John Collins was famously never shy of whipping off his top to flaunt his six pack as he drove his Hibs stars to rebellion with never ending gym sessions.
I wonder what he’d have made of Lee Johnson ’s comments on Saturday when the current Hibs manager urged his stars to go and take the shirt off the Celtic players who had just scudded them 6-1. And to ask them how they got so good in the process.
Collins paid the ultimate price for his gruelling demands which ended in the infamous Easter Road revolt. But 15 years on it’s the same issues being raised in an albeit more offbeat manner by Johnson. He said of the Hoops stars: "I look at the Japanese players and I think, 'wow you are so dynamic'. They squat, they're powerful and athletic. If I was a player, I'd be knocking on the door and trying to get a shirt, and I'd be saying: 'Tell me what you do, how do you wake up, what do you eat for breakfast?’”
Like a lot of Hibs fans I found the comments a bit strange at first. But I’m sure he’s not talking literally. I can’t imagine he actually wants any of his side to go and knock on the home dressing room door and ask the Celtic players what they had with their morning cuppa! I certainly hope not.
Johnson would have been talking metaphorically, challenging his players to get to that level by looking closely at the Celtic players and aspiring to match their physical fitness. He could have chosen his words better. Hibs fans reading that will be wondering why their players need to chap on the Celtic door when they should be getting knocked into shape by their own management team or conditioning team.
You can bet they will be hitting the gym a bit more in the next few days though. Saying that Celtic looked more powerful and athletic, referencing squatting, that’s obviously down to the work Ange Postecoglou's players are putting in.
The Hibs squad need to aspire to those levels as they’re a long way off it at the moment. It’s up to each individual to buy into those physical demands and make themselves monsters like Reo Hatate or Daizen Maeda.
If they don’t then they will be the ones he was referring to when he said they will be moved on. That brings us back to Collins and the infamous Easter Road revolt. The former boss knew what he was talking about as the modern game requires players to be a 24/7 athlete.
He just went a bit too far with it and paid the price. There’s a fine balance between doing the right work in the gym and overdoing it. But I’m pretty sure the Hibs players will be seeing a bit more of the dumbbells in the coming days and weeks put it that way.
That wasn’t all that went wrong in Saturday’s humbling at the hands of the Hoops though. First and foremost Hibs never turned up. They were blown away. Poor defending, weak defending, switching off, poor goalkeeping. Everything went wrong on the day.
When you go to Parkhead or Ibrox you need to puff the chest out and really believe you belong on that stage and I don’t think any Hibs player looked like they did. I thought the tactics were wrong. Johnson was bold with his line-up with three up front. But after 10 minutes I could see it wasn’t going to work.
I thought he could have given the full backs more help. Chris Cadden and Lewis Stevenson got torched down the sides. We know Celtic are strong down the flanks and want to get their full backs high and a lot of their chances came from crosses into the box.
You have to applaud them for having a go and I’m sure a lot of Hibs fans were rubbing their hands when they saw the team sheet and thinking ‘at last we are going for it at Parkhead’. But after 25 minutes I bet their were thinking "’s**t we should have gone 5/4/1!"
It was a baptism of fire for Harry McKirdy in his first start but he needs to get up to speed quickly. The striker is coming from League Two into a better standard and the settling in period is over.
It was good to see Elie Youan get a goal as he needed it badly. It was a good finish and hopefully that gives him a lift.
The next five games are all very winnable. The target has to be to cement their third place going into the World Cup break by taking as many points as possible from that set of matches.
St Johnstone, St Mirren, Aberdeen, Ross County and Kilmarnock - take at least 12 points from those games and they’ll be in a really healthy position.
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