Gordon: Hibernian's relationship with Black Knight Group not damaged

Ian Gordon insisted Hibernian’s relationship with Black Knight Group had not been damaged by Bill Foley’s claims that the Easter Road club did not listen to him regarding the appointment of manager David Gray and sporting director Malky Mackay earlier this summer.

Billionaire Bournemouth owner Foley’s consortium became a minority investor in Hibs – pledging £6m to the club – earlier this year but the American disagreed with their board’s decision to hire Gray and Mackay.

Following a League Cup defeat by Kelty Hearts in July, Foley told the BBC: “If the other ownership group at Hibernian listens to us, they will do better.

“So far, they really haven’t been listening to our input. I believe they will listen to our input now.”

Owner Gordon was asked in an interview with Sky Sports about the club’s decision not to go with Foley’s recommendations.

“I think it’s been well reported that on the hiring of our manager and sporting director, Black Knight was very involved in that process throughout,” he said.

“It was a very thorough process. But when it came down to it, the family and the board felt it was in the best interests to make the appointments that we did.”

Gordon claimed the relationship remained harmonious despite the early friction.

“There have been discussions since then and the relationship is in a good place,” said the Hibs owner.

“We are in constant communication with the guys at Bournemouth, with Ryan Caswell as well and now with Tim (Bezbatchenko, new president of Black Knight Group).

“The dialogue is always there. Tim is going to be coming up and there are going to be certain people from Bournemouth’s departments coming up to work with our guys so there are things ongoing in the background.”

As well as Bournemouth, Foley’s multi-club network also includes Lorient and Auckland, but further questions were raised when Hibs did not sign any players from within the Black Knight Group this summer.

“We looked at the network and there was players lined up from the network, but injuries happened and these sort of things come up,” said Gordon.

“It was kind of out of our power a bit. We would love to bring in players from the network but it just didn’t work out that way this summer.”

Gordon – who became owner following the death of his father Ron in 2022 – also conceded that the current Hibs squad “is far too bloated and that’s down to the inconsistencies on the manager front”.

He admitted mistakes had been made on the recruitment front and that the sacking of Jack Ross in December 2021 “was a bit of a knee-jerk reaction and lessons have been learned since then”.