Ian Murray calls on Hibs to set realistic ambitions to grow the team

Departing Hibs captain Ian Murray believes the club needs to set itself realistic goals rather than firing more managers.

The Edinburgh side has gone through nine managers in the past ten years as it sought better results but Murray believes the time has come to let one man get on with the job of rebuilding.

Since Alex McLeish departed Easter Road in 2001, Franck Sauzee, Bobby Williamson, Tony Mowbray, Mixu Paatelainen, John Hughes and Colin Calderwood have all come and go before Pat Fenlon took up the hotseat.

Murray thinks the club was too hasty in removing certain bosses and wants a more patient approach at the club he played at for ten years over two spells.

He said: “It’s going to take a long time to rebuild but I think [the cup final defeat to Hearts] has given the club a shake that might help in the long run and this might be a catalyst for the next ten or 15 years.

“I don’t know what needs to happen. It’s a great set-up with the training centre and the stadium and it’s just on the pitch in recent years that we haven’t produced.

“You can look back to four or five years ago under Mixu Paatelainen as manager who was finishing sixth and it still wasn’t good enough. We have to decide now, pretty quickly, what’s acceptable and what’s not.”

Murray in particular was not happy when Mixu Paatelainen left after 2008/09, when the Finn lead Hibs to sixth place in the SPL and had made encouraging progress with John Collins’ League Cup winning team.

The 31-year-old, who is looking to finish his career abroad after being released this week, said he believes it shows that change at a club is not always the right thing to do.

Murray said: “It’s easy for me to say now, but there were other managers there that perhaps deserved more time and didn’t get it.

“Football can be a cruel game, you live and die by results and if results don’t go well next season, what do you do? Do you keeping sacking managers? I don’t know, I’m not qualified to make that decision.

“I look back at us finishing sixth and it still wasn’t good enough, then fourth and it wasn’t good enough. Then Colin Calderwood got quite a short reign at the club.

“Now we’ve finished 11th and been beaten 5-1 in a final. It just shows the people who want change all the time that it’s not always a good thing.”

Despite his issues with Hibs’ hire and fire policy over the last decade, Murray was still full of praise for the board at the club and said the club’s support should be behind the likes of chairman Rod Petrie.

Murray added: “Hibs, and particularly the board members, have helped me out immensely. They’re all doing the best job they can, it’s a very, very thankless task.

“They’re going to come in for flak, they understand that, but Rod Petrie is a thick-skinned guy and he’ll be there for the long haul.

“I think people have short memories. If id wasn’t for Rod, Sir Tom Farmer, Scott Lindsay and Fife Hyland the club would be in a far worse state.”

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