Why David Gray found out he landed Hibs job at Disney and the big appeal to apply for job

David Gray has sat in this chair before at HTC, only this time it belongs to him rather than keeping it warm for someone else.

A caretaker manager four times in three years, the time has come for Gray to step out of the shadows. The 36-year-old was named successor to axed Nick Montgomery earlier this month with a three-year contract, and for the first time as the boss, the Hibs head coach on Thursday met the press, flanked by Hibs' sporting director Malky Mackay.

This is another new dawn at Hibs. There have been too many under the current regime, fronted up by the Gordon family. Jack Ross, Shaun Maloney, Lee Johnson and Montgomery have all been sacked since December 2021. This is a club that craves stability, and have turned to a club legend to steady the ship and make Hibs a force again in Scottish football.

Looking the part in the manager's chair, Gray cut a far more relaxed and open figure than when he was on caretaker duty. The former club captain and scorer of the winning goal in the Scottish Cup final in 2016 has always been respectful of those who lost their job before him, knowing his role was to pick players up and keep the show on the road.

David Gray penned a three-year contract to become Hibs head coach earlier this month. | SNS Group

Previous stints included a narrow League Cup final defeat by Celtic but by the end of last season, Gray felt differently about becoming the main man. He felt ready. He made his application and then his pitch in a two-and-a-half-hours interview. Mackay was left convinced that the answer to Hibs’ problems lay within the building.

The whole process lasted weeks and when Gray finally got the call to say he had got the job, he was not in Edinburgh. More than 4,000 miles away, he and his family were at Disney World in Florida. A rollercoaster spell ended with the ultimate high.

“I got a phone call when I was in Florida,” explained Gray as he reflected on the process. “My missus was a very happy and unhappy person for the last month! We had pre-planned to take the kids because it was the last chance really to do the Magic Kingdom and all that stuff.

“My youngest is at the perfect age where she is Princess and Barbie daft. For the last two years we’d planned to go to Florida. My mum and dad were coming and so was my mother in law because they’d retired this year.

“I ended up not going with them at the start. I stayed behind for obvious reasons. I went two or three days late and was probably the most uninterested man the whole time I was there because I was too busy thinking about other things, which my missus was not delighted about.

“I was six hours behind all the time. I was constantly looking at my phone looking to see if it was going to ring and go about my business.

“I was up for breakfast in the morning and the phone went, it was Ian [Gordon], Malky and Ben [Kensell] on one call. The signal wasn’t great. So when I got asked the question I maybe didn’t sound over-enthusiastic! But I was delighted.

“More importantly everyone that was there with me at the time was delighted. I was nice and calm but my missus and my mum were crying."

Gray and sporting director Malky Mackay speak to the press. | SNS Group

Good thing Gray wasn't on It's A Small World or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train when the phone rang. His job is now to bring much-needed stability and success to a club that has under-achieved for too long.

“It was my first-ever interview,” continued Gray. “I didn’t come out thinking ‘I really wish I’d said that’. I’ve got nothing to compare it to.

“I probably never got everything out. But if I reflect on it, my wife was asking how I thought I did, I had done all I could do.

“The club was fantastic and made me aware I was in a process and wasn’t going to hear anything for a week or ten days. If I didn’t have that I’d have been sitting thinking I’d made a mess of it. I had no regrets, which is great.”

A tenacious and attack-minded right-back in his playing days, Gray hung up his boots at 33-years-old after one too many injury-plagued seasons. He could still play, just not at Hibs’ level, and his father queried the decision at the time. What has happened since vindicates the former Manchester United youth’s call.

“I go back to when I retired at 33 with time on my playing contract and with opportunities," said Gray. “I think if the manager [Ross at the time] is asking you to be his first-team coach then it’s pretty clear I’m not going to play for him.

“The ability to keep playing, retire or make the transition to coaching, my dad was always asking if I’d made the right direction saying ‘you want to play as long as you can’.

Gray stands outside the Hibs Training Centre. | SNS Group

“But I firmly believe everything was geared up towards this moment. Everything I have been doing in the past three years has been about learning as much as I can.

“The people I have worked under, the qualities they’ve got, the way they saw the game, selfishly it was fantastic to pick up all that knowledge and hopefully I can put that together to make a successful Hibs team.”

Not many managers recently at Hibs have been given the time to get the job right. Maloney lasted half a season, Johnson just over a year. Montgomery's tenure was over within eight months.

There will be desperation from the club's hierarchy and fanbase for a legend to get it right. “Absolutely," Gray responded when asked if he is confident he will get time and backing to put plans in place. “Every time a manager takes the opportunity they are well aware of the risks involved and the need for results. The football club always appoint someone and try to give them as much time as possible to be successful because they believe that’s the right person.

“I’m not going into it with the mindset of ‘if I don’t win a few games I might get sacked’. Results and performances will dictate whether I’m doing a good enough job to keep the job. Anyone who sits in this position are fully aware of that.

“The club is craving success. They are ready for it. Everything is in place, the infrastructure with Malky coming in.

“It really excites me. Add to that the generosity of the Gordon family that’s been there for a number of years now and the structure that’s in there at the moment, then I really feel being head coach is a real chance to be successful and get the club back to where it needs to be.”

Gray lifted the Scottish Cup with Hibs in 2016. | SNS Group

Does he fear tarnishing his club-legend status? “The reputation that goes before me was as a football player – that's gone,” said Gray. “But I fully understand the demands of the club – the expectations. It needs to be doing better.”

He will be able to lean on the experience of Mackay, who this time last year was in charge of Ross County. “That was a big part in the appeal to apply for the job,” added Gray. “Having someone who has been in the game as long as he has, managed at the level he has, worked with the SFA in terms of restructuring and all the things he can do from a recruitment point of view.

“And the fact he has just come out of management is a real positive for me. I’m someone that’s desperate to learn, I don’t know everything. To have someone like that who I can lean on and bounce things off, I’m wiling to be mentored on things as well. So to have someone who has just come out it will be a massive benefit.”