Hhibees boss won’t stop wheeling and dealing
Under Paul Heckingbottom’s charge, Hibs have put together a highlyimpressive nine-game unbeaten run in the Premiership.
Yet as he prepares to try to take the sequence into double figures today with the visit of Edinburgh rivals, Hearts, the Yorkshireman has sprung a surprise.
He is planning radical change in the summer.
Specifically, he intends to build his 2019- 20 side around a handful of loan players who aren’t even at Easter Road yet!
“There will have to be big changes because we have a lot of loans to go back,” Heckingbottom said.
“That is about five or six players, so the squad is going to be different, without a doubt.
“And going forward, the loan market is something I will definitely look to be active in.
“There are a lot of players out of our reach, in terms of transfer fees and wage demands, who are possibilities in the loan market.
“We want to exploit the fact we have a good reputation – and I think we are actually better than that reputation – when it comes to making people better.
“Stephane Omeonga ( the Belgian Under- 21 internationalist plucked from Serie A outfit, Genoa) is one outstanding example.
“Right from the very first training session, he stood out as someone who could do the job for us we were after.
“He forced his way into a winning team, which is not easy to do.
“Marc Mcnulty is another. Since coming to us from Reading, he has been great.
“At the age of 26, he’s a bit older than Steph, but he is another who has got his rewards.
“He also made sacrifices because he wanted to come and play football.
“It has paid off for him because he now has two caps for Scotland.
“So as a club, why wouldn’t you send your best young talent to us?
“Personally, I would rather build my team around loans to make sure we get the best possible players, players we wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.
“And if you are doing that, then you automatically have a place in your squad that you can see them playing in.
“If they are in the team, and they perform as you hope – because you have done your homework and got the right player in – another positive loan makes our reputation even better.
“When that happens, we are more likely to get the next one we want on loan from that club and everyone else.
“I did the same at Barnsley, and it was a real weapon in helping us compete against bigger budgets.”
It is the honesty of Heckingbottom which startles, rather than his underlying strategy.
Under Steven Gerrard’s charge, Rangers have very much embraced the loan system.
With Ryan Kent, Joe Worrall, Steven Davis and Jermain Defoe at Ibrox courtesy of Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Southampton and Bournemouth respectively, the spine of the Light Blues team has a “due back by” date on it.
“Kent was actually a big success story for me at Barnsley. I tried to get when I first got the job,” the Hibs manager reminisced.
“He had left Coventry and gone back to Liverpool. I laugh with him now about how I rang them about Ryan and no one came back to me.
“We got to the Johnstone Paints Final and calls were returned. Then we won it and they came back to me straight away. Then we got promoted and they were offering me players! That’s how it is.
“The season we got promoted, we had Lloyd Isgrove, Harry Chapman, Ashley Fletcher and Kevin Long, who went back to Burnley and got into their first-team. So we used loans well.
“Everyone had done well and we used that.
“It is frustrating when you do all the work with a player, give them the opportunity, make them better and they then go back to their parent club and get sold for £6-million (the fee Middlesbrough paid for Fletcher).
“But they have done a job for us and it helps us get the next one because they see the job we have done.
“We aren’t going to get a financial benefit, other than how they help to improve the 11 on the pitch or the squad.
“That is the way we have to use it.”