I must admit to having more than a modicum of sympathy for Boaby when he was appointed, and have defended him in the pages of this very organ more than once. After all, it wasn’t his fault the Board ripped the soul from the club by dismissing Sauzee. Neither was it his fault there were a significant number of high earners not producing the goods or (allegedly) hell bent on regularly causing unrest within the playing squad. He was charged with remedying these ills, and, to be fair, the early indications were that he was doing a decent job of it.

John O’Neil, allegedly the head honcho shit stirrer was emptied to Falkirk, albeit with a compensation package that us mere mortals can only dream about. Others were moved onto longer contracts for less money. The common - and quite unbelievable - theme was that WFB had no influence over who was getting what package; Petrie was effectively providing him with a playing squad not of his picking, and probably not one he would choose. Indeed, Petrie stopped WFB from playing O’Neil despite him being registered, as the club apparently couldn’t afford the appearance money HE had agreed when signing him. Any funding for new players was severely limited when compared to the levels provided for the GJP. The salaries offered under McLeish became unsustainable, and Boab paid for someone else’s mistakes. Boaby had the thankless task of producing a team with less money and less players, whilst still trying to make cost savings on the football side as other contracts came to an end. The £5M of talent (whom we sold for £3M) in the shape of Laursen and De la Cruz went outwards without anywhere near as much going back to the playing squad.

To be fair, he made as many poor signings as good ones; which seems to be par for the course with recent managers. This, of course, excludes Duff Jimmy, who cannae take credit for signing even a single decent player. Stephen Glass appears to have been signed for medical research purposes. Colin Murdock has, to be polite about things, been ‘inconsistent’. Roland Edge has, perhaps, flattered to deceive - again he’s been affected for a lengthy period with an injury. On the plus side, Zambernadi had many a fine performance before becoming dogged by injury. His star signing has to be Daniel Andersson, who is, in my humble opinion, the best goalkeeper at Easter Road since Goram.

Boaby made quite a few howlers during his time at Easter Road. Who can forget him making a substitution in the last minute at Dens Park when we were getting humped and should have been trying to get a late goal and restore some pride? Also, the 4 - 4 Derby game at the PBS must also go down as a Boaby howler. If a manager can’t communicate to his players that all they need to is keep possession of the ball for 30 seconds, or blast it in Row Z of the away support for safe keeping, then he must accept responsibility. His constant bickering with the fans behind the dugout did him no favours with me either. The time and place to discuss football tactics is clearly not during a game, but Boaby seemed to revel in these inter-match debates.

His relationship with the press was, eh, interesting. Whilst the very large majority of his replies were quite funny and designed to wind up the Weegie Fourth Estate, others were baffling in the extreme. The recent ranting that the younger players should settle down and get married has to be the most bizarre excuse for defeat I’ve heard in my thirty years of following football. Not your best moment, Boab.

For all that, my lasting impression of WFB will be that of a decent, honest bloke. He excelled during the Fan’s Forums that were held at ER during his reign, and answered questions from fans willingly and more often than not with humour. Also, he also used to phone fans back if they wrote to him; I always thought this was slightly bizarre, but fair play to him for making the effort to communicate with the fans.

Finally, I would like to thank Bobby for the way he conducted himself during the last few weeks of David Alexander, a young Hibby who tragically died earlier in the year. As well as making the family welcome at Easter Road, Bobby visited the Alexanders’ at home too. He also attended the funeral - ironically on the day our young team performed heroics and beat Rangers in the CIS Cup semi final. After victory was sealed, he dedicated the game in memory to David. All in all, the act of a true gentleman.

Well, it wasn’t the pleasure it might have been, but thanks anyway Bobby.

* Oo2be wrote this article for issue 108, but due to pressure of space we were unable to publish it. However, such was the joy when he actually went, we forgot to be even a wee bit nice to him. This is as good as you’re gonnae get from Hibsteria, fat boy…