Laursen blames McLeish for our decline

Former Hibee Ulrik Laursen has laid the blame for the demise of Hibs in recent seasons squarely at the doorstep Alex McLeish.

The ex Odense player told the Celtic matchday programme that key players were released and not replaced and that proved detrimental to our form.

Laursen said: "Things went wrong at Hibs because McLeish got rid of too many

Blame McLeish!

characters. Russell Latapy would probably have left anyway, but we should have kept Paatelainen and Stuart Lovell. They were brilliant on and off the pitch and it was awful when they were replaced by lads who struggled to settle because of language problems. Mixu and Stuart kept the dressing room together and without them we lost track of it all."

Ulrik also thinks he knows best when it comes to our forward line as well, saying: "Hibs have three or four good strikers but, with no disrespect to Garry O'Connor, I think their best option would be to pair Mixu and Paco Luna up front."

These are quite startling admissions from Ulirk, and i'm surprised that he blames McLeish so obviously. Maybe he's trying to win favour with the Celtic fans by having a go at the Rangers boss, or just felt these things needed saying. Me? I think it doesn't help when one of our assets decides to defect to Parkhead during the close season!

I wonder if anyone at Easter Road brought this up with McLeish when he was at the helm at ER? I doubt we'll ever know!