So, Monty’s been sacked by Hibs.

I never wanted him to go there in the first place. When I heard he was considering an offer to become their manager I thought: “No Monty! You can’t leave the Mariners at this late stage and you’ll be on a hiding to nothing over there.”

Putting to one side Monty leaving shortly after leading the Mariners to a stunning 6-1 victory over Melbourne City in the 2023 Grand Final – and leaving the Champions very much in the lurch – I was worried for Monty himself.

Taking up the Hibs role was not like Ange going to Celtic with a decent chunk of preseason still to go plus most of the transfer window still open to start building his own squad. God no… The SPL season was well under way and Monty went in knowing he’d have no chance to start building his own team until January, and no way of moving on the deadwood until May (the month he was sacked).

This did not at all square with the way Monty had achieved success in the A League.

He was appointed head of the Mariners academy in 2020 and (with Serge Raimundo) quickly built the best academy ... not just in Australia ... in Asia. In just four years there have been numerous graduates from that academy into the first team and several have been sold for the sort of dollars that keep the Mariners afloat.

There is also the success these players brought to the first team, and when Monty became first team coach for the 2022/23 season, he was able to add players identified from Serge’s global scouting network and also put his own stamp on the style of football the team was playing. He had a clear view of the system he wanted to play, and the sorts of players he needed to make that system work.

Monty had a cat’s chance in hell of being given the time necessary to make that system work at Hibs.

For starters, the team was already set (the window closed at the end of August) and doing badly. A coach used to taking his time to get the system and the players right was parachuted in to deal with a failing squad and somehow turn them around without being able to change anything – except the way they played.

And this, I believe, is where he got it wrong.

Full of the success his system had brought at Central Coast, he believed that the best approach to coaching Hibs was to demand they play his style, despite not having the sort of players he had at the Mariners who were used to his methods and used to him being the boss.

So what is Monty’s style?

In the successful Mariners season of 2023, Monty played (mostly) 442 in defence but was flexible in that they could switch to a 4231 or even 334 with the ball. This flexibility was very much contingent on the ability of the wingbacks to get forward and players such as Tulio and Josh Nisbet to play multiple and evolving roles in the front half. What Monty would have given to get Nizz over to Hibs…

The system got attack minded players into the box and through weight of pressure meant more goals scored than conceded. That was fine for the Mariners, but Hibs?

Reading the fan forum over the last eight months, the players (and the fans) were utterly confused by what Monty expected. He seemed to insist on a system the existing players weren’t used to and demanded flexibility they simply weren’t capable of providing.

What he should have done, given his three year contract, was take his time to assess the existing players. Make the best of what he had and plan for the future while adopting a pragmatic system to best utilise the players still on contract.

He didn't do that.

When he went all in on his preferred system, the players revolted.

And this was his greatest test. When he accepted the Hibs job I thought: “Monty will have had no exposure to the kind of shenanigans that players and agents get up to in Europe. That’s a problem.”

Obviously, he did as a player but it’s very different to negotiate that morass as a manager. He was the undisputed boss in Australia, but in Europe, contracted players can conspire to get the boss removed. It happens all the time and this is why Hibs are such a basket case. They’ve had eight managers since 2019 and are now looking for a ninth.

At some point you have to let the right manager get on with a multi-year plan, regardless of what it costs in the short term.

Nick Montgomery is an excellent coach with a first class football brain. Hibs picked a man with the ability to take them forward – over the full course of his three year contract – but bailed at the first hurdle under the pressure of fan expectation and player revolt. (I note they won their first game without him but that just underscores the fact that they weren’t playing for Monty.)

If the board had had the guts to stare down the underperforming players – and backed Monty to do the job they asked him to do – then in a year or so they might be seeing progress.

Alas for Hibs. No manager worth his salt would touch them right now. They’ll probably go for someone with not half of Monty’s ability and the cycle will continue.

Meanwhile, Monty needs to learn from this first excoriating experience in Europe. Man management is the hardest part of the job and I’ve no doubt he’ll reflect on what he got wrong and on what he needs to retain as part of his modus operandum going forward.

There’s likely to be a job going in Sheffield…

 

Adrian's books can be purchased at any good bookstore or through ebook alchemy. His first sci-fi novel (Asparagus Grass) was published by Hague Publishing in July 2023. The ebook can be purchased here and the paperback can be ordered here or at your local store.