Gordon Strachan thinks there could be a ‘conflict’ of interest between Hibs and their minority shareholders Black Knight FC.
Owned by businessman Bill Foley, Black Knight FC hold a 25 percent stake in the Easter Road club and have done since February this year.
Foley is the majority owner of Premier League club Bournemouth and as such, Hibs entered into a partnership with the Cherries with regards to recruitment, academy set-up, sports science and more.
Hibs signed three players from Bournemouth last season, two of which were on loan until the summer. But Strachan, currently technical director of Dundee, thinks the partnership between Hibs and Bournemouth doesn’t quite go hand-in-hand.
He thinks there’s perhaps a ‘conflict’ between what the two clubs want out of the arrangement and that Black Knight FC’s 25 percent stake shouldn’t allow them to have a major say in what Hibs do.
Strachan on Hibs and Black Knight FC
Speaking on the SPFL’s The Warm-Up Unfiltered podcast, the former Scotland manager said: “If you want complete control of the club, buy it.
“Don’t give me 25% then start to tell us what we’re doing because there are two different things going on here.
“Bournemouth probably send players up there and generate money for the players. What do the Hibs want to do? Hibs want to make a good team for the community, their fans, and stay in the league. So there’s maybe a conflict when you get these set-ups with teams.
“One wants to develop the players, one wants to send their coaches up, but the other one is [wanting to] keep their fans happy.
“Here’s what Hibs want to do, be better than Hearts, simple as that and Hearts want to be better than Hibs.
“So if you say to them (Hearts), what do you want to do in life? We want to be better than Hibs. That’s as simple as that.
“You know, so if you’re only paying 25% of the share, please don’t… if you really want to have the say, buy 70%, then you have a say.”
Hibs not a feeder club for Bournemouth
Back in July, Hibs sporting director Malky Mackay ironed out what the relationship between Bournemouth and the Hibees would look like.
Mackay said: “Myself and Simon Francis (Cherries technical director) is the communication angle. He’s new in the job, but has been at the club. He’s going to have his own mindset on their needs in the new role.
“But we will have an ability to have conversations. I’m certainly going to go down, spend a bit of time down there. There are a lot of facets of sports science, the academy, best practices we can share.
“Obviously recruitment is the one area everyone wants to focus on. But that’s got to be based on a player, a very specific player who is going to come and make a difference to our team.
“We can’t just go for four players a year. There’s no point if there is only one player who can hit the ground running in the Scottish Premiership. There’s no point in the other three.
“But certainly we hope to be able to lean on each other in recruitment, if that’s down to analysis or finding out about a player.
“That’s certainly how I see it working, communicating regularly, honestly and openly with a partner.”