I've got a Hibs secret to tell you that NO ONE knew about until now - Tam McManus

A fair few Hibs fans are grumbling about the team jetting out to Dubai for some warm-weather training after a pretty lukewarm first half of the season.

But I reckon the trip can help the team come out fighting after the shutdown. Or maybe they’ll just end up fighting with each other.

Hibs heading out to the United Arab Emirates triggered memories of my playing days when we used to get away for some sunshine in January. You can imagine the response in the dressing room back then when Alex McLeish told us we were going to the Caribbean during the winter break. Wee Russell Latapy must have been twisting his arm to get back to his homeland and, sure enough, off we went to Trinidad and Tobago. The boys were buzzing and I remember being a kid on the fringes just desperate to make sure I had a seat on the plane.

I made it and it was a brilliant trip... but it didn’t pass without incident. First things first, we bust a gut out there. We had three games against local select teams and did double sessions in training. It was tremendous in terms of building team morale, working on our shape and our fitness – everything you want from these jaunts.

A lot of people scoff when teams go away like Hibs now. But what a difference it makes, having a bit of sun on your face instead of sticking on hats and gloves to battle the elements here in January.

There’s not the same sense of dread going into training, that’s for sure. And it also allows you to fully focus on just the football rather than anything else going on in life.

Anyway, we’d put in a power of work and Big Eck gave us the green light for a night out at the end of the trip. Wee Russell was in his element. He was like a god out there. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it. He