Hibs boss John Collins today revealed that there would be a MASS clearout out of players in the summer.
Up to FIFTEEN players could be leaving the Hi-Bees in Collins restructuring plans for next season. Most of them are expected to be players who are out of contract.
Michael Stewart has already been told he can leave the club when his contract expires in six weeks. Keeper Simon Brown will also be on his way out of
Also on his way out of Easter Road is young Jamie McCluskey, who ASKED to leave, after failing to make the breakthrough.
Sam Morrow (on loan at Partick Thistle), Kevin McDonald (on loan at Airdrie Utd), Jay Shields (on loan at
Also expected to be on that list is Stephen Glass, who's on loan at
Another possibility is Hungarian striker Tomas Sowunmi, who only joined in January but has failed to make an impression, only scoring one goal.
Other names being branded about are defender Shelton Martis & Dean Shiels who have both been alleged to have been part of the apparent recent uprising against manager John Collins.
Out of the lot, the only real losses would be Stewart, Shiels & Glass. Shiels being the most significant.
Stewart & Glass are expendable.
Hibs manager Collins said:
"It's never a nice time of year in football, no-one likes to be the bearer of bad news but what we have tried to do is to tell the players early, which will hopefully be beneficial to them in that they can try to find a new club before the stampede begins."
"Players will be moving out of other clubs and no doubt they'll be circulating their lists of who will be available - but the one thing no-one does is circulate a list of their targets.
"The main structure of the team will be the same, players come to the end of their contracts and move on and what we are doing is working to try to make the squad better."
One player Collins hopes to keep is hitman Chris Killen. The
However Collins did stress that he has a replacement or two in mind for Killen, if he refuses the contract offer.
Collins said of Killen:
"It's been dragging on a bit but we are still hoping he will sign. The ball is in his court, it's his prerogative."
"I have other players in mind if he doesn't sign, other irons in the fire."
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