Hibs manager Lee Johnson knows Arsenal icon Ian Wright and celebrity DJ Locksmith - with both of them and more potentially able to be used as Easter Road motivators.
The new boss in Leith is big on motivating his players as they prepare to begin their competitive campaign this Saturday with a Premier Sports Cup group stage match against Clyde. Then there's a wait for Premiership football later this month away at St Johnstone, looking to do better than their bottom half finish in a calamitous 2021/22 campaign.
Arsenal legend Wright has been brought in before as one of several inspirational characters to learn from, as have other people from other sports and the military. His Rudimental friend has also been called upon at one of his former clubs, Bristol City, and Johnson insists he'll try anything to get Hibs motoring: “Every year that’s gone by you learn a lot in management. You forget what you think works, how to fast track certain things and the demographic of this squad is quite similar to the Barnsley and Bristol City ones.
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“You have the same attributes but the same flaws which can lead you going on good or bad runs often when they feel good about themselves or a bad run can continue longer than it should.
“Those situations help me flatten the waves, keep consistency, create a growth mindset and one of the layers is a
speaker series.
“We’ll bring guys in whether it be a sleep coach, the SAS, my mate Leon from Rudimental, Ian Wright, Josh Taylor is a big Hibs fan. It doesn’t always have to cost.
“There are so many things you can do and learn off and we just try and drip feed this into the boys. Rudimental and Ian Wright came to Bristol. We had the Red Arrows. Marcus Trescothick came in. He’s a big Bristol City fan. I first met Leon at a charity game and he was a really good guy, charismatic and very successful.
“He is extremely passionate in everything he does and I wanted to bring that vibe. The energy levels he has to perform day in day out, he can’t have an off day because there’s paying public there and it’s similar to a footballer.”
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