Hibs’ strong season makes club an easier sell to new signings, says Malky Mackay

Malky Mackay believes Hibernian’s success last season has helped make it easier to attract players to Easter Road this summer.

The Edinburgh club have added Josh Mulligan from Dundee, Jamie McGrath from Aberdeen, Scotland defender Grant Hanley and Togo forward Thibault Klidje, who became their record signing when he arrived from Luzern.

Sporting director Mackay has been at the forefront of the club’s recruitment and feels Hibs are now an easier sell to prospective signings, after finishing third under David Gray last term, than when they were in a state of flux last summer following a bottom-six finish.

“That’s what I’m finding different now from what I was a year ago when I was trying to hunt down players,” said Mackay, speaking at a an exhibition at St Mary’s Street Hall in Edinburgh to mark Hibs’ 150th anniversary.

“A year ago I’m trying to tell them what the story’s going to look like, whereas this summer I’m able to show here’s what happened, here’s how the club is, here’s the stability, here’s the structure, here’s how our head coach works, here’s how my owner works, here’s what the team looks like, here’s how they play and here’s how I see you fitting into that.

“It’s much better when you can evidence it rather than actually promising. That helps us massively.”

Mackay believes Hibs’ current buoyancy is reflected in the fact they were able to attract former Blackburn, Norwich and Birmingham defender Hanley at a time when he remains a key member of Scotland boss Steve Clarke’s starting XI.

“We’ve worked really hard over the last 10 days concerning Grant signing, talking to him, talking to his family to make sure that he has got a full picture of what he’s coming into,” Mackay said.

“I look at him and I see a leader, I see someone with vast experience in English football and someone I know will absolutely add to the leadership. The more leaders you bring in, the more that drags the whole group together.”

Former Watford and Cardiff boss Mackay is encouraged by the way Hibs are shaping up this summer.

“I was really happy that we managed to keep the core of last year’s group together and re-sign eight or nine, so going into the summer we actually had a much stronger core than coming in last summer and there wasn’t as much business needing to be done,” he said.

“Clearly there’s some that we’re moving on and others we were going to bring in to bulk out the squad a bit. We’ve still got a couple of things that are going on just now.”