Terry Butcher is still coming to terms with the new training facilities at his disposal and if hard work and enthusiasm are the benchmark for success then Hibs’ fans are in for a treat.
He may have inherited players low in confidence, but a quick assessment so far has convinced him that he has inherited a squad more than capable of climbing the table and the double training sessions have been intense with everyone trying to impress and win a starting place in Saturday’s team to play St Mirren.
If ever a man was happy at his work then it is the former England captain and he didn’t take much persuading to wax lyrical when he walked into the packed press conference. A quick ‘How’s it been?’ set him off: “It’s been wonderful, it really has. We’ve got excellent facilities here but we need to get pay-back from these facilities by the players playing better and with more confidence, and enjoying it a lot more too.
“I see the sun set here and I see the sun rise here. I don’t stay here overnight! But it’s just wonderful to be here, you just can’t wait to get here, you really can’t.
“I’ve got four different routes to get here from Morningside, where I’m staying just now. I don’t need the sat-nav now, I’m a native now, it’s remarkable.
“It’s just a dream, every day’s a dream for me, it’s fantastic. I hope there are no nightmares around the corner, but I’m living the dream.
“This is what you work for in a way through all the years. To have this is fantastic.
“I still get lost in the place, I don’t know my way round, and I’m still bumping into new members of staff every now and then when I open a door! The size of the place is unbelievable.
(At Rangers) “We would train at the Albion and if you kicked the ball near to the fence you had to sprint after it because the kids would duck under the fence and nick the ball.
“You had the Rangers players who nearly won the treble lifting the goals across from the Albion to Ibrox because the kids would come across and saw it up for scrap. It was remarkable stuff.
“What you have now is brilliant. It’s how it should be, let’s be honest about it, but to have this every day is like a dream, it really is.
“I had never been here before. Maurice had been here but just round the outside and not in, because he was here for a game.
“We’re still losing our way a little bit and finding out where this and that is, and going the wrong way when I want to make a coffee.
“But it’s just wonderful and the people here are so nice. They make you really welcome and anything they can do they’ll do.
“The players make it, the young ones and the old ones. We’ve got the young ones eating with the old ones now and just changed things a little bit.
“I’ve been asked if it’s about stamping your mark on the club but we’ve just changed one or two little things. Some of it is like how we used to do it at Inverness and Motherwell, and a little bit of how they do it here.
“It’s just getting the routines in place that has been the hardest part, because everything is new and fresh.
“It’s just things like eating, timings, coming in at lunch-time on a Monday because players are travelling. It’s just little subtle changes, little things with the coaches.
“But the big thing is on the pitch because Maurice is a tremendous coach. It’s little things they haven’t seen before and that stimulates players as well.
“I must say, the training sessions have been terrific; up to the tempo we had at Caley Thistle, which is what we want – nothing less than that. If they can take that onto the pitch then we’re off to a flier.
“What we have to get is a good return for what they have here, a better return and I’m very confident we’ll get that. In due course when we sign players it’s a great selling point to bring a player here.
“But, also, Edinburgh is a good selling point, for the wives and everything else, so this certainly makes it a lot easier to get players here.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of fans. They have been great, old and young, and there were lots of nice people in North Berwick where we looked at properties. It has been great and we have been made very, very welcome. We know there will be times when we get a bit of stick but I’ve had that all my career, particularly up here, so we’ll just get on with it. If you get anything like that then you just turn it round and think well I’m at a fantastic club, with fantastic facilities and fantastic players.
“On Monday once everybody was back, we sat in the dressing room, which can be a very intimidating place, and got them all to speak, and they were very good and they were very funny and there’s a fair bit of humour in there. The ones who volunteered to speak, they were vey good. They know what they have to do, they are clever boys and they know how they have to play and what is demanded of them and they want to do it. There is an honesty about them.
“It’s all about what’s going to happen. It was nothing about the past. The past is gone and we can change that. We are in the now and we are also looking to the future and you affect the future by what you do in the now. It wasn’t a clear the air, it was just some honesty from the players and us hearing what they want to do and how high they want to finish. It was ‘so, come on, what do you want to achieve this season, what do you want to do?’
“I’m not even looking at January; I’m looking at what we have here because what we have here is good enough to get results in the future. So it’s all about what we want to do. The ones that are here can affect whether they stay or go and whether other players come in but from what I have seen there is enough talent and enough ambition and hunger and hurt here. There is enough ability and honesty and all that stuff. There’s easily enough of that stuff here.
“They have picked up results and points really without playing anywhere near the level they can, I think. That shows you that we have nothing to be afraid or be worried about than ourselves. If we get ourselves right then things will take care of themselves.
“Everyone here is just incredible. It is a great family atmosphere and that’s what matters. There are so many people but they all bring something different and hopefully those can all come together to make one solid, strong unit and then I will be happy.
When asked about the captaincy, Butcher replied: “I haven even bought about that yet. I don’t know who is playing yet, well, I do; I have my team in my head.
“James (McPake) has been captain; Ben (Williams) has been captain. I don’t particularly like goalkeepers being captains but Ben is great, he has been very vocal in what he has said, both after the Caley Thistle game and in the dressing room.
Regarding Steve Marsella the scout credited with identifying a number of Inverness players, he joked: “It’s nearly done. He had his couch booked so he will be the one sleeping here.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
