Hibs humiliated by Morton

Dumped out the cup by Morton, just another far from glourious night for Hibs under the stewardship of Mixu Paatelianen. No matter how much Mixu whines out about refereeing decisions being responsible the bottom line is that Hibs were simply not good enough to beat a team of journeymen from a division below us. The result should have been out of sight long before the 90 minutes were up.

It’s time that Mixu stood up and took responsibility for another embarrassing night at the hands of lower league opponents that we seem to be experiencing on a frequent basis under Mixu’s management.

Let’s put it in perspective. All teams will have their off nights, it happens to the best and biggest of teams the world over. One bad night at the office is not reason enough to sack a manager. The problem at Easter Road is that these results are coming along like the number 22 bus at the moment. One win in eleven competitive matches is poor whatever way you care to look at it. Couple this with pre-season defeats to Clyde and Cowdenbeath and a draw with Raith Rovers and I think that it all adds up to a crisis at Easter Road.

Mixu told us that it would be alright when the season started, that it would come good against Kilmarnock. We lost that game.

As with the Cowdenbeath game Mixu seems to handle defeats like last night by getting sent to the stand. Hibs fans want to see a manager sort out the problems on the pitch not have a child like tantrum, a pathetic response if we are going to be brutally honest. I hope Petrie fines him for his behaviour.
I hate to say it, but I have started to agree with the Hibs fans who have been calling for Mixu’s head. Sadly he is out of his depth and like the Stevie Smith I don’t think that Mixu is waving but sadly he is drowning. Petrie does not have a track record of sacking managers, he let wee fat Bob leave at his own accord but I think that it might be time to make like Alan Sugar and give Paatelianen his jotters.

Even the photos are looking bad

When it all goes wrong it all goes wrong. Some folk are terminally unlucky, on a constant losing streak.

As Mixu's time at Hibs hits a bad spell I notice that the Evening News is quick to join in. The picture editors are using photographs with the intent of further twisting in the knife in Mixu's back.

I guess that it was what we should expect from a jambo rag.

Mixu wants to get rid of "eight or nine"

You have to hand it to Mixu, he is facing is first big crisis as a manager and he responds by telling eight or nine of his players that the will never play for Hibs again. It is not clear if he has just told the players this as some media outlets are reporting or they were told this some time ago. It is obvious to any Hibs fan that there are a lot of players in the current Hibs squad who are simply not good enough to play for Hibs. They are a fair few in the squad that if we are being totally honest are just not good enough to play football.

We tried to work out which eight or nine Hibs players Mixu was referring to. Try it. Such is the state of the current Hibs squad it is not easy to think of eight or nine players that you would want to keep. I know that Mixu spoke to many of the players earlier this summer and outlined his plans concerning them. He told one player that he was nothing more than a squad player and that he not expect to play this season. What a way to motivate the player. Already before the season has started you have a player who lost the desire to play for the Hibs jersey.

Mixu still appears to be going from one calamity to another at the moment. Telling the majority of the squad that they are not got enough will not help boost the morale in the squad. It seems a bizarre method of motivating the players telling them that he would prefer them to leave. Tough love maybe? Mixu has to come out fighting if he is going to keep his job, I am not sure that this is the best way of doing it.

Mixu given touchline ban

It must feel for Mixu Paatelainen that it never rains but it pours. Today he was handed a two match touchline ban for his dismissal during the two nil defeat to Cowdenbeath this week. On the morning of the game against Cowdenbeath Hibs were fined £10,000 for their indiscipline last season. Great example for the manager to set, club gets hammered for the player’s poor disciplinary record so the manager feels he has to join in? It is worth remembering that he was only set to the stands at the end of the game, maybe his behaviour came out of a sense of frustration more likely though it was an attempt to get out watching a poor match.

This means that Mixu will be absent from the Hibs dugout for the home game against Falkirk as well for the trip to Inverness the week after.

I can’t help feeling that nothing is going Mixu’s way at the moment, it does appear more and more that he is a man going from one disaster to another. I am not sure what to make of it all; I would not be surprised to find out that Mixu has broken a mirror and that this is the first of his bad luck. Has Mixu walked under a ladder? He definitely seems out of luck at the moment.

Crisis at Easter Road - Mixu's last days?

It looks like things are going from bad to worse for Mixu at Hibs. A pre-season which has already been dismal by anybodies standards has just got a lot worse. Losing 3 - 0 to Clyde is not acceptable by any standards. No matter what was has been said in the press conferences there is something wrong at Easter Road and looks like it is getting worse.

Mixu was already panicking before tonight’s game, god knows how he is feeling now. What should have been a semi meaningless friendly had in light of Hibs inability to win a game, or even score started to become important in the His supporters eyes. As mentioned earlier, Mixu is panicking, that is why he took what he perceived as a strong team.

Hibs started with the following 11:

McNeil

Hanlon, Murray, Hogg, DVZ

O'brien, Shiels, Thicot, Rankin

Nish, Fletcher


With Maka away, Zemmama injured, Jones absent and who knows what excuse is being used for not playing Benji this week that appears to be Mixu’s preferred starting 11. That is one of the reasons that it is so worrying. Its not as if we can bring quality players to replace them, we don’t have any. When Mixu put that team out he put them out to win and to stop the talk of a crisis at Easter Road. It looks like that strategy has backfired on him big time. I hate to draw the comparison but Mixu is the footballing equivalent of Gordon Brown. Substitute the Glasgow East by-election for Clyde or Cowdenbeath and it is the same. The more you look the more it appears that there is a crisis at Hibs and with the leadership in particular. I honestly think that if Mixu is to have a future at Easter Road he is going to have to do something and whatever it is that he is going to do he is going to have to do it soon.

Real Madrid sign Steven Fletcher

"Steven Fletcher signs for Real Madrid" is the headline that many football journalists have been itching to write for a while now. According to some it might just be as well about to happen. The reports claim that Real Madrid have started negotiating with Hibs, or are about to start negotiations with a starting fee of £2 million pounds being talked about. Predrag Mijatović's the sporting director at Real and Bernd Schuster the manager have apparently authorised the deal.

The Fletcher to Real Madrid story has been going on for a while now and no matter how ridiculous it sounds many people believe that there is something in it. It is hard to remain sceptical about this one when it has been going on for so long. Usally with a story like this you would expect his agent to be the source of the information but this time quotes are being directly attributed to staff at Real Madrid. Another rumour is that Harry Redknapp the Portsmouth manager is going to put in a £3 million bid for Fletcher.

What is certain is that if Hibs receive an offer that in Godfather parlance “is to good to refuse” they will accept it. What figure will that offer have to be, to be honest, I think it will be the highest figure that any clubs bid.

After all Benji’s talk about him soon playing for Real it looks like maybe Fletcher will be there before him. Maybe if Benji is nice to him he might put a word in for him.

Many of us conspiracy theorists believed that all the talk about Ronaldo going to Real was a smoke screen used by Real Madrid to cover their real transfer target, Steven Fletcher. Some of the conspiracy theorists, admittedly these ones frequent the Central Bar at the foot of the walk, believed that it was Colin Nish that was the real target and not Fletcher. Can you imagine the site of Colin Nish terrorising defenses in La Liga. That really would be worth seeing.

Mixu quits rumours / Clyde friendly

Rumours are continuing to fly around that Hibs manager Mixu Paatelainen offered his resignation to chairman Rod Petrie after an argument this week. According to the rumour mill Mixu is fed up with the lack of funds being available to enable him to bring new players to the club. Rod Petrie must know this argument backwards by now, he can probably recite it in multiple different languages.

Rod Petrie is always cast in the role of the villain in the pantomime which is Hibernian Football Club. The majority of Hibs fans have never taken to Petrie, he has been held responsible for pretty much everything that has gone wrong with Hibs during his time with the club. The only time his stock did rise was during the Tony Mowbray years. He took one hell of a gamble appointing a manager who had no previous managerial experience. It was one hell of a gamble that could have blown up in his face, in the end it turned out to be the probably the best thing that he ever did.

I am sure that there will be some Hibs fans who will takes Petrie’s side in this alleged argument, I don’t know any and never spoken to any but that does not mean that I cant rule out the potential that they exist. The majority of Hibees want him to release money for Mixu to add to the squad and for him to do it now. Even talking the embarrassment of the mauling at Barca’s hands it is obvious that the present Hibs squad is week.

If we have any delusions that we will be competing for the ‘best of the rest’ behind the bigot brothers lets dispel them now. Dundee United despite losing Noel Hunt have still strengthen their squad, Motherwell have added to their squad, even Aberdeen look a stronger prospect than last season. It is only a matter of time before the Hertz sort out their problems and get their act together. Lets be honest, no matter how bad things are at Easter Road we can always amuse ourselves with the thought that since Mad Vlad turned up they are worse over there.
Mixu has indicated that he is taking a strong squad to Clyde for tonight’s friendly. Read what you want between the lines but that is down to some extent to panic among the Hibs coaching staff. I hate to draw the parallel between them but Mixu is the football manager equivalent of Gordon Brown. As Brown’s goes from one by-election defeat to another, Mixu goes from one friendly defeat or embarrassment to another.

A Hibs legend
At the moment I genuinely fear for Mixu, I am scared that another Hibs legends reputation is going to be tarnished by the actions or lack of actions by Rod Petrie. There is no dispute that Mixu has made many footballing mistakes in his managerial career at Easter Road so far, he is still a young manager learning his trade after all. What I don’t want to see his him fail because of Petrie’s penny pinching.

Hibs Blog

I am still getting over the nightmare of our mauling at the hands of Barca.

When I pick myself up I will start blogging and hopefully be a bit more optimisitic about the start of the new season.