It has been around fourteen months since angry Hibernian fans gathered outside the West Stand at Easter Road to protest against Rod Petrie's involvement with the club. Hibs had just been relegated after an appalling run under then-manager Terry Butcher, and the club was at its lowest ebb in many years.
While the protesters made their feeling known, inside Easter Road Leeann Dempster - Hibernian's newly appointed Chief Exec - met with a group of supporters to introduce herself and to try and convey what she was hoping to achieve at Hibernian.
Since then, the 'wind of change' has swept through Easter Road. A new regime is in place, Butcher has been replaced by Alan Stubbs and his coaching team, the youth set up has altered, and Hibs recruited a 'Head of Football Operations' in George Craig as the whole club was shaken up.
Hibs finished second in the league last season, reaching the quarter finals of the League Cup, and the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup in the process. Although promotion eluded them, it is a very different Hibernian that you see today, to the one that slumped to play-off defeat against Hamilton to find themselves relegated.
I have been fortunate enough to have been given access to some of the Hibernian staff to explore how the club has changed in their eyes since Leeann Dempster took charge.
The first of this series of blogs is an interview with Frank Dougan, who was elected onto the Board of Directors as a supporters' representative, along with Amit Moudgil.
I had met Frank before, but had never taken the opportunity to have any kind of conversation with him, and so I was really interested to get to know Frank better and to understand more about his views on the club. You can tell within minutes of talking to him just how passionate Frank is about Hibernian, and it's not hard to understand why he was elected to the role by his fellow supporters. If you cut Frank, he'd bleed green, and his desire to see Hibs back where they belong was evident throughout the interview.
Now you've had a chance to get your feet under the table in your role, tell me about the experience so far.
The experience has been fantastic, bar the football. Nothing has been held back,and we've been told every single thing. I try to get to all the games, the only one I don't get to is Tynecastle - but that's a long story. I don't like sitting in the director's box, to be honest I prefer sitting amongst the fans and I try to do that as much as possible. I'm there for anyone that wants to speak to me. I get a lot of good suggestions, a lot of criticism as well, but the majority is positive. When people are face to face it's positive. Keyboard warriors really do worry me, there's people out there with an agenda and it doesn't matter what Hibs do, they're going to criticise. If we're winning the Premiership - why are we not winning by more points, if we score ten goals and concede one, it's why did we concede one. It doesn't matter, they have a negative agenda and they're not prepared to do anything, and that really worries me.
How damaging do you think those people are?
I think at the moment they're quite damaging because we've not got off to the best start this season, but I can categorically assure you that people like Alan Stubbs, George Craig, and Graeme Mathie, are working so, so hard to find players to bring in, and it's not easy. There's a budget. We have to realise that there's a budget and the only way to increase that budget is for people to turn up. When I look at last season I had four criteria. First and foremost I wanted to see us sign better players, well we've done that. Second I wanted to see us play better football - well that wouldn't be hard, but we've done that. Third, I wanted to see us get to the play-offs, and we did. And fourth I wanted decent runs in the cup, which we did. I know we got to a semi final and a quarter final, and the two games against Falkirk and Dundee United I thought we played well and were unlucky in both games. We finished second in the league, we were second top scorers. I thought we did ok. I can't understand why people don't turn up to the games and that frustrates me.
I asked that question through pre-season on hibs.net - what would make people come back? Why do you think some people are hesitant to back the team?
There's 1300 people who haven't renewed from last season, and we're actually up on season ticket numbers overall, so why are these people not coming back? I was one of the people that phoned round and yes, there were half a dozen people who had a brother that wasn't well, or were moving to Canada. One guy had just had a baby so couldn't afford it - he's still going to come just not as often. I can understand that. But not to the extent of what we are, surely if you bought a season ticket last year, you got it when we were relegated but you'll not get one this year? Alright we're in the same division but we're seeing better football, more attacking football. Seeing the football that I love, that I was brought up on. And people are using excuses like Rod Petrie's still there, Tom Farmer's still there - I'm sorry but it's so petty. The changes in the club since Leeann Dempster came, and don't forget, Rod Petrie and Tom Farmer built the stadium - not them personally, but they made it happen. We've got the stadium, we've got the training facilities. I'm not singing their praises because I think there's been a lot of bad management in the past, and I'm not saying they're not responsible for bad decisions. Don't forget that Rod Petrie brought in Leeann last February, and she's been a breath of fresh air. One of the things I said to Leeann at the tail end of last season when she stood up for the club against the SFA for the play-off prices, and cut the Rangers' allocation - it was really good.
What's your background as a Hibs fan?
My great grandfather was one of the members of the CYMS that founded Hibs, he wasn't part of the Hibs team, but he was part of the Catholic Young Men's Society that founded Hibernian Football Club. My great-grandfather, my grandfather, my father, my brothers, my nephews. There's no choice. My first Hibs game - I was 18 months old. My mother was heavily pregnant with my brother and my father was told to look after me, so he took me to Easter Road. We beat Partick 2-1, not that I remember anything of the game. The first time I can remember crying my eyes out at Hampden at the 58 Cup Final against Clyde. I thought all we had to do was turn up to beat them. We got beat 1-0, my dad told me at that point "Don't worry, there's plenty time, we'll win it one day." Now, my dad's been dead a number of years and he never saw it. I just hope that one day...
How much of a challenge did you find it moving from a prominent supporter role to the board?
I found it quite easy, actually. I was quite vocal when I was Treasurer for the Hibs Supporters Club, I was Spokesman for the Hibs Supporter's Association. There was a lot of controversy over that period and I stood up for what I thought was right. The one thing I never did, and would never do, is do the dirty washing about Hibs in public. I've had my discussions with Mr Farmer and Mr Petrie in the past, and some of the discussions have been quite volatile, and I don't see that changing. If I think it's wrong, I'll state it. I'm happy to go along with what I'm seeing at the moment because what I'm seeing - the vast majority of what I'm seeing, is very positive, even if some fans don't always see it.
Where any of your pre-conceptions about the club altered when you saw it up close?
Not really, because I've always been close to the club. I was involved with Club 86, then the Hibernians after that, then the Historical Trust when it started up. Plus the fact that I've known a lot of people, I've always been fortunate to be friendly with players, likes of Pat Stanton, Jimmy O'Rourke, Eric Schaedler, Alex Cropley, John Blackley, John Brownley, I grew up with these boys, I used to go on nights out with them, over the years I've been lucky enough to know them. Even people like Paul Kane and George Stewart - I've known them all. Mickey Weir and Keith Wright, been to weddings and Christenings and that sort of thing, so I've been lucky and had an insight into what's happened at the club through them. I was very much on the periphery but I was very hands on with Hands Off Hibs.
So you came in with your eyes open, have there been any surprises?
The amount of work that goes on behind the scenes outside of the football. There's an awful lot of work goes on and it's so positive. What I can see has been achieved in the last year. I mean Cecil Graham, when he ran the club - and he did run the club on his own - now you look at the staff and it's phenomenal, and that's the business. When you look at the stadium, it's used 90 hours a year - or it was, now you see the work to generate more money through it's usage, and it has to happen.
How would you describe the progress since Leeann came in?
Fantastic, absolutely fantastic, it took Leeann to come on board for the club to stand up for itself. She's been a total, total breath of fresh air, a total change of direction. Bringing in Alan Stubbs, George Craig, Graeme Mathie, all the people behind the scenes Joe McBride for the under 20's, Eddie May running the Academy. All these people have made a big, big difference. Unfortunately there had to be a clear out to allow these people to come in, and Leeann's facilitated that.
How do you see your role developing?
I've said it before and I'll say it again, if there's a winning team on the park nobody gives a monkey's who's a Director. I'd like to think that's the case. All of us as Directors have to make it so that everything for the manager or head coach and his staff is in place. If that's generating money that's what we need to do. As far as the football - I'm a fan, a fanatic, however you want to put it. I just want to see the football and whatever I can do to help the coaches achieve that goal, I'll do it. I'll do anything and everything I can to support that.
What would you say to fans that are hesitant to come back?
The only way that this club is going to go forward is for these fans to come back. It's so easy to criticise but if you do that there's no point. The only way you're going to change it is from the inside, not the out. The only way we can do that is people turning up. If they're not turning up, then don't slag them, don't be a keyboard warrior. Also you don't have to turn up every week, you can buy into HSL, buy shares, all that money's going into Hibs. I wouldn't be here if I thought for one minute that money wasn't going to the manager, and that's something that's got to be achieved. Give the team a chance, the more people that come, the better it is, the more money we have to buy better players, to keep players. The board have bent over backwards to back the manager.
Frank took time at the end of the interview to ask me to convey his thanks to the Hibernian Disabled Supporter's Association for involving him in their meetings, and to pass on his praise for the great work that they're doing.
I'd also like to thank Colin Millar, Frank Dougan, Amit Moudgil, and Stephen Dunn for their time and patience in making these interviews happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment