[0762]

Additional quote by Alan Stubbs at the weekend after finally kicking that deliberately disruptive Scott Allan issue into touch: "There will be more new players coming to Easter Road shortly". It looks like his transfer plans are well advanced and I wonder how many players and who they are"? This is a piece of positive news and we need to move on and progress with the prep work for the start of the Championship season. I think Alan Stubbs has picked up good pre-season info re the current state/fitness, form and mental state of certain players and thank god he knows this now and there is time to redress some of the probs - we are not as badly prepared as we were last season and the best response to any critic is by quickly doing the biz on the pitch and keep doing it. Stubbs is a year into his Hibs project and has a settled and highly-motivated squad of players. Scott Allan is staying and the key for Stubbs is who is banging in lotsa goals during this season - he has a choice from a list of decent strikers to do it but, as usual, injuries and Lady Luck will play a part in the final outcome. Therefore I've no doubt Hibs are still one of the main favourites to win the Championship and one bad pre-season result incurred by a weakened Hibs team has not changed anything (didn't Hearts lose 5-1 at Livingston with Neilsen's Petrofac Cup reserve team? Badly affected? No!), particularly at a time when players are still gradually training up and practising towards full match fitness that is strictly supervised by Hibs sports scientists and advisers.