0/10
LEAGUE: 11th, 35pts (2012-13 - 7th, 51pts)
SCOTTISH CUP: Fifth round
LEAGUE CUP: Quarter finals
MOST USED FIRST XI: Ben Williams, Jordan Forster, Michael Nelson, Paul Hanlon, Ryan McGivern, Lewis Stevenson, Scott Robertson, Tom Taiwo, Liam Craig, Sam Stanton, James Collins
OVERVIEW: There was not a single redeeming feature to Hibernian's 2013-14 season, which will go down as one of the most infamous in Scottish football history. This squad - in reality an overpaid, undermotivated motley crew (the club had the third highest budget in the Premiership!) utterly embarrassed themselves with a capitulation the scale of which is rarely seen at this level of sport. I said before the season began that where Hibs finished in the table "depended on how soon they got rid of Pat Fenlon" (or words to that effect) - I was right, but not in the way I anticipated. The team seemed to believe that it was too good to be relegated, until it was too late. The final denouement at home to Hamilton Accies, blowing a 2-0 lead from the first leg, seemed an apt summary for their farce of the campaign - , there was an arrogance that the job was done, and then once there was a sign of trouble, their a*** collapsed. To end up in this situation takes a special degree of incompetence at every level of the organization.
HIGH POINTS: Um...no. Hibs only had one win against a top six side all season, and they lost four out of five derby clashes. There was no high point.
LOW POINTS: Bloody hell, how long have you got? The second leg of the playoff was the lowest of many low points. Heck, being beaten at home by Raith in the Scottish Cup was bad enough (Raith have won as many games at Easter Road in 2014 as Hibernian have). And to think that most fans probably thought that it couldn't get any worse after Hearts knocked them out of the League Cup in October. Just to recap, they won two of their last twenty-one matches in all competitions.
STAR MAN: Only two players were even decent. One was keeper Ben Williams. The other was Sam Stanton, whose emergence was a rare bright spark. A crafty, skilful midfield player, he suffered in the last few weeks of the campaign mainly because the team was so utterly dependent on him.
ONE FOR THE FUTURE: Aside from Stanton, forward Jason Cummings deserves a mention, simply because his goals against Hamilton were of sufficient quality to prove that he can clearly play a bit. I imagine a few more will follow when he plays against Championship opposition every week. Too soon?
WASTE OF SPACE: See the opening sentence of the 'low points' section. Take your pick over who was worse. The goal-shy striker James Collins, who cost a six figure fee but managed only half a dozen goals? Rowan Vine, who lasted less than six months after claiming he was leaving St Johnstone for a bigger club? Ryan McGivern, who could be the most hapless defender to ever start more than thirty league games in Scotland's top division? If none of these choices satisfy you, there are plenty others...
THE BOSS: Remarkably, Terry Butcher's decision to leave ICT made two sides worse - and making Pat Fenlon's side even more hopeless is a feat so remarkable that, had he deliberately set out to do so on purpose, he couldn't have made them any worse than they ended up. Fenlon left a dreadful, imbalanced squad, but Butcher proved woefully unable to improve them. Initially, with some success, he went with the sensible option of concentrating on making them difficult to beat. But with his attackers barren in front of goal, they were screwed when Paul Hanlon got injured and the rest of the back four lost form. For a man who prides himself as a motivator, his inability to raise squad confidence or to induce the slightest sense of fight is a pretty poor indictment. If he had stayed at Inverness, he might have guided them to second in the league and a League Cup final...
PROSPECTS FOR NEXT SEASON: Well, The Championship should be interesting. With no more than two teams able to win promotion, Hibs can't afford to feel sorry for themselves, or they'll be left behind Hearts and Rangers. Butcher may yet cling on to the manager's job, as he knows what it takes to win Scotland's second tier, but it's hardly a sure thing. Whoever is in charge, the playing squad will be decimated next season. If I were in charge at Easter Road, I would keep Williams, Hanlon, Stanton and Liam Craig (on the grounds that he can't have become a terrible player in a single season) and punt everyone else I could. That's a lot of new faces to bring in.
FIRST TEAMERS DEFINITELY LEAVING: Unclear, but expect the number to be in double figures.
L.
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