Hibs keen to retain Doig’s services after teen’s stand-out debut term
Seeing Josh Doig develop into a first-team regular, Hibs manager Jack Ross says it is only fair that the teenager’s contribution to what could prove to be the club’s best league finish in his lifetime is reflected in a new contract.
The Easter Road outfit are keen to extend the 18-year-old defender’s current deal, which runs until 2023 and was signed before he embarked on a stand-out debut season in the first team.
“With Josh, his deal is for a development squad player and an out and out development squad player at that, but he is now a first-team regular and I think it’s important that the club doesn’t take advantage of that,” said Ross.
"I think that is only appropriate. The contract has to reflect his contribution and that is where we are trying to get to.
“I am quietly confident that we can progress that because I think he feels he is in a good place and he feels that he is progressing.
“Sometimes, things are so fast-paced and people are in a rush to get where they want to get as quickly as they can but I don’t really sense that impatience in Josh. I think he is in a good place in terms of where he is as a person and where his football is at for the moment.
“All being well, he has a lot of years left in the game and he has the potential to fulfil all his ambitions but that doesn’t all happen straight away and it is about finding the right place to develop.
"At the moment, he is playing regularly at one of the top clubs in the country, at the
top end of the table, and that is certainly not a bad place to be at this stage of his football career.”
The Leith gaffer has been impressed with Doig’s progress this term after he forced his way into the reckoning with an impressive pre-season showing and with big names like Arsenal and Manchester City already keeping tabs, Ross says agreeing a longerterm contract would also be prudent for the club. “I’m conscious
that players need to have contracts that align with where they sit at the club, but, of course, I think for us it gives us more protection in terms of trying to keep the people we want,” added Ross.
A player with pace, energy, the ability to tackle and whip in dangerous crosses, it is his resilience and willingness to absorb information that elevates him even further, according to his manager.
Like his gaffer, Doig had to
fight for a second chance after his promising youth career stuttered. While Ross found a route back via junior football, Doig, who was released by Hearts less than two years ago, earned himself a fresh shot across the city and was willing to take on a loan spell at Queens Park in the second half of last season.
“If you are rejected, released, retired, whatever, as a footballer, it is no different from the guy who has worked in
the same factory for 25 years and leaves or someone being made redundant,” explained Ross. “You are left wondering what you are going to do.”
The Hibs manager added: “He is a really, really good lad to work with and I think people can see that in the way he presents himself and speaks. I think he has an authenticity about him. I think he has a mindset that gives him a very good chance of having a top career.”
There should not be any trepidation involved when asking someone associated with Livingston where they were when the club lifted their first and, to date, only major trophy.
It’s a thorny question when put to David Martindale, however. The club’s current manager is very open about his past – and he is frank when he reflects on the club’s greatest previous moment, beating Hibs 2-0 at Hampden to lift the League Cup in March 2004. Photographs of the success are everywhere around the stadium.
However, Martindale has no specific memories of David Lilley and Jamie Mcallister’s goals, nor the scenes of joy back in Livingston as former Hibs player Ally ‘Benny’ Brazil drove the jubilant players and coaching staff in an open decked bus through town.
“I wasn’t in a good place,” recalled Martindale with extreme understatement. He was a few weeks away from being arrested for drugs and money laundering offences. He initially spent four days in a cell in London Road Police Station in Glasgow, near Celtic Park, and was later sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail, serving just over four years. By the time he got out, Livingston had imploded and were in the fourth tier of Scottish football.
The upshot was that the financially stricken club were more open to recruiting volunteers, which is how Martindale’s incredible tale of redemption began.
“I was more a Rangers fan at that time and playing local football. I never gave Livingston too much of a thought,” he said, with reference to the
League Cup triumph 17 years ago. “It was when I came out of prison in 2010 that I gave it a bit more thought.”
His football career, while never stellar, was brought to a crashing end by his spell inside. He has, however, reached a Hampden cup final before – while playing for a pub side in Livingston. “I played in one at Hampden as an amateur for the Tower Bar in Livingston," he recalled. "We didn’t win that one although they won one previously without me.
"They were a good Sunday afternoon team. They won the Scottish Cup on two or three occasions. I played with another club called Oscars but they only got to the semi-final. Obviously the boys played there (at Hampden) in League One against Queen’s Park four or five years ago.”
Sunday’s date with St Johnstone is another step up. While there might have been more people inside the ground when the Tower Bar graced Hampden, there was not so much at stake. By the time Livingston next play a league match – against Rangers on Wednesday, Martindale noted with a measure of scorn directed at the SPFL – they could be Betfred Cup holders, the second major honour in their short history.
“My wife told me she had taken Monday off work," he said. "I asked why? She said, 'in case we win the cup'. I told her, ‘if we win the cup we are in training Martha!’ We won’t be doing anything different.
“So I think Martha’s cancelled her day off! I don’t really drink. I might have a few on a night out to socialise with the boys but I don’t go out drinking or drink in the house. So if we win the trophy it’ll be home to a cup of coffee and probably watch the game back. That’s as exciting as it probably gets.”
Major surgery will require to be carried out on the Celtic squad over the summer. The expected appointment of a director of football, operating under in-coming chief executive Dominic Mckay, will ensure the next Celtic manager will be part of an entirely new executive structure at the Parkhead club.
The wishlist for signings that Neil Lennon’s successor will draw up to wrestle back the title could be extensive. It is likely to revolve around the following positions:
GOALKEEPER
An intractable problem for Celtic this season has been the inability of Vasilis Barkas to make the role his own following a £4.5 million summer move from AEK Athens. The Greek, inset, was signed to compensate for the failure to convince Fraser Forster to spend another season on loan from Southampton, following the England international’s outstanding form in that role the previous year. Scott Bain is currently the man in possession, patience having been exhausted with Greek international Barkas because his shot-stopping abilities and confidence behind an admittedly ever-changing, everporous backline have proved in short supply. It is unlikely Bain is considered the longterm option. The question then becomes whether the new Celtic manager believes Barkas has it in him to shakeoff the profound problems that beset him in his first seasoninanewcountryanddeliver on the pedigree touted on his arrival. If that isn’t considered likely, Celtic must go into the market for a new No 1.
RIGHT-BACK
Everton loanee Jonjoe Kenny has proved a solid addition since being recruited last month in the wake of Jeremie Frimpong’s £11.5m move to
Bayer Leverkusen. The former England Under-21 player will return to Goodison in the summer, though, which means Celtic will have no recognised senior player for the rightback berth. A hefty slice of any transfer budget may then have to be spent on an experienced performer to play there.
CENTRE-BACK
The move away that Kristoffer Ajer sought last summer will surely happen this summer. Celtic will be looking for around £15m for the 22-yearold Norwegian international. Any bounty will immediately have to re-invested. Indeed, potentially on two players to operate at the heart of their defence, which has been entirely dysfunctional as Shane Duffy has endured a desperate time on loan from Brighton. Mainstay Christopher Jullien is not expected to be fit for the start of next season. Following knee ligament surgery last month, the timescale for his return could be between six and nine months. Home-grown 21-year-old Stephen Welsh has gained valuable experience this year and acquitted himself decently, but Celtic will not want to head into next season relying on the inexperienced performer.
WINGER
Only two years ago, a matter of weeks before he left Celtic for Leicester City, Brendan Rodgers snarkily remarked that the club had about “a million wingers” in questioning the acquisition of Marian Shved. The Ukrainian has since been packed off on loan seemingly never to return and, with the long-term ankle injury that has rendered James Forrest unavailable for six months, Celtic’s wide options have been reduced to zilch this season. It is an almighty problem that has left them hideously misshapen at times in the final third across this grim season. Forrest is scheduled shortly to return but the burden for providing width cannot be placed solely on the shoulders of the redoubtable attacker going forward.
MIDFIELD ANCHOR
It would be judicious, for the sake of continuity and so much else related to Celtic’s squad godfather, to retain the services of Scott Brown. Yet, as he will be 36 before next season starts, the club captain could only be expected to play a support role if he stays. Ismaila Soro has shown great industry and effectiveness in breaking up play as Brown’s deputy following his recent emergence, but the slight midfielder doesn’t address Celtic’s lack of physicality in the centre of the pitch. Such a figure must be one of the incoming players in the summer, even when the club have already agreed a precontract with bustling midfielder Liam Shaw that will see the highly-regarded teenager arrive from Sheffield Wednesday in the close season.
FORWARD LINE
One of the most acute issues a new Celtic manager will be required to address concerns the club’s attacking options. His biggest headache will be replacing Odsonne Edouard. The Frenchman has sometimes given the impression this has been a season too far from him in Scotland. The move he desired last summer will be granted with a first suitable offer in the next window for a player about to enter the final year of his deal. Even with a fuzzy focus, though, the hugely talented forward has still been the principal goal source for the club, with a tally of 20 in an up-and-down campaign. For various reasons, Leigh Griffiths, Albian Ajeti and Patryk Klimala cannot be relied upon to assume that mantle from Edouard next season. A statement striker acquisition requires to be the new Celtic manager’s first foray into the market, then. No question. However, recasting Celtic’s frontline alternatives cannot begin and end there, which adds up to mighty market-problem solving for Celtic’s next manager.