Dempster is doomed if she delivers another dud
GIVEN that Hibs are now owned by an American-based businessman, Leeann Dempster had better hope that her boss isn’t much of a baseball fan.
Because one thing’s for sure. If it’s a case of three strikes and you’re out, she’s well and truly in the last-chance saloon.
Before he became the club’s majority shareholder in the summer, it’s a matter of public record that Ron Gordon was interested in buying Hibs as far back as Christmas last year.
In the intervening period, he’s watched from afar as Dempster has made an absolute pig’s ear of things — not once but twice.
Firstly, there was the omnishambles of Neil Lennon’s departure at Hibs. A non-sacking, non-resignation exit that left her with serious egg on her face.
Dempster put her faith in Florian Kamberi during that particular dispute, but it’s plain for all to see that she backed the wrong horse.
If the way she handled all of that wasn’t bad enough, she then compounded it by appointing a manager in Paul Heckingbottom who turned out to be a complete dud.
Make no mistake about it, Hibs are in a mess of Dempster’s creation — and she simply can’t afford to make a mess of things again as she tries to find a new manager.
If she gets it wrong, Hibs could easily end up in the Championship next season and Gordon will surely be drawing up her P45.
There’s no escaping it — they are in a relegation battle for the remainder of the season and the sole priority for any new manager is to keep the club up.
Heckingbottom has left behind a bombsite of a squad. It only took one transfer window for things to come crashing down under him.
Their recruitment in the summer was horrendous — and it wasn’t like Heckingbottom could argue that the club didn’t back him.
They spent the best part of £300,000 to sign striker Christian Doidge from Forest Green Rovers, but he’s only scored two goals — and they were against Alloa and Morton in the Betfred Cup.
You look through the current Hibs squad and feel yourself saying: “Who’s he? Where did he come from?”.
Heckingbottom signed a job-lot of players in the summer, with a lot of them coming from the lower leagues down south.
But precious few of them look anywhere near good enough. The Hibs squad has regressed massively from where it was 18 months ago.
Again, Dempster has to be accountable for that. She’s the one who is calling the shots and signing the cheques.
It’s a stark contrast across the city at Hearts. For all they are struggling for form as well, the job at Tynecastle is far more attractive than what’s on offer at Easter Road.
For starters, Hearts have a far better squad of players. They have experienced internationals and any potential new manager would fancy getting them moving up the league. That’s the problem for Hibs. Timing can be everything when it comes to appointing a new manager and, right now, it’s Hearts who’ll have the pick of the litter. As for Heckingbottom, he really didn’t help himself with certain things he said and the tone he took during interviews. He came off as quite arrogant at times. He was very dismissive of any criticism and it often came across like: “I don’t care what you say, I know better”. That’s fine if you’re a top-class manager who has a proven track record. But it won’t wash if fans had to Google you to find out who you were when you got the job. His disastrous tenure in Leith also followed on from what happened in his previous gig at Leeds United. He only lasted four months at Elland Road before he was punted, something which should have sounded some alarm bells for Dempster. But she decided to take a gamble and it has backfired big time. She’s now facing arguably one of the most vital decisions of her entire career.