Allan finds heaven at Hibs after anguish of hellish Hawthorns
Easter Road’s creative force reveals how he recovered from hitting a low
The gaffer has changed the whole mood of the club
FOR Scott Allan, 2014 has been tempestuous. Over the last 12 months, the Hibs midfielder has experienced the deflation of being placed in cold storage in the English Championship to the elation of being hailed as the hottest property in i ts Scottish namesake.
Last month, Easter Road boss Alan Stubbs proudly declared his 23-year-old schemer was without peer i n the second tier, after watching Allan score one and make three goals in a remarkable 6-3 win at Dumbarton.
An ever-present in the team since a 4-0 win away to Livingston in October, Allan responded to that high praise by tearing Rangers to ribbons last weekend. His creativity in midfield proved the bedrock for Hibs’ finest performance in years and their biggest win over the Ibrox side since a 5-0 drubbing back in January 1912.
As Allan proceeded to torture Kenny McDowall’s troubled team i n front of the l i ve television cameras, though, it was a scene far removed from the early part of 2014 when he entered his own personal wilderness at Birmingham City.
Signed on loan from West Brom, the former Dundee United player was banished from all first-team affairs for a full eight months and sent to train with the kids. His attitude and work ethic would later be publically questioned by his boss, Lee Clark.
Yet, while Allan accepts some of the blame for how his career panned out down south, he insists he was never given a reason whyl, between September 2013 and April 2014, his only involvement in first-team football was as a viewer of Jeff Stelling’s Soccer Saturday.
During that period, his love for the game f altered and his homesickness rose, until he was offered — and jumped at — the chance of a new start in Edinburgh.
‘It’s flattering when people say I am the best player in the Championship,’ Allan said with a smile. ‘I came back to Scotland to try to enjoy my football again. I wasn’t happy down south but I am enjoying myself now at Hibs.
‘My lowest point came when I wasn’t even making squads at Birmingham City. I felt I’d been doing well in training and then in one match I came on and made an assist.
‘ But the manager [ Clark] bombed me completely after that and sent me training with the youth team. I thought I was doing all right. When that happens, you just want to get back up the road.
‘On game days, I was just watching Soccer Saturday. There’s nothing worse when you see your mates’ names come up.
‘I was also to blame for some of the things that happened down there when things weren’t going my way. But I have learned the hard way.
‘Hibs is the most enjoyable spell of my career because the team have started doing well and we are playing some really nice football.’
Allan was criticised publically by Dundee United manager Peter Houston for moving to West Brom in January 2012, after just eight games for the Tannadice club. The £300,000 transfer did not work out, and this week’s dismissal of Hawthorns boss Alan Irvine brought a sad shake of the head from the midfielder.
During Allan’s two years at the club, West Brom were managed by four men: Roy Hodgson, Steve Clarke, Pepe Mel and Irvine.
The former Scotland Under-21 international believes constant managerial upheaval left him the forgotten man. Shunned by successive bosses, he was sent out on loan at Portsmouth (twice) and MK Dons, in addition to that ill-fated spell at Birmingham as his West Brom contract ran down.
‘I played eight games for United and a lot of the Scotland Under-21 games were on television, so people had watched me and they had seen what I could do,’ he said.
‘I wouldn’t have got the move if I hadn’t done well and I had to take the chance. But when I went down there I didn’t play and I got lost for a bit. People forget you.
‘West Brom have had so many managers in the last three years. It’s quite ridiculous.
‘One manager signs you, another doesn’t like you. You see it all the time. People have a good run of games then the manager goes, another one comes in and you don’t see those players again for the rest of the season. ‘If somebody fancies you then someone fancies you. Hopefully, you are one of t he g uys t he manager likes.’ After fall- outs with Houston
and Clarke, Allan finally feels he has f ound the manager he has been searching for in Stubbs. The Hibs boss promised to r estore the midfielder’s once-promising career while helping bring Premiership football back to Easter Road through an attractive and attacking style of play. Despite a bumpy start to the season, Stubbs has kept his promise and Allan has never regretted picking Hibs despite interest from Rangers. ‘ When you speak to managers, sometimes they say things but never fulfil them,’ he said. ‘But the gaffer has been true to his word and, thankfully, I have been able to repay him with some of my performances.
‘For me, it was all about playing week in, week out, and I have managed to do that here. ‘The gaffer — and also the guys above the gaffer — have changed the whole mood at this club. I spoke to a lot of the guys who were here last year and there wasn’t a good vibe. People weren’t enjoying coming to training.
‘But now, with the squad of boys we have and the coaching staff here, there is a real feelgood factor.
‘The gaffer is very positive all the time. Last week he was confident before the Rangers game and I felt the same.
‘Everything is really well organised, we have sports scientists and it’s all really professional, just like down south. That surprised me because when you come up here, people think we don’t look at all the detail. But it’s starting to pay off.
‘We still have a few players to come back, as well, and they will give us strength in depth.
‘We are starting to click and people are starting to be on the same wavelength as each other.
‘There’s definitely more to come from us. I want to keep doing well for Hibs, have a good, consistent season and, hopefully, help get us back up to the Premiership.’