Hibs Under-18 Head Coach Darren McGregor believes that his squad of league champions have the potential to star for the First Team but he will remain focused on an exciting European journey while attempting to retain their league crown.
The former Hibs centre-back oversaw an exceptional league campaign which included a 16-game unbeaten run to end the season.
“We’re immensely proud,” McGregor told hibernianfc.co.uk. “I’m obviously helped throughout the season by Boozy (Guillaume Beuzelin), Gareth (Evans), Big Scotty (Ross), all the backroom team, the sports scientists who keep people fit.
“To win any league, whether it’s a youth or professional league, it takes consistency and diligence throughout the season. It takes looking after your body and doing all the things you need to do right, and I think the lads have done that.
“In football you’re measured by what you win, whether that’s right or wrong in academy football, but I think winning is developing the lads as well. I’m very conscious this is one step before the First Team, so getting them into good habits is basically my job.
“I’m just really proud of them for the start of the season to where they are now. Each individual, I think, in my eyes has definitely progressed and got better, so that’s the main aim of the academy is to make players better and if I can get them winning games of football and winning leagues as well then that’s even better.”
Starting off at Cowdenbeath and playing junior football with Arniston Rangers before making his first topflight appearance with St Mirren aged 25, the 39-year-old is able to bring a different view to academy football when it comes to discipline, drive and consistency.
“All the lads are talented in their own right, that’s why they’re at Hibs, they’re in a professional academy and a lot of them have been there for many years, so they have the talent, but obviously talent alone will get you so far.
“To actually walk through the (First Team) door and stay in there, you need a really good work ethic and you need to be consistent and you need to deal with adversity and you need to deal with obstacles in the right manner and overcome them.
“I’ve had quite a mixed career in terms of how I managed to get into professional football and it’s a lot different for these lads, so I’m just trying to use my experiences, along with others, to help everybody else become the best versions of themselves.
“I can remember our last (UEFA Youth League appearance), in many ways we exceeded expectations in getting to the third round. I remember every game, it was such a great experience for the 2004 group.
“I think Dean (Cleland) and others were amongst the squad a couple of times, so a couple in the squad have had a tiny taste of it. It’s such a great experience and it’s tremendous to play in Europe at such a young age. The lads fully deserve it. It’s going to be hard and a challenge, but we look forward to it.
“I believe we’ve got a really, really strong group. I think these lads can go up against anybody to be honest, so it will be a great experience and, obviously, if we can win and get through to the next rounds then even better.”
McGregor is excited by the season ahead: “As coaches you want to get the lads in, you want to come up with a programme to develop the players, because for a lot of them this will be what they’ve dreamt of since we came into the academy.
“We’ve got a good batch of new intakes, so that’s in a sense a wee bit of a dream come true for a lot of these lads, so we just need to make sure that we instill the character traits that we think are required to become a professional football player. A lot of the players have got them, but we just need to polish them up and make them even better.”
