Exclusive:Ian Gordon lifts lid on owning Hibs: admitting mistakes, ambition for future, his recruitment role and Bill Foley relationship

Ian Gordon isn't holding back on home truths as he discusses Hibernian Football Club for the first time since becoming part of the club's fabric in 2019. At 34 years old, he is one of the youngest owners of a sporting entity in Britain after he and the rest of his family inherited stewardship of the Easter Road outfit in February last year following his father Ron's passing from cancer.

“We know we need to do better,” Gordon states, matter-of-factly, as he speaks publicly and exclusively to The Scotsman for the first time since landing on Scottish shores. “I take it very hard personally. I live and breathe this club and me and my family want to bring success, but there have been more poor performances than we would have liked.”

Gordon is combing over the managerial turnover since 2021. Too many head coaches have come and gone in the past three years. First Jack Ross, then Shaun Maloney. Lee Johnson lasted just over a year, Nick Montgomery not even a season. Once a fairly benign club, Hibs have become volatile. “We've created too much instability with the footballing turnover,” admits Gordon. “That's why we are in this position now.”

On the pitch – and we'll come to off the pitch later – the position is a precarious one. Hibs are yet to win a match in the Premiership this season and sit fourth bottom on two points from four matches. Their Premier Sports Cup campaign ended at the second-round stage, paying the price for losing at Kelty Hearts, becoming unseeded and landing Celtic. Another head coach – David Gray this time – is in place. Malky Mackay is the new sporting director. Eleven players have arrived, 17 have left. This isn't a renovation job, it's restoration, restoration of a team that has underperformed for too long. Last season Hibs finished eighth, their joint-lowest placing since returning to Scotland's top flight seven years ago.

“It's been a slow start to the season – but we knew when Malky and Dave came in that this needed time,” explains Gordon. “They inherited a bloated squad, they inherited past mistakes that we had made on the recruitment front, but we were very active this summer. Seventeen players going out, 11 coming in – we're very happy with the business that we have done. But we have players coming back to full fitness, we have some injuries, so we knew it was going to be a tough August for us. We knew that. Going forward we still have full confidence in Dave and Malky and this group of players. We think we have assembled a good squad. We're excited.”

Hibs owner Ian Gordon looks out over Easter Road from the rail seating in the North Stand. | Lisa Ferguson

Not everyone shares the same excitement. A portion of the Hibs support is wary, perhaps even fearful of how this season could unfold, even if Gray – a club legend – was a reasonably popular appointment after three stints as caretaker despite his relative inexperience. Following years of experimental recruitment, of which many players became expensive failures, Hibs decided to go back to basics this season. Every single signing this summer has a background in British football. There is a strong Scottish nucleus. Gordon calls it a necessary “reset”, saying that he and his fellow directors have learned from past errors.

“With Malky coming in, through those discussions it was very much we wanted to have that Scottish core, and that British experience,” says Gordon. “That is our main focus but we still want to explore new markets and keeping that going, but it's about reassessing where we are at. We tried to go too international, too young, too quickly. With Malky's experience and Dave, it was about the Scottish core, British experience that we can build around. I'd say there needed to be a bit of a reset. There's proof that that works in this league and the club has a history of it. I think it is absolutely that.”

Gordon, of course, became notorious for his previous role at Hibs. Silently appointed head of recruitment after Ross' departure, he presided over a team of people who were scouring the globe for new players. It was not all bad – but for every Myziane Maolida, there has been a Nohan Kenneh. Too many costly additions whose impact has been negligible. Gordon has never spoken on that specific gig at Easter Road. Invited to explain, he says the following: “At that time, when we made the change with the structure, we felt from an admin standpoint, getting the full scope of the club and how it operates and the full detail of the league, as we learned we felt it was the best time to put me in that place to oversee things. Yes, [head of recruitment] was the role, but it was very much part of a collective team that worked together to identify targets.

“For me, it was about driving the process of how that manager was presented the players and ultimately it was the manager who made the decisions on recruitment. We were very manager-led recruitment but collectively we worked day-in, day-out to present those lists. There's been a lot of failings but there have been a lot of positives. Over the past three years we've done £7 million in player sales, which are great numbers. We believe that if we get better footballing success, those numbers can only improve because we have great young talent right now.”

The Gordons have been beaten with so many sticks since taking over at Hibs. But it is right to point out some of the success stories. Hibs finished third during the pandemic season and survived Covid from a financial perspective. They reached the League Cup final in 2021 and last season lost to Aston Villa in the Europa League Conference play-off round after taking out Luzern previously. Easter Road has certainly been spruced up, with plush hospitality lounges and rail seating in the North Stand. Infrastructurally and commercially, Hibs are in a better place. But none of that matters much to the average football fan when the team is underperforming.

Gordon says he and his family's commitment to the club remains unaltered. | Lisa Ferguson

Hibs are also running at a loss, too. The financial results posted last year were grim, being £3.9m in the red for the year up to 30 June 2023. Wage to turnover ratio increased to 81 per cent. The next set of figures are not expected to be much better. The Gordon dynasty is not short of a penny but such a situation is not sustainable in the long run. Gordon's commitment to the club, however, is unwavering, promising to pay for any overspend on the sporting side of the club as he bids to get Hibs back to the sharp end of Scottish football.

“At this time, we are over the budget,” reveals Gordon. “That's an overspend that me and my family are committed to. We've had tons of commercial growth with the business side of the club, but we've been chasing football success and obviously there have been some mistakes along the way. That's why we are in this situation now, but our family is committed to that overspend until we find the football success that allows the club to be sustainable.”

I ask Gordon if he is dedicated to making sure the club is not saddled with debt. “One hundred per cent,” he says. “That's why we wiped the debt in February when the Black Knight deal went through. We don't want the club to have debt, so that was a big reason behind that. We're well aware of the overspend and our family is committed to that.

“With all the growth you see on the business side, over 400 per cent growth on the commercial partnerships, over 200 per cent on the hospitality income, we feel the business is in such a strong position that when we do find that football success, the club will be very sustainable.”

The club tried to strengthen its sporting and financial position with a tie-up with Black Knight, whose chain of football sides includes Bournemouth, Lorient and Auckland. Their shareholding and £6m investment was confirmed earlier last year, although the relationship hit a significant speedbump when their figurehead Bill Foley claimed Hibs “have not been listening to our input”. Foley wanted a different head coach and sporting director, but Hibs went with Gray and Mackay.

Gordon admits the comments from Bill Foley caught he and Hibs off guard. | Getty Images

“I think their reaction caught us all off-guard a little bit,” Gordon says of Foley's comments, “but ultimately through the recruitment process of Malky and Dave, they were very involved in that whole process and it came down to what we felt was best for the club. So that's why we went with the appointment of Malky and Dave. Obviously he voiced his opinion on that but we thought that was the best move for the club.”

Dispelling any notion of a fracture in the rapport, Gordon continues: “I think the relationship is very strong. I think we are still in the early stages of that [relationship] and we're going to see the true benefits in months and years to come. We feel we are in a really good place with them. We've had many conversations, there is constant dialogue. They've just hired a new president for the Black Knight group, which will set up the network. It is still very much in the early stages of this. Malky is now in constant communication with them.”

I query where the £6m has been spent. “We probably haven't been as good at communicating that through, but the money has been ring fenced for very specific sections,” Gordon says. “The rail seating, the fixing of the lights, the North Stand – some of the money was for that. Some of the money is for commercial growth, some of the money is for academy and women's football, and then some of it is for the wage bill. It had to be very much broken down into specific areas.”

When pressed how much went into the first team, Gordon adds: “I wouldn't give an exact percentage on it, but I think what's been reported in the past is slightly wide of the mark. A portion of that was invested into the wage bill.”

Well-remunerated chief executive Ben Kensell remains on that wage bill, despite many fans calling for his exit. He has survived the multiple changes at coaching level, although his involvement in recruiting Montgomery was very limited, falling o