After a Hibs defeat at the weekend it's best to start with a laugh before taking Lee Johnson and his double standards to task.
The exotically named Eduardo Estíguar Hurtado arrived one morning at Easter Road - he was better known as 'The Tank'. An Ecuadorian striker, he'd been signed at the same time as Ulises de la Cruz by Alex McLeish for a club record fee and within a few minutes of training it was clear Eduardo was the friend/translator in the deal.
The Tank came in to train and I thought his nickname was due to his powerful physique and movement but I was soon proved wrong. He was a big unit alright, the only problem was he could barely move. He had 25 clubs in career and scored about 10 goals, the worst player I encountered and within a few minutes it was clear Big Eck had signed dud.
Now to the serious stuff and some more dubious recruitment. Johnson has said he's talking to Manchester City about taking boys on loan but why isn't he looking at his own young players?
It infuriates me that he says there is a snobbery down south about our league and has said we need to to promote the Scottish Premiership better yet he's guilty of turning his own nose up at what's at his own club. Practise what you preach Lee, there are two boys in the Hibs youth set-up Josh O'Connor and Ethan Laidlaw who look as though they will leave at the end of the season.
They will leave due to lack of opportunity but why aren't they being given a chance? There is something wrong with that and it can only be that the manager is transfixed with England and doesn't have confidence in his own academy players.
The only conclusion is that Lee has played and coached down south for most of his days and he feels the standard of youngster is better in terms of bringing them in on loan rather than playing his own youths.
I genuinely think he believes he can get better down south and it's about his actions rather than his words about needing more respect for Scottish football. He's as guilty as what he's accusing others of.
The current Hibs team is highly successful, it had a great run in Europe and beat some huge clubs but not one boy has been promoted, the manager would rather look at England and recruit from there and that's been evident since he came in as boss.
Look at 18-year-old David Watson at Kilmarnock, he's come in and given the team and support a lift as he's a local boy and energised everyone. Hibs have this reluctance to do the same, I can't think of anyone who's come in and stayed in the team, nobody. There were around 7000 Hibs fans at a youth match against Borussia Dortmund and it must frustrate them to see not one kid get a sniff.
Lee's seduced by English football. Let's be honest, some of the games in the Championship are unwatchable junk. There are so many examples of players who've come here from down south and flopping. Joey Barton at Rangers is just one which springs to mind.
There have also been players who've been average in Scotland but managed to carve out decent careers in England so that says a lot about the standard and how the leagues are perceived.
Leagues One and Two in England are nowhere near as good as our own Premiership and the only advantage they have over us is that they pay more money. I'd even argue that there are teams in the Championship down south which aren't as good as some of the clubs in our own top-flight.
Many of the games are a hard watch, it's typically a physical battle with little finesse and you see someone like Ryan Porteous being a standout at Watford and this is a guy who was much maligned by many when he was at Hibs.
He recently spoke about it while on Scotland duty when he admitted he thought the gap was going to be bigger as he felt it would take him time to adjust and settle into a so-called bigger and better league. That's more proof there isn't the gulf in quality which some would want you to believe.
All they have is more money and any player in Scotland outside the Old Firm only dream of two things. One. It's either a move to Celtic or Rangers or two. A move down to the English Premier League or Championship as that's where the big bucks are.
I played with a lot of players who had big reputations having played down south and most of the time I didn't see what the fuss was all about. Teams and players are hyped up more in England, That even goes for the biggest clubs, the perception that if you play for a Premier League or Championship team then you must be good and in my opinion that isn't always the case.
Players are built up in England but in Scotland we have a habit of talking our own players down. Before I go, another warning, after losing to Motherwell it's all about making the top six before the split for Hibs. Within the space of one game, it's not about third spot, it's about averting a disaster of finishing in the bottom half of the pack.
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