petrie puts a brave face on it, saying that this was what the club budgeted for. Main contributory factors for the loss are a drop in away fans from 40,500 to 9,500 (home fans were slightly up on the previous year), loss of television revenue and an increase in the player wage bill.

This brings the club debt to £4 million according to Mr Petrie. Hibernian Football Club now own the stadium and Hibernian Hospitality after the reshuffle last year and so have quoted assets of £9 million. But what happened to the reported £9 million debt from building the new stands ? I don't pretend to understand Hibs finances but I can't believe this debt just dissappeared. Did Sir Tom Farmer write this off ? If he did, why doesn't he state this, and take the kudos.

Whatever the real state of the club's finances, at least we are still able to develop the squad as witnessed by the arrival of Colgan, Jack, Lehmann, Henry and Brebner since the end of last season.

One other interesting fact in this article - season ticket sales for this year are up from 4,700 to 6,500.

7.9.99
Sale on ?

Small interview in the Daily Express today with Alex McLeish in which he states that Skinner will not be the last to leave. This is hardly news as McLeish has made it clear that players such as Holsgrove and Lavety (despite his recent form for St. Mirren) are not in his plans. The fact that he chose to re-emphasise it, may mean that more have to leave before he can consider further signings.

3.9.99
Stay as long as you like

There is an interview on the freeserve website with Russell Latapy which is mainly about Trinidad, his upbringing and his charitable work there. Worryingly for Hibs fans, however, he talks of a hankering to play in England before he hangs up his boots, explaining that he was brought up on a diet of English football and hence there is a strong, inbuilt attraction. This interview was recorded after Russell signed an extension to his contract with Hibs. He does however qualify his position by adding, 'I must say that I am happy at Hibs and if an opportunity arose with an ambitious club in England it would have to be very good, and a very big club, for me to leave now.'

2.9.99
Skinner to leave ?

Today's Evening News is reporting that Hibs are talking to Dunfermline about the transfer of Justin Skinner. Skinner has been a bit-part player since the arrival of Sauzee and wants to play regular football. Coupled with that, McLeish has stated that we need to slim the squad down. So every chance this may go ahead. He will certainly do a good job for the Pars in the First Division.

31.8.99
Didn't they do well

Plenty of plaudits for Hibs in the Sunday and Monday Sport sections after their spirited display against Rangers, but you can detect the split between the east coast papers which lead on the 'didn't Hibs play well' angle and their west coast equivalents who preferred the 'weren't Rangers tired' approach. I think this is what is called 'catering for your readership'.

26.8.99
Shaun sheds the pounds

Interesting snippet in the Evening News tonight with Shaun Dennis talking about his weight. I had thought he was looking very lean and quick on his feet this season. In this article, he tells how he regularly played at fifteen stone plus during most of his career and even topped sixteen stone at one point (I remember when he made his comeback from injury during the relegation year, he looked all of that). Currently Shaun is playing at fourteen stone, two pounds.

25.8.99
Three jostle for Jack's boots

A bit of debate in the Evening News tonight about the key question for Saturday - who will replace Matthias Jack in the defence against Rangers. Andy Watson saying, 'Yogi is a candidate, but so too are Alex Marinkov and Mark Dempsie.' Whoever gets the nod has a daunting task against Rod Wallace and on-fire Michael Mols.

20.8.99
Les Francais adorent Hibs

The Scotsman has lifted details of an article published in the French daily, L'Equipe, which says Hibs and Aberdeen are vying for the signature of Christophe Cocard, a forward available on a free transfer from Lyon. Were he to sign for Hibs, he would become our fourth French player, joining Sauzee, Henry and Marinkov.

20.8.99
Brebner is back

Plenty of coverage this morning on the Grant Brebner signing. A lot of praise for the level of ambition being shown by the club in signing a young player on a long contract. One aspect of the coverage which intrigues me is where the figure of £400,000 comes from. Neither club have disclosed any details of the fee payed. Do the papers just have a stab in the dark or does someone tip them the wink ? I wouldn't be surprised if one paper prints a guess and the others just lift the figure and use it.

18.8.99
Bring in the reserves

Hibs got a good roasting from the press this morning for their lacklustre win last night - Clyde rightly getting all the plaudits. There was also some debate about the rights and wrongs of putting out what was effectively a second team. Personally, I think McLeish was right to give the fringe players a run - he has to assess them in a real match. Luck was on our side, we made it through, and McLeish now knows a lot more about our squad 'depth'.

16.8.99
Standing room only

Many of the Sunday and Monday papers have had a field day with the ridiculous spat between Hibs and Hearts about ticket allocations and why several Hearts players (4, 5 or 6 depending on which paper you read) had to sit out the match in the player's lounge. Certainly helped the Evening News fill a few column inches. May just add a little more spice to the next derby match but I would hope it is long forgotten.

Who's counting ?

I commented a couple of weeks ago about the discrepancy in the crowd numbers between what the ground holds and what the paper's reported - basically the reported number for the Motherwell game seemed to be 800 short of the attendance I worked out.

'The Scotsman' on Saturday, 14 August backed up my belief that the ground holds 16,100. So this time we had a sell-out for the Derby - would the media report the crowd as 15,300. Not at all, this time both 'The Pink' and 'Scotland on Sunday' reported the crowd as 16,976. Now I really am confused. And no wonder they couldn't find seats for those four Hearts players who had to sit in the dressing room.

Can you see me ?

I was interested in Shaun Dennis' comments on the new away strip in his column in the 'Evening News' on the 13th August in which he says, 'we will have no excuse for not finding our men.' I suspect these words were not idly chosen, as there was a rumour last season that several first team players did not like the old away strip for exactly the reason that it was difficult to see your teamates in. I can hardly remember the team playing in the old yellow strip in a top level match.

I have long thought that teams in loud colours must have a slight advantage and they don't come much louder than this new, fluorescent yellow effort. Let's see if it works to our advantage.

The 'Evening News' on the 12th August covered Alex McLeish's views on the SPL under-21 players rule. Firstly, this article enlightened me as to why Kenny Miller and Tom McManus were on the bench for the Dundee game in place of Stevie Crawford and Stuart Lovell who seemed the obvious choices. I had heard of the rule last season but paid little attention as it only affects SPL teams.

The rule as it now stands, states that you have to have two under-21 players stripped. (i.e. on the pitch or the substitutes bench). This is a change to last year where you had to have two on the bench, irrespective of whether any were in the starting line-up.

You can understand the intention behind the rule - to try and encourage teams to develop their young players. But you can also understand Alex McLeish's two main objections. Firstly that there is no point putting young players on the bench that you have no intention of giving a game - they are better off playing for the under-21 side. And secondly, that the players you would like to have on the bench are sitting in the stand and losing out on any chance of match practice.

Fair points but, then again, Kenny Miller came off the bench against Dundee and scored a wonderful winner. Would he have been sitting there if there was no Under-21 rule ?

The plaudits will surely start coming if we continue to play in this style for the rest of the season.

All he has achieved in my eyes, is to demean himself.

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