THIS IS YOUR LIFE, LEEANN

Three years ago, she faced relegation and sacking a boss. Now, Hibs chief Dempster has enjoyed an historic Scottish Cup success and promotion. Leeann...

LEEANN Dempster, chief executive and one-time Shettleston Juniors fan, this is your life. Well, to be precise, this is three years of your life.

Leeann, you joined a top-flight club that was immediately relegated, your first duty was to dismiss a manager, you were devastated by two failures to be promoted, your side won its first Scottish Cup in more than a century, your manager was involved in a wonderfully Caledonian stramash.

And your side has finally won the title and promotion, and contests its second Scottish Cup semi-final in as many years today.

Oh, and the other day, your £2million striker stripped down to his Ys, put a bandage on his napper and a sock on his hand before body-slamming a professional wrestler in the work canteen.

‘Never a dull moment,’ says Hibernian chief executive Dempster, her enthusiasm focused on the club’s performance on and off the field rather than on the bout between 21-year-old striker Jason Cummings and Grado, the Scottish wrestling’s clown prince.

The latter must have caused Dempster to catch her breath. The broadcast on social media of a valuable club asset flying through the air and landing on the

We’ve a lot of stability here. Continuity is the mainstay for me

prone body of a leotard-wearing opponent could have been forgiven for inducing the vapours in any CEO.

Dempster, however, restricts herself to a bemused smile and concentrates instead on what has been achieved and what is to be done. Her first task under questioning is to address that rather dramatic recent past. Her take is business-like, low key.

‘We have had a lot of stability here. Continuity is the mainstay for me.’ she says.

Stability? But what about the immediate sacking under her tenure of manager Terry Butcher and the departure last summer of Alan Stubbs from the same post?

‘Terry leaving was a decision we came to early doors,’ she explains. ‘I don’t reflect on that now. It was unexpected when Alan left but, equally, we were thinking about what could happen if he did, as any football department would.’

The message is that the departure of the coach is merely a problem to be addressed. ‘Half the dressing room didn’t leave with the manager. The support staff did not leave,’ she says.

And what about the fans’ protest that swirled around Easter Road when she arrived in the wake of relegation to the Championship when Rod Petrie, now chairman, faced being thrown into a tumbril and carted down Easter Road to condign punishment in deepest Leith?

‘It was very visible,’ she says of the unrest. ‘People were annoyed, upset, emotional and rightly so. Our team had just been relegated in the most spectacular style. They were not forgiving.’

Appointed in March before the play-off defeat to Hamilton Accies, she felt no need to hesitate about leaving Motherwell.

‘At no point was I going to say: “This is not for me”. If anything, that made me more determined in a way. We all knew the club had to change in a significant way. Relegation tuned everybody into that more directly.’

Dempster is blunt about the play-off defeat by Falkirk that was followed by Hibs’ historic Scottish Cup win.

‘We put the devastation and upset of missing promotion behind us,’ she reveals. ‘We were excited about the final. Alan and the players were confident. The players knew what it meant to everybody.’

She has one minor regret about the astonishing 3-2 win over Rangers: ‘I look back and I wish I had the chance to relive it, appreciate how good it was,’ she says.

Her latest issue is the confrontation at Easter Road last month between the club’s manager, Neil Lennon and Jim Duffy, his Morton counterpart.

She deals with this briskly: ‘My job here is to make sure we support the football department,’ she insists. ‘That one is still rattling on, going through the compliance officer. The least said in public, the better. I will be happy to revisit it in the future.’

So what of her manager? How and why was he recruited and what has he brought to the club?

Dempster is aware that any comments on the present incumbent can be abused to damn the previous holder of the position, so she is fulsome in praise of Stubbs before turning to the Northern Irishman.

She had her list of potential replacements. It did not include the former Celtic manager because she felt he may have been unobtainable. But a third party mentioned his name, said he might be interested and a meeting confirmed her instinct that the move would be good for both coach and club.

Lennon was not discomfited by the imperative of winning promotion immediately.

‘Neil was excited with the idea. He has brought that edge and so many other things as well,’ she says. ‘We needed someone who had played at the highest level, who knew what Scotland is about, someone who had lived with pressure. He had done that as a player, captain, in the national team and as a manager.

‘Neil has a presence in the dressing room. Determination. You could almost physically feel his disappointment when we didn’t win matches. That kept us focused.’

Dempster’s mantra of stability and continuity extends, of course, to the recruitment of the manager. She adds: ‘You have to get the right guy. You get people who say: “No problem, I’ll do it that way”. But then they come in and move the chess pieces around.’

Dempster, though, has a firm grasp on the pieces and how they should be played.

Asked what she would like to see in Scottish football, she makes the startling suggestion for a now Premiership chief executive that television money should be more evenly spread, seeping more of it down into the Championship.

‘Clubs should not be cut off at the knees financially if they are relegated,’ she insists.

This ties in with her desire to see more young Scots playing at the highest level. She believes managers would be tempted to play local lads if the penalties for relegation were not so severe.

She adds: ‘We have a crop of young players who are coming through here. I see two or three of them in the next one to three years having the opportunity to cement themselves in the first team.’

She is enthused by this prospect. The young Shettleston girl who accompanied her father to matches has retained her passion for the game. ‘I have so many good memories of Shettleston Juniors,’ she says. ‘I loved being so close to the pitch. It was happening in front of you.’

That visceral excitement remains but it is complemented by an acceptance that rational decisions have to be made.

‘Overall, it has been wonderful,’ she says of working in football for the last nine years after a career in business, majoring in marketing.

‘It has been passionate but with that comes sacrifices. At times, it is tiring. There have been major blows and fantastic highs.’

There are decisions to be made in the summer. Contract offers were made to players in December but all parties were told that final talks would not take place until after the league was won. The cup run has further delayed matters.

Dempster is relaxed. She will ‘sit down and have a cup of tea’ with her manager who has a year left on his contract. The club has also identified targets and is prepared for a busy summer.

She is aware Hibs players will be targeted by other clubs. Scotland international John McGinn, Marvin Bartley and Darren McGregor have all enjoyed good seasons. There will be focus, too, on Cummings, the wannabe wrestler.

‘We will never say we won’t sell a player. Offers can come in. But we will be in control of them

‘Last summer we turned down £1.7m for him,’ she says of a bid for Cummings that is thought to have come from Peterborough United.

‘You have to be prepared for the unexpected when it comes to bids for players.’

This may just be a nod to an offer for Cummings from the WWE. It would make an appropriate final scene to Leeann Dempster, This is Your Three Years.