THERE have been times in the recent past when a meeting of Hibernian players has spelled trouble for the manager, but the one presided over by Rob Jones last week produced only pleasure in Mixu Paatelainen.
The club captain convened the meeting after Hibs' defeat by Clyde, one of a series of disappointing pre-season results. Jones had been watching that match from the stand, and decided that the players needed to get together for an honest appraisal o
f what they had been doing wrong.
For Paatelainen, who is about to start his first full season in charge at Easter Road, it was an indication that his squad had the right attitude and were willing to work hard to put matters right. "I was delighted with that," the Finn said yesterday. "It was before training that big Rob came to me and said is it OK if he started training with a chat among the players.
"After the Clyde game, I wasn't too happy at all. He was in the stand at Clyde, so he saw the match. Sometimes when a player sees his team play he realises the weaknesses and the areas in which they need to do better.
"So Rob played a captain's role and took the boys aside and said let's roll our sleeves up and start working. The players realise every individual can and must work harder. That was the outcome from that meeting."
Besides that pre-season discussion, the players also went paintballing as a team-bonding exercise this week. They possibly needed some light relief after taking some flak from their fans over their run of losses, though Paatelainen is convinced the best way of shaking off that negativity is to get the new SPL season off to a victorious start when he takes his team to Kilmarnock tomorrow.
"I can't wait," he said. "It's been a long summer. The league starts on Saturday and hopefully we start winning.
"I can understand the supporters' concerns. Whenever they see their team get beaten, they are not happy. They expect to see their team win all the time, (but] unfortunately that does not happen.
"I expected us to win more pre-season games than we did, but it didn't happen. We've now analysed the games and hopefully learned one or two things from that.
"Of course, you must perform well to win, and in pre-season we haven't performed well at all. But in the last couple of matches the signs have been there that it is coming back together and hopefully we can carry on from there.
"I remember after some of my pre-season games I was embarrassed. I remember that from some of my league games as well – I said that before you did.
"The purpose of playing pre-season is to do well in the league. If we win the game (at Kilmarnock], pre-season has been great."
Winning at Rugby Park would certainly give Hibs a lift after a run which, besides their domestic defeats, has seen losses in the Intertoto Cup and to Barcelona, Middlesbrough and Wigan. They have only scored two goals in those games – both in the 3-2 defeat by Middlesbrough last weekend. Again, though, Paatelainen does not appear overly concerned by this defect, believing his players have the ability to rectify it.
"We should have scored on Tuesday," he said, referring to the 1-0 defeat by Wigan. "But I'm not worried. It will come."
The Finn has also had to be patient in the transfer market. In common with most SPL clubs, Hibs have not seen a great deal of movement in or out, and Paatelainen remains hopeful business will be done both ways before the transfer window closes at the end of the month.
As of yesterday afternoon neither the trialist striker Steven Pinau nor the former Gretna player Fabian Yantorno had signed for Hibs, but both are expected to agree deals soon.
Meanwhile, another striker, Clayton Donaldson, could be on his way out of Easter Road, but Paatelainen restricted himself to saying that Crewe Alexandra had "shown an interest" in the player and would not say how close to agreement the two clubs were.
The full article contains 705 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
