There, I admitted it – I was wrong!

I thought I could remain ambivalent. I thought if I said it often enough, football couldn’t bother me anymore. What a choob I’ve been.

A while back, Hibernian was in turmoil. The club was free falling. Relegation was imminent, if not that season then definitely the next. A move to Straiton was being mooted, and the Jambos were a bit smug for a team that had always been shite.

The fans were divided. The fans knew not who to blame for the clubs predicament. Some blamed the manager, some fans called those fans bigots because the manager was a former ranger’s player.

Some fans blamed the board, some other fans said “Troublemakers! Give the board a chance, the board will see us right.”

Some fans blamed the owner. “Heresy!” said some other fans. “The owner is our saviour, our knight in shining armour. Say anything like that again and we’ll knock your block off.” I’m paraphrasing a wee bit, but you get the gist.

When things became intolerable for some, they met in Valvona & Crolla over coffees and talked about it. They wept in their espresso doppios. The ones who could still tolerate things were close to weeping in their Bovril’s at reserve matches.

After a few weeks, V&C’s was very busy of an evening, sometimes two even three tables had to be “put together” to get the weeping Hibbies around. It was a very low point indeed. Not even Signora Conte’s pastries could cheer those Hibbies up.

Soon, the pressure was too much to bear. “This pressure is too much to bear!” said one Hibby who could tolerate things no more. “This situation is intolerable!” said another. “Another espresso doppio, with due biscotti!” said a third rather pretentiously. Things would never be the same again.

From those humble yet highly caffeinated beginnings, a new pressure group, Hands on Hibs was born. It had taken so many meetings partly because it wasn’t that long (seven years) since the previous Hibs pressure group, and partly because Signora Conte’s coffee was so damn good.

We all know what HoH did and didn’t do, so I’ll spare the details on the next few months, suffice to say it served it’s purpose. The board changed (a bit) public meetings were held and money (eventually) was spent on improving the team.

I relinquished my part in it all when my wife became pregnant with our first. It was time to move on, and HoH had achieved about all it was ever going to anyway. That was over 6 years ago!

Six years on and where are Hibs now? What is the club / fans relationship like? Are we better, or worse? Are we in sickness or in health?

Six years on from Hands on Hibs it saddens me to have to say this. Quite frankly it saddens me to have to say anything, I was hoping for a quiet life, looking forward to taking my two wee girls to see the Hibees on a Saturday afternoon. Singing and cheering and laughing. So how come the last time I took the eldest she wanted to leave after FIVE minutes? How come the time before that she was roaring and greeting with fifteen minutes to go because a works team were gubbing all over her team in a cup final?

In six years, it’s got worse it pains me to say.

The club and the team are going nowhere fast. Management is no longer a joke because we have no management. No one is guiding the club, no one is guiding the team. Hibs are looking into an Abyss, and the fans are taking a step back. It’s a big dark place they cannot be bothered staring into anymore.

I cannot honestly say relegation is looming, but neither can I honestly say it is not. Straiton is still not off the agenda and the Jambos are still being smug despite still being shite, and being in a bit of turmoil themselves. Ignorance might bliss if you are a Jambo, but I’m a Hibby.

I want to know what is happening at my club. I want to know where we are going. I want to know where the owner wants to take us. I want to know where I’m going with this rant, oh yes…..

To my fellow Hibernians, WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ESPRESSO!

The club is in strife and who is getting the blame (again) the FANS. Unbelievable but true, the FANS are to blame. PISH! I say.

The board gave us SUABC. What the hell is/was that all about? Stand Up And Be Counted? I’ve been doing that all my life I have you know. The downright cheek of blaming our troubles on stay away fans is/was deplorable. The notion of passing the responsibility to restore healthy crowds onto fans is/was deplorable. I have heard fans moan about less than 10,000 crowds at Easter Road, and have a pop at fellow fans for this. I have even heard fans have a pop at the 40,000 who turned up to support the team at Hampden! They’ve conned us alright, even into contradiction.

Divide and rule is an age old tool, and our board are using it well. Screw your SUABC I say, you bloody well Stand Up And Be Responsible for a change. The fans are not to blame, the fans are not responsible.

Look at the facts. Look at the stats. Those in charge are not up to the job. Even when we have a chance, even when we have hope, even when good fortune smiles down on us, those in charge of Hibernian contrive to screw it up. When given hope, they crucify it. They crucify it and then blame someone else, us.

Tom Farmer, Rod Petrie. Be men, accept your responsibilities and accept you are culpable. Do the right thing, for once.

Tom Farmer, Rod Petrie. Stand Up And Apologise. Stand Up And Admit You Were Wrong. Stand Up And Hand Over Control, to someone who has the gumption and the abilities to take Hibs forward. You two have tried and failed. Failed miserably. Move on, your time is up.

It wasn’t easy trying to console a 5 year old and make her understand how our team were unable to compete against Livingston in a cup final. Please don’t make me come back to my keyboard in five years time having tried to explain to a ten and a five year old why nine teams in administration are above us in the league. Go Tom, go Rod, go now. And if you don’t mind, turn the lights on on your way out, there’s a good chap.