Lee Johnson has shared his recruitment vision and wants Hibs to be in a position they are working two transfer windows ahead.
The new Easter Road gaffer has already started bringing in players with Nohan Kenneh and David Marshall snapped up on pre-contracts.
Aiden McGeady is another name Hibs are reportedly eyeing up as the summer transfer drive at the club starts moving forward.
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Johnson is also keen to hold on to prized assets already in the building with the likes of Ryan Porteous and Josh Doig attracting interest in recent windows.
Bigger clubs are likely to be circling for the pair once again when the summer window slams open.
The new Hibs boss is hopeful of hanging on to the key duo, but he wants to ensure the correct recruitment policy is in place to ensure the capital club can cope with losing players.
READ MORE: Hibs 'eye' Aiden McGeady transfer as Lee Johnson continues Easter Road recruitment drive
He said: "I'm hopeful [over the duo] but you're always at the mercy of losing players.
“That's when your recruitment becomes absolutely key.
"You've got to be ready, you can't stop it, and particularly if a player has ambitions to move on, sometimes it's just a natural cycle and you have to evolve.
"Recruitment is key. When you're good, you'll be ready, because you know you can use the funds if there is a sale to reinvest.
"We sold Aden Flint at Bristol City for £7million but we wouldn't do it until we'd bought [Adam] Webster for £2.5m from Ipswich.
"After 14 months Webster sold for £20m rising to £25m.
"If your recruitment is really good, you're ready and if it's superb, you're ready two windows ahead.
"That's the place we've got to get to, through understanding the profiles of the position, making sure we can add data metrics to those positional profiles, so that the names coming in are not just agent-led, or scout-led, but they are dynamic to the way we want to play.
"We can also judge our young players against that data and hold off buying somebody because actually we've got a young player coming through who we think fits the bill.”
“That’s the bit where you need time. Because if you’ve got a young squad they are going to be fantastic at times and every now and again they’ll have a bad day.
“That’s the only bit that you become nervous of as a manager because if you have such a front-foot, bold style of play, that I think will be really attractive to watch, every now and again out comes a bad day so that’s when you need to buy a bit of grace.”
