Hibs sailing close to 'banter years' territory - but club has chance to draw line under forgettable season

On Monday morning – during the club’s open training session at Easter Road no less – it was announced that goalkeeping coach Jon Busch had left the club. By Monday afternoon there were whispers that key sponsorship partner SportemonGo had gone belly up and by nightfall, Chris Mueller’s projected return to MLS became public.

Tuesday brought with it confirmation that SportemonGo had indeed SportemonGone, and that Roy Keane was not a candidate for the managerial vacancy.

So the club is still working on a new boss, meandering to the end of the Scottish Premiership season with three dead-rubbers to come, and has largely had a campaign to forget.

We’re a long way from cracked-badge-on-front-of-the-newspaper territory but things feel like they are on a knife-edge. The summer would have been crucial if Hibs were just after a new management team and a few players; now it feels even more important.

Given that Hibs had tried in vain to secure Mueller’s services last summer, there was a growing level of anticipation when he finally arrived on Scottish shores that he would be the man to kickstart Hibs’ stuttering league campaign. His debut came in a laboured Scottish Cup fourth-round extra-time victory against Cove Rangers. He played 90 minutes of the 120 in attack, and won the man of the match award. Promising signs from his first game in Europe.

Martin Boyle, watching on from the stands that night, departed for Saudi Arabian side Al-Faisaly the following day. But Mueller, ostensibly a right-winger, did not feature in his favoured position in any of his 14 other matches in green and white.

Was this a signing green-lit by one manager – Jack Ross – for a certain position in his system, scuppered by a new boss – Shaun Maloney – with