The importance of the Hibernian Academy to the first team has been highlighted by an early season report compiled by the Football Observatory, a research group within Switzerland’s International Centre for Sports Studies, and covered the period from 01/7/18 to 30/10/18.
Over 30% of the minutes played in the league by Hibs players have been by players trained by the club for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21.
The report covers 31 top-flight European leagues, with Hibernian showing the highest percentage of any UK top-flight team for minutes played by club-trained players.
Ryan Porteous and Oli Shaw have continued their development this season, with Ryan featuring in seven league games this season and Oli in eight.
Jamie Gullan has also made the breakthrough to the first team in recent weeks, making his league debut against Hamilton Accies in October, while Lewis Allan started against Livingston.
Other Academy players such as Sean Mackie and Maciej Dabrowksi have been involved in the first team squad without making an appearance.
This is complimented by established first team players Paul Hanlon, Lewis Stevenson and Steven Whittaker, who all came through the Hibernian Academy.
You can find the full dataset HERE.
A summary of Scottish teams can be found below:
Hibernian: 30.22%
Hamilton Accies: 26.59%
Celtic: 25.59%
St Mirren: 24.31%
Aberdeen: 16.32%
Motherwell: 15.82%
St Johnstone: 13.34%
Rangers: 10.65%
Livingston: 7.71%
Dundee: 7.63%
Kilmarnock: 4.44%
Heart of Midlothian: 2.43%
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.
