[1Wattie]

I'm pretty sure that Rod Petrie has had a hand in this from the beginning and was instrumental in John McGinn going to Aston Villa. Rod has always taken a transfer fee for our players before taking into account the fans feelings. There's more to come on this story the whole truth may never come out.

[0762]

Hibs apparently already looking for a new manager but unofficially. I hope this is a false rumour! Season over as far I'm concerned. I predicted that there would be a detrimental "trade off" due to Hibs early season Euro involvement and proved right but never thought we'd hit this kinda level of crisis.

[hibeejim21]

I remember when Lennon took over he referred to the players as 'spice boys' in reference to their reputation for turning up for big games getting a result, taking the plaudits when they went out in Edinburgh that night, then losing to the likes of Motherwell the next week.

He obviously wanted to change the mentality at the club and felt the players were letting us down.

We have a history of player revolts at the club unfortunately and it looks like Lennon slating the players publicly to get a reaction has backfired on him. It worked well last season though but we had 2 excellent midfielders in mcginn and mcgeough.

[1Wattie]

Those of us who have supported the team for years will remember the upheaval it caused when the board,Rod, took the players side against the manager , Collins, I really believe that started the decline that saw us in the Championship.
Neil Lennon has seen three of his best players go and that puts pressure on him and the rest of the team, and its starting to tell both on and off the park. If he`s going the club need to tell us now.

[0762]

My "gut" tells me that Leeann will still try to keep him if poss but this looks like an untenable position unless two parties are somehow brought together, "heal wounds" and move on as one!!

[1Wattie]

I think you could be right 0762 because the best way forward for both parties is a mediation of some sort which will see us concentrate on keeping our place in the premiership. It appears to most of us that there needs to be some investment in the squad because it's clear the ones there at the moment are not/do not want to be up to the standard required to challenge for a top 3 place.
Time will tell but hopefully good sense will prevail.

[hibeejim21]

My "gut" tells me that Leeann will still try to keep him if poss but this looks like an untenable position unless two parties are somehow brought together, "heal wounds" and move on as one!!

I'd like to hope there might be a chance that he stays on but I doubt it. It seems more likely that we are negotiating his departure.

The players have let us down very badly in all of this and need to have a good look at themselves.

[1Wattie]

I don't think the board and players think they may be driving our attendances back down to the 9 or 10,000 mark. When we were fairly successful and playing good football our home games attracted between 18 and 20,000 but more of us are feeling the players only care about picking up their wages.

[hibeejim21]

The heralds take on things:




No-one knows for sure how relations stretched to breaking point with Neil Lennon and Hibs but there is little ambiguity about just how irreparable the damage is.

Legal teams will take charge of the formal and bitter fallout but it was an emotional bursting of the dam that sealed Lennon’s fate at Hibs this week. As the divorce between the 47-year-old and the Easter Road club awaits confirmation the love seemed to have been lost between the duo long before the explosive finale that took place on Friday afternoon.


With the players given Thursday off, Lennon called a summit for Friday with the full squad asked to attend in the wake of the midweek defeat to Motherwell. It is also believed that several members of the coaching staff were there – Lee Makel, Eddie May, Grant Murray and Alan Combe are all thought to have been present.

What followed was a robust and frank exchange as the coaches were vocal in their criticism of performances and players with the contribution of certain individuals questioned. Swiss striker Florian Kamberi reacted furiously to the criticism, believing it to be aggressive and over the top with the forward threatening to quit the club in the aftermath of the meeting.

When the coaching staff left the meeting it is believed that the players themselves continued the debate.

Lennon then went into his scheduled meeting with Dempster but rather than discussing transfers, they immediately began arguing over the events around first meeting of the day. It is thought that there was an allegation made that both Lennon and his assistant Garry Parker had used foul and aggressive language with Kamberi's situation at the core of the dispute between the chief executive and Lennon.

It is understood that Lennon furiously denied the charge and maintained his innocence, leading to a heated and angry debate between him and Dempster. Key to Lennon's frustration was the belief that Dempster had taken second-hand information from others over his own word. Both Lennon and Parker were then informed that they had been suspended with immediate effect as the club launched a probe into the incident.


As the heat simmers now, there remains a feeling that the boiling over has been inevitable. The catalyst may have been an angry and forthright meeting but even in recent weeks there has been a frustration on Lennon’s part that he needed players coming into the club and a mini clear out of others. The Easter Road club have maintained that they have made every effort to accommodate the requests of the manager.


At the end of last season as Hibs were chasing second spot a defeat to Hearts in the Tynecastle derby prompted suggestions that he was ready to call time on the arrangement between himself and Hibs after branding his own players unprofessional. Results this season have been underwhelming with a recent slump taking Hibs to eighth in the table, with Lennon unwilling to hide his frustrations at both player performances and his feeling that he was not allowed to adequately replace the likes of Dylan McGeouch and John McGinn who left the club in the summer transfer window.

Kamberi was publicly criticised by Lennon just before Christmas for “a lack of hunger” and it was the 1-0 midweek defeat to Motherwell that prompted the furious squad meeting early afternoon on Friday at the club’s East Mains training ground.

The manner of the parting will now be in the hands of the lawyers. Lennon, contracted to Hibs until 2020, is not expected to take charge of another Hibs game and it will be interesting to see what kind of reaction there is this afternoon against St Mirren.


One of the first to voice his support of Lennon last night was Hearts manager Craig Levein. The Tynecastle manager, no stranger himself to be at the heart of an argument, said: “I don’t know what’s happened in all honesty although I hope he’s okay as I actually really like Lenny.

“We’ve been on opposite sides of the city, we both want the same things for our clubs and we’ve had our moments but I have a huge amount of time for him.

“I like him as a guy and I hope he’s all right but really I’m speaking blind and I don’t know what’s gone on.”

[1Wattie]

I said in a previous post that there was a bit of a De-ja-vu around this and that seems to be justified by part of what hibeejim21 says above.
This time Leeann Dempster has taken players word above Lennon whereas before it was Rod Petrie took players side against Collins.
I will say that Lennon should have kept criticism of his players in private although he said what many of us have thought.
There may be no turning back now, mores the pity for us long suffering fans.