CHIEF DID HIRING HOMEWORK
BY ROSS PILCHER
HIBS sporting director Graeme Mathie has outlined exactly what questions Jack Ross answered in order to convince the club he was the man to become their new head coach.
Ross was appointed as Paul Heckingbottom’s successor last week and has since been preparing to take charge of Hibs for the first time at home to Motherwell this Saturday.
The recruitment process was relatively swift but that’s not to say it was an easy choice. Mathie and chief executive Leeann Dempster spoke with other candidates but the decision to appoint Ross was “unanimous”.
Mathie said: “It’s important to say no one gets the Hibs job based on a good interview or PowerPoint presentation.
“It should give Jack a lot of comfort that the process was as rigorous as it was because after that he was the outstanding candidate.
“A lot of the work we did before meeting Jack was internal. There were a number of staff members involved, particularly Calvin Charlton, our head of performance analysis, who pulled together a huge amount of information to give us context to all of the guys on our shortlist.
“By the time we were sitting in front of them we were able to ask specific questions and really dig in on questions their previous work might have raised.
“In Jack’s case that meant looking at the different support structures he had worked with at his different clubs, what he needed to be successful and challenging some of the things that work showed up.
“One of the things we wanted to do was not just find the right candidate for us but make sure the club is the right fit for the successful applicant.
“We believe we are as good a fit for Jack as he is for us”
While Ross’ reputation north of the border remains intact after the work he did at Alloa then St Mirren, failure to get Sunderland out of England’s League One, despite the resources available, is valid.
Mathie said: “A lot is said about Jack having the biggest