'I've thought about it a lot since' - David Gray's Hibs manager sliding doors moment that could have changed everything

David Gray knows that if Hibs had beaten Celtic to win the League Cup final in 2021 in his third game in caretaker charge it’s unlikely he would be sitting where he is now as the permanent manager of the Easter Road club.

He jokes he would be long retired, with the point being there would be nowhere left for him to go. He is already an indelible presence in the club’s history books after his winning goal in the Scottish Cup final in 2016.

But even had he decided to carry on there is no guarantee he would still be in a job and preparing for an upcoming double date with Celtic.

Hibs head coach David Gray during a training session at HTC this week. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

Hibs take on Brendan Rodgers’ side twice in the next seven days, in the league this afternoon at Easter Road and then at Parkhead in the Premier Sports Cup next Sunday.

Ange Postecoglou looked on when Hibs took the lead in 51 minutes after Paul Hanlon’s header at Hampden three years ago. Gray wasn't lost in reverie long. Kyogo Furuhashi struck the equaliser just over a minute later. "I don't think the smoke and dust had settled at the other end," recalled Gray. Furuhashi then struck the winner with 18 minutes left although Hibs hit the post in the dying moments.

Gray wonders what might have been. What if they'd held on to Hanlon's lead? What if Hibs had taken it to penalties? Might his managerial path have been different? Gray imagines he would have become just another Hibs casualty, League Cup win or not.

He realises he was faking it back then. He simply was not ready. It has taken four spells in caretaker charge to get to the place he is in now. He feels he has needed them all.

Goalkeeper Josef Bursik poses at the Hibernian Training Centre. (Photo by Simon Wootton / SNS Group)

“It was a massive whirlwind,” he recalled. “I've had two games before it and you’re dealing with the shock and adversity of the managerial change at that point and then being told: 'You're going to take the team in a cup final'.

"I've thought about it a lot since. If we had gone on and won the cup would that have changed anything? When I think back to where I am now and where I was then, I was nowhere near ready at that point.”

In a way it’s a moot point since Shaun Maloney was already earmarked to come in. A Hibs win would not have changed that. In the event, Gray was left slightly fearful.

Never mind manager, did he still have any job at all? He knew Maloney would want his own men and while he already knew he was being retained, there was doubt over how the dynamic might work.

“After 10 minutes, I realised the job in hand, which is to support the new manager, which I fully enjoyed doing and learned loads from,” he said. The same applied when Lee Johnson and Nick Montgomery took over. That’s the thing about being the caretaker manager-select at Hibs. As well as getting lots of opportunities, there’s a diverse range of characters to learn from.

Gray is sitting more comfortably now even after the false start against St Mirren last weekend. It’s been a good week on the signings front, with Hibs having tied up deals with former Scotland-Under-21 international forward Kieron Bowie, experienced Canadian Junior Hoilett and winger Nicky Cadden.

Gray also has a goalkeeper who is desperate to help make up for the team's display last weekend against St Mirren in Paisley. It’s fair to say on-loan Josef Bursik did not envisage being beaten three times on his league debut.

He hasn’t been put off, however. He once swapped shirts with Kasper Schmeichel, his opposite number today, and is eager to follow in the veteran Dane's footsteps by using a loan spell in Scotland as a springboard for his career.

The pair crossed paths in the FA Cup in January 2021, when Bursik was on loan at Stoke and Schmeichel was at Leicester City, where current Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers was in charge.

“We lost 4-0 to a good side that played a full team, so it was a tough game,” said Bursik. “I had an alright game actually. I swapped shirts with him. He asked for mine, I’m not sure if he still has it! I've certainly got his.”

They also came across one another in Belgium last season, where Schmeichel was at Anderlecht for a season and Bursik was at Club Brugge, his current parent club.

Bursik is keen to find a stable environment where he can play regularly. The 24-year-old takes heart from Schmeichel’s experiences. The Dane’s stint at Falkirk in 2007 was one of five different loan spells embarked upon while at Manchester City. Schmeichel eventually got his career up and running at Notts County before moving on to Leeds United. Hibs are Bursik’s seventh loan spell after things failed to work out in Belgium.

“This particular loan is different from the ones at Stoke,” he said. “At that point, I was trying to prove I was good enough to play at that level. Now I think it's about me just getting somewhere where I can get the ball rolling again, I suppose. I kind of plateaued a bit for the last year-and-a-half for whatever reason.”

Bursik has been hampered by injuries having broken through at England Under-17 level with the likes of Phil Foden and Conor Gallagher, who has just sealed a £35 million move to Atletico Madrid.

He admits it’s tough to see their trajectories in comparison with his own. However, he’s learned to accept that goalkeepers are different.

“The life of a ‘keeper is a slower curve,” he said. “I suppose, especially earlier in my career, it was quite quick. But then there were periods within that where it was a bit slower and there were people around me on that upper curve. It can easily get in your head and probably at the time it did. But you learn from it.” As well as shirts, perhaps he and Schmeichel should swap tales this afternoon.