Lennon is the leading man for Dempster
“It represents a statement of intent for Hibs”
THERE is no attempt to hide the obvious truth of the matter. Why insult the intelligence of every football fan in the country, right?
‘Need, desperate, urgent — whatever you want to call it, I genuinely believe we are a club who should be in the Premiership,’ said Leeann Dempster, the Hibernian chief executive.
‘You could argue it is needed for finances. But it is a need for this club to be in the Premiership. It is also a wish and a want.’
The arrival of Neil Lennon as manager at Easter Road this week obviously represents a statement of intent for a club staring at a third season in the second tier of Scottish football. They’re not messing about, in other words.
Dempster, heavily involved in the recruitment process following Alan Stubbs’ departure to Rotherham, believes that attracting the former Celtic manager — on the back of Brendan Rodgers taking the job at Parkhead — is indicative of a mini-boom in the game north of the border.
‘Folk always say: “Oh, Scottish football…”,’ said Dempster, the former Motherwell chief executive. ‘But I think Scottish football is on the up — and it has been on the up for a wee while.
‘You look at other appointments in Scotland this year and in recent years — I think it is strong. For Neil to come back to Scotland, to come to Hibernian, is a statement that we are all in better shape.
‘He is obviously a manager who is known UK-wide and worldwide. You only have to look at the excitement among the supporter-base about his appointment.
‘As soon as it was talked about, it was something they were getting very, very excited about. So it can only be a good thing for us.
‘It shows that the club is doing everything it can to progress and to be as strong as we can be.
‘That’s always been our aim from day one. People always tell me to smile more — but I am genuinely pleased about this!’
While Lennon has been hired with the objective of getting more out of players already on the books, key to improving on last season’s play-off loss will be financial support.
Enough to keep the best performers already at Easter Road — and to add one or two, at least.
Asked if there was a need to offload one or two stars to balance the books, with John McGinn and Jason Cummings among those attracting interest, Dempster said: ‘We don’t have a need to do anything.
‘At the moment, the club is in a strong position and has a strong player pool. Anything we do, we will do electively — whether that is players going out or coming in.
‘Neil will have a strong budget in the Championship. He will have a budget we feel will be competitive and you can see the players that we have got at the minute.
‘The vast amount of players that we had under contract are still under contract at the moment and we want to add to that. We want to support him to go forward.
‘I think he needs to assess the players that he has got. It is a pretty strong squad at the moment. I am sure there will be one or two who may not feature as much as they would like, but that will be his decision. We only went over the players in any detail in the last 24 hours, so he has a bit to think about.
‘I don’t think there was any lack of desire to win last season, but we need to be able to win those really important games in the league. Every league game is going to be really important for us.
‘I like that energy and desire and I think that is something he will transmit to the squad, his experience, I think he’ll be calm under pressure. And I think he’ll work well in our environment.
‘He’s certainly used to working with clubs with the resources we have here, and we need to make sure we use those to the best of our ability. So we’ll support him as much as we can.
‘The next step is we have identified the areas of the team we want to strengthen. We have talked about that already.
‘So the main priority is to try to bring in the couple that we have identified before we come back on June 23, ideally. If not, then shortly afterwards, because we’re in real time after that.
‘There will be some changes, but not a massive switch around this year. I don’t think there are going to be wholesale changes with players.
‘Like every other season, you want to be stronger than you ended the previous season. That will be our aim.’