The damning Hibs truth that proves squad overhaul is a must and there is only four players I'd keep - Tam McManus

Hibs have 15 players out of contract next summer and there’s not one of them who would be a massive miss to David Gray.

In fact I look through the entire squad - every single player on the first team books - and don’t see a single asset that you’d think ‘Hibs can’t afford to lose him’. That is a damning indictment on the recruitment in recent years. Okay there are a couple in the 15 soon-to-be free agents who I would offer terms on a new deal and a couple of others that could yet sway Gray into thinking they are worth keeping. More on who I think should stay or go later.

But new head of recruitment Garvan Stewart must already be thinking ‘wow, this needs a massive overhaul’. And considering they’ve seen more turnovers than Murrayfield in recent years that’s a big problem. This has to be the last. Hibs need to get the player trading model back on track. Twenty years ago they coined it in by selling guys like Scott Brown, Steven Fletcher, Steven Whittaker, Kevin Thomson, Kenny Miller, Garry O’Connor … the list goes on. It’s strange because when that Golden Generation came through we had no decent training centre like they have now.

There’s only been Josh Doig, Kevin Nisbet and Martin Boyle who have coined in decent money in the last three years. And there’s nobody in the current squad that you’d say will break a million. Player trading should be a priority at clubs like Hibs. In fact every Scottish club. Celtic have mastered it. Aberdeen have had some huge sales recently too. But right now nobody is going to pay money for guys that have been struggling in a team near the bottom of the league.

Two things need to change: they need to sign a better quality of player and they need to start producing their own stars of the