Plymouth Argyle's Loss is Hibernian's Gain

I'll be honest, I never wanted Bobby Williamson to be Manager of Hibernian FC. Not because he once played for Rangers - that never bothered me - and not because he replaced Franck Sauzee - Sauzee's reign was disastrous and something had to be done to halt the slide down the table. I didn't want Williamson because I did not think he would bring attractive football to Easter Road and did not think he would take the Club forward. The Board went for the safe option - a man who would never get you relegated, a safe pair of hands. I thought we Hibs fans deserved better than that. His supporters - and there were some in the early days - pointed to his record of, what was quite frankly, overachievement at Kilmarnock. He brought them regular European football, regular early UEFA Cup exits at the hands of less than mediocre opposition, and a Scottish Cup Final win against First Division Falkirk. To be fair, we would have settled for that. If he overachieved at Kilmarnock, Bobby Williamson spectacularly underachieved at Hibs.

The early omens were not very good - when asked why he left Kilmarnock for Hibs, Williamson said that he wanted a new challenge. Fair enough you might say but there was no mention and, it would seem, no understanding on his part that Hibs were a Club two or three times the size of Kilmarnock in terms on stature and expectations. Early signs on the park were, however, reasonably positive - we avoided relegation by beating St Johnstone 3-0 at Easter Road in his first game in charge. But, in all honesty, we probably would not have been relegated that season, even if Sauzee had remained in charge. Williamson's first full season hinted of things to come. Hibs had a poor start, followed by a few good games, followed by a poor run… you get the picture. To be fair, Williamson had nothing like the resources McLeish had had but we were led to believe that one of his main selling points, had been his nurturing of young talent at Kilmarnock. A 5-1 hammering by Hearts in the second game of the season suggested that his ability to inspire was lacking. A 4-4 draw after being 4-2 up with 43 seconds left at Tynecastle later on in the season, suggested his ability to organise and maintain defensive discipline was non-existent. Williamson blamed the media, blamed referees, and made up more and more excuses for his team's ineptitude. Still, we grudgingly accepted a 7th place finish after missing out on the top 6 again. After all, what did Williamson have to work with? His hands were tied. He hadn't been told the full extent of the financial problems facing the Club. Those of us who had always been sceptical of the man's abilities knew better however - the performances were unacceptable and, even when we did win, we did so in a manner not befitting the Hibernian tradition.

We have seen little improvement this season. A good start, including a 10-man, last-minute win against Hearts at ER, suggested better times ahead but every win seems to have been followed by a couple of poor performances. Tactics have usually entailed punting long balls forward to short players. Let it not be forgotten that Williamson has his SFA coaching badges. There have been bright spots - the emergence of Kevin Thompson has surprised even those amongst us who regularly watch Under-21 games, and Derek Riordan's development has continued apace, despite Williamson's continued deployment of him as a winger. However, despite the plaudits from the Glasgow-based media that Williamson was nurturing a hugely-talented young squad, the reality was somewhat different. Gary O'Connor has been a shadow of his former self - a shambling, truculent, and lazy figure. Not once did Williamson appear to recognise this and empty him, preferring instead to undermine his confidence further by playing O'Connor as a lone striker-cum-target man. That he has struggled to fill Mixu's boots cannot be blamed on O'Connor whatever his failings. Scott Brown's temperament has been increasingly questionable - again you wonder what Williamson did to modify this. His man-management with fringe players was questionable also - he was quick to criticise the likes of Jonathon Baillie whilst defending the likes of O'Connor. Williamson's team selections were also questionable at times (33 year old Gary Smith at right back against Peter Lovenkrands? You're having a laugh!).

O'Connor - Mixu he ain't

In Williamson's defence, even I have to grudgingly admit that injuries to players such as Brebner and Murray, did not aid his cause although it is a moot point whether the omission of Murray for much of this season has really been the problem it would have been the previous season. Similarly, it is fairly clear that Williamson did not have the cash to spend on high quality players. However, even when the stingy Board loosened the purse strings, you got the impression that Williamson had no idea how to spend the cash afforded to him. Giving Stephen Glass a 3-year contract seemed like a good piece of business but how he passed a medical is anyone's guess. That cannot necessarily be blamed on Williamson but his deployment of Glass on the rare occasions when he was not crocked, suggested that he had no idea where Glass had played for most of his career. Hibs fans assumed that Glass had come to Hibs to whip crosses into the box for our strikers. Glass, to be fair to him, found this difficult to do when he was parachuted into the centre of midfield and told to defend in front of the back 4. Yannick Zambarnardi has been injured almost as much as Glass. Roland Edge looked pretty good when he first came to ER but has never really performed at the same level since his return from another lengthy injury. Colin Murdock has not had the same injury troubles as some of his colleagues but has had a difficult first (and, some hope only) season at ER. Some view Williamson's dogged determination to stick with Murdock through his early, difficult, days as admirable, others as the only option open to him, but the reality is that Williamson didn't care what the fans thought and the more we moaned on the phonelines or websites, the more likely he was to pick him. Arguably Williamson's most successful acquisition was Stephen Dobie. It was good to see him on the rare occasions that Williamson gave him a chance.

Williamson's Achilles Heel has always been his paranoia - of the SFA, of the media, and (most despicably) of the fans - the people who pay his wages. He claimed he responded to fans if they included a telephone number in their correspondence. Mass Hibsteria wrote to him twice (including a telephone number both times) asking if we could meet him for a chat - he never replied. Perhaps he thought we were part of the media conspiracy against him. Still, at least by his refusal to reply to us, we were spared the inarticulate, mangled, paranoia that he usually came out with in interviews. Some say he did himself a disservice in interviews and that he was actually a much more warm man in person. That's perhaps a bit too charitable.   

An excellent run in the CIS Cup provided him with some respite but an abysmal Cup Final appearance - where Williamson's tactics were not only disastrous but negligent and an insult to the 37,000 Hibs fans who went that day - suggested that he had rolled his last dice. A win may have kept him his job but the same parallels could be drawn with Alex Miller - the League Cup win in 1991 did not negate everything else he inflicted on us over 11 long years. You expect most Managers to fire their team up, if not before kick-off because nerves are understandable, but at least at half-time. That Williamson was unable to do that in the Cup Final just confirmed his lack of competence to manage a Club of the stature of Hibs.

In the days preceding and following his departure, much was made of the apparent breakdown in the relationship between Rod Petrie and Bobby Williamson. That he was treated shabbily by the Board does not appear to be in doubt and Williamson's only display of dignity in his two years at ER was on the day the Board met at 8am on a Sunday to renegotiate his contract. However, let us not forget that Williamson was paid a six-figure sum per season to manage Hibs. Think how many years it would take most of us to earn such an amount. Think also what we will miss with his passing. Will we miss his tactics and team selections? Will we miss the long balls being hoofed forward? Will we miss his embarrassing pre- and post-match interviews? Will we miss him spending half the game berating fans behind the dugout who pay good money to watch ongoing failure? In recent days Williamson, happy now to court the same media he was previously critical of, has been trying to put a positive spin on his time at ER - his hands were tied, he was undermined by a frugal Board, and he had to work with horrendous injuries to key players. Few would dispute that but surely Craig Levein, Terry Butcher, and Jim Duffy have had to work in similar circumstances? The fact that only 6,500 were at ER at the recent SPL game against Livingston tells its own story.

What is most surprising however is that an upwardly mobile Club like Plymouth Argyle would possibly believe that Williamson is the man to take them forward. I bear no malice towards Williamson and would wish him well at Plymouth - unlike Jim Duffy or Alex Miller, he has not left the Club in a dire state. Any damage he has done can be rectified by a new, more competent, manager. However, the fact remains that Bobby Williamson was a failure as Hibs manager - the Club was too big for him and he just did not understand what being Hibs manager meant. We deserve better. We'll get better.