Could the Hibees go one better and split the Old Firm?
Christian Doidge believes Hibs could just split Rangers and Celtic next season but insists finishing third again is their goal.
The Easter Road outfit begin their Premiership campaign at Motherwell this afternoon, looking to emulate the flying start they got off to last season.
Then they won four of their first five games – an effort which boss Jack Ross credits with giving them the platform to kick on to finish best of the rest.
“It was a great achievement for the club and something we had not done in a long time,” said the striker, who is fit again now after missing a chunk of pre-season due to a bout of Covid.
“That was our target at the start of last season, that and to have a crack at winning a cup.
“We obviously came up short in the Scottish Cup Final itself, but in terms of league performances I thought we were outstanding and in getting third we broke our previous best away record.
“So third is definitely our aim again and you never know – football can be crazy – maybe we can nick into second.
“But the Old Firm are great clubs, they can get players on the pitch from all around the world. Their finances are a lot bigger than ours are.
“In the next couple of days we will sit down and set out our targets for the next four or five games, then take it month by month. But that is the way we will be thinking.
His message was confirmed by Hibs manager Jack Ross who was comfortable with the notion his team will have the proverbial target on their back in the coming campaign.
“I think that will be the case, I think it goes with the territory,” said Ross.
“But I prefer it that way, I don’t think we shy away from it.
“I know there will be a number of teams who will look at what we achieved last year and will have aspirations to do that themselves this time because we were in that boat at the start of last season.
“We looked at the team who had finished third, the highlycompetitive nature of this league means you are never far away from somebody wanting to do that to you.
“I welcome it, I think it is good for the players to deal with that aspiration as well, but it is about standing up and producing under that kind of increased pressure.”
Ross acknowledges he himself could be feeling a bit of pressure ahead of the close of the transfer window, given the possibility of late bids for the likes of Josh Doig, Kevin Nesbit and Ryan Porteous.
“There is an unpredictable nature to what happens in the next month but we just have to work on the basis the nucleus of the squad are with us unless we are told otherwise,” he said.
“We continually work to try to have contingency plans in place. It is quite a fluid situation as well because players that you may be interested in move to other clubs and so on.
“I think we have been quite patient in our own recruitment. We have not done a huge amount.
“We just need a little bit more in a couple of areas, and once we get that, I think we will be in a good place and we will have good players competing with one another all over the pitch and then that is healthy for the club.”