Its seems that Chris Hughton and Colin Calderwood are having some success at Birmingham. Hughton and Calderwood - while at Newcastle Chris had to wait about seven months after he was surprisingly sacked at Newcastle fourteen months ago, before being appointed manager of Birmingham City. That was after the Midlands club had been relegated under previous manager [.

So Hibs decide to say farewell to Victor Palsson, the young Icelandic player they signed from Liverpool this time last year.
Contract terminated with immediate effect.
Or contract bought out in a mutually agreeable way to free up some wages for what is, at this stage in the transfer window, a rather slow-burning rebuilding job at Easter Road.

Hitting the halfway stage of the SPL Advent calendar. Another annus horribilis for Hibs.
Even those well versed in the grimness of the SPL might have been taken aback by the sheer scale of the despair Hibs have engendered amongst the faithful this season.
If appointing Colin Calderwood was a mistake it was an exponential error, compounded by every signing he was allowed to make and every show of support the board made.

It took 68 words for Hibs to dispatch of Colin Calderwood.
Even that seemed needlessly verbose, the gist was simple:
"Thanks. Goodbye. We live to find another boss."
A taciturn end to a joyless reign. Consider the contrast to July when Rod Petrie - hardly a prolific wordsmith - devoted 434 words and the logic of a one-eyed statistician to a celebratory love letter in support of the manager.

Four games in the SPL today.
But I'm distracted by Sir Alex Ferguson's upcoming 25th anniversary as manager of Manchester United. A phenomena. From Govan.
The SPL didn't even exist 25 years ago. We must have had football though, whatever they try and tell us.
Must have had it because I'm sure Alex Ferguson left a top flight Scottish club to take over a top flight English club 25 years ago.

"Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country."
There's different levels of prophecy. My meandering mumblings on the accounts of Hibernian Football Club wouldn't have made Luke pick up his quill.
It's also easier - especially in this world of Scottish football - to herald the arrival of bad news than to proclaim the happy-clappy joys we yearn for.

A tortuous night following Hibs' league cup win against Motherwell from afar.
They got there in the end, the dramatic cruelty of the penalty shoot-out and all that.
The "real" Hibs, said a relieved Colin Calderwood. But they were minutes away from another defeat.
Cometh the approaching final whistle, cometh the man.

Billy Brown is the new assistant manager at Hibs.
It's going to feel odd typing that for some time to come. Rumours had been swirling all week but it still came as a bit of a shock when the announcement was made.
That shouldn't really be the reaction.
Everything you've heard about Hibs v Aberdeen last Sunday is probably an understatement.

What times to be a Hibs supporter.
Bottom of the league, a manager who has become a toxic brand, sections of the support ever more alienated from the vision the board have for the club. And sections of the support who are consistently voting with their feet.
A demonstration is planned before today's game with second bottom Aberdeen.

On Wednesday night, as Scotland held on for their essentially-meaningless-yet-pretty-damn-encouraging-all-the-blinking-same win against Denmark, I was locked in footballing discussions.
Scott Johnston of theFootyBlog.net asked me to join him and his co-host Brent Atema of GlobalFootballToday.

The only managerial soap opera that was to have transpired in Edinburgh this summer was to have been at Easter Road involving the love triangle between Hibernian FC, Colin Calderwood, and Nottingham Forest. Then again, when "Mad Vlad" Romanov blows into town to see about things over at Tynecastle, general upheaval can never be too far out of the reckoning.

Colin Scalderwood Half-time is the traditional time for a football manager to chuck cups of tea around, but Hibs boss Colin Calderwood broke with tradition to drop a beverage in his lap during his side's opening game of the season against Celtic. Perhaps eager to keep up with opposite number Neil Lennon's penchant for getting [.

Part two of a completely scattergun selection of a dozen players whose progress I'm keen to track in 2010/11 SPL. St Mirren and Dunfermline will follow tomorrow.
Sean O'Hanlon, HibernianThe returning Ivan Sproule and Garry O'Connor have left Sean O'Hanlon's arrival at Easter Road somewhat overshadowed.

The first of Sunday's two SPL games as Celtic travel to Hibs to give a green tinge to the opening weekend.
The GameFor a variety of reasons, some of which are explored below, this is an away win for me. End of.*
HibsWell, what a swell summer it's been for Hibs. Managerial uncertainty has swirled, training ground punches have been hurled and transfer deals have unfurled.

We're now tantalisingly close to the SPL's opening weekend. July isn't yet out but already the sense of anticipation is growing.
The churlish prediction for the season ahead would be that "it can't be as bad as last time." But this being Scottish football we know that's not true. It can be every bit as bad.

The commentators have fixed the month for me, they have chosen the date and the day. But I advise them: "Don't count your chickens before they are hatched."
Remember what happened to Marie Lloyd. She fixed the day and the date, and she told us what happened. As far as I remember it went like this: 'There was I, waiting at the church.

During the summer, when time is often measured in the latest player transfer rumours rather than in minutes passed, we have become acclimated to the concept of a player having his head "turned" and wanting to leave his current club of employ. In the English Premiership, Arsenal have endured seemingly countless summers of speculation on when club captain Cesc Fabregas will leave for Spain in a genetic quest to have his DNA properly aligned at the Camp Nou.

LTLF generally has a neutral editorial policy, but the breaking news that Nottingham Forest have terminated Billy Davies' contract one year short prompts me to put on record my utter shock and disgust at the actions of the Forest board. Billy Davies, as previously stated by several contributors to this site, has been the most consistent and successful manager at Forest since Frank Clark.

The Terrace Scottish Football Podcast are putting together a club-by-club of the Scottish football season just past.
The honour of wrestling with events at Easter Road fell to me.
This was another grim year for Hibs. The sun seems to rarely shine on Leith these days:

"But any review of the 2010/11 season is a review of myriad failings over recent years.

Part One of the interview. Resuming the Chris Hughton's interview with Richard Keys and Andy Grey on 'Talk Sport', this final section begins with more memories of Newcastle United, including what Hughton thinks of Colin Calderwood, did he realise how good Cheick Tiote when he signed him, working with Andy Carroll, did he always think that he was [.

Nottingham Forest 2-5 Yeovil Town, May 2007 Your boys took one hell of a beating is a post from: Just Football

by Ben Barrett

The story you are about to read is not one out of a story book; it was not plucked from a comic or magazine nor is it a case of a wild imagination.

One word from a dozen managers to sum up the SPL this weekend:
Aberdeen 5 v 0 KilmarnockCraig Brown: "Pleasing."
Mixu Paatelainen: "Farcical."
Hearts 2 v 1 Dundee UnitedJim Jefferies: "Determination."
Peter Houston: "Cruel."
Inverness 2 v 0 St JohnstoneTerry Butcher: "Effort.

The SPL scoots from the east end of Glasgow to Paisley when the Old Firm is done and dusted. How the other half live.
How the other have live.
Eleventh versus twelfth in the SPL sounds like a relegation clash and both teams will be treating it as such.
In the last few weeks though I think the fear of the drop has been lifted from these two sides.

Well, well, well. Going into this weekend's fixtures, I'd have been the last one to have predicted yet another managerial casualty. Hibs, about whom there's been plenty of paper talk pulled of a win and so kept Colin Calderwood's place in the Easter Road car park safe for another week. Clyde, well, they're fucked anyway but they've just appointed someone and besides, they pulled of a tremendous 3-3 against Elgin City.

What a week, what a seismic week.
Scotland dismantled a side ranked above them in the world rankings. Destroyed them with a goal blitz.
Who cares that the FIFA rankings are essentially meaningless or that Northern Ireland were just not very good?
Actually there was a lot to be positive about after Scotland's 3-0 win in Dublin.

Dundee United v HibsA Sunday kick off allows me to use today's match preview to sneak in what is now becoming a far too regular rant about the many deficiencies that currently haunt Hibs.
This one is slightly different though. It's the "sticking up for Colin Calderwood and finding hope for the future" post.

Hibernian have completed the signing of Icelandic youngster Victor Palsson on an 18-month contract from Liverpool.
Skysports.com revealed earlier this week that the 19-year-old midfielder was set to join Hibs after failing to make the breakthrough at Liverpool.
He made three appearances on loan at Dagenham & Redbridge back in November and Palsson is looking forward to his opportunity at Easter Road.

Hibernian have signed highly rated Irish youth international Richie Towell on loan from Celtic, and he may find himself thrown straight into the deep end for tonight's SPL clash with Rangers.
Dublin born Towell has been a regular on the Celtic bench this season and made his debut in a 2-2 draw with Inverness in November.

Another night of misery for Hibs. Failure in the Scottish Cup is nothing new in Leith. But falling to a Second Division side last night increased the woes of a season already so mired in incompetence that mediocrity has become an aspiration.
Who is to blame? Ask three Hibs fans and you might get three different answers.

John Carver was today appointed Newcastle United assistant manager. Carver fills the number two spot that's been available since the departure of Colin Calderwood to Hibernian, and is Carver's return to football after serving as Gary Speed's assistant at Sheffield United.

Carver brings a wealth of experience and is knowledgeable about the club after serving under Bobby Robson in what was the club's most successful period since the Kevin Keegan days.

Hibs v CelticThe ESPN juggernaut rolls into town to enliven an otherwise dull - and rather damp - Saturday lunchtime in Leith. I've been banging on all week about how bad Hibs were against Ayr United but I really can't stress enough the shortcomings of this squad.
Bill Belicheck, coach of Superbowl favorites New England Patriots, once said this about his philosophy:
"There's an old saying that the strength of the wolf is the pack.

Dan Gosling has been speaking on his return to action, in a "closed doors" game against Hibernian, who are now of course, managed by ex Newcastle United assistant manager, Colin Calderwood. The 20 year old midfielder completed around 70 minutes in the 3-3 draw, in which Gosling almost scored after 15 minutes of the game, [.

Dan Gosling will play in his first Newcastle game tomorrow, in a behind-the-scenes practice match at the club's Training Center against Colin Calderwood's club Hibernian. Dan Gosling very very close to being back The former Everton player has been recovering from a serious knee injury he picked up last March, and it's getting [.

When Ayr United took to the field dressed in black on Saturday, pessimistic Hibs fans might have felt that here was the Grim Reaper ready to finish off what was left of their miserable season.
Certainly Hibs started the game at a funereal pace that never threatened to enliven the 5000 or so home fans who had turned out.

Newcastle United are, apparently, in negotiations with Peter Taylor to fill the void left by Colin Calderwood as assistant manager at the club. Rumours have been rife that the 58 year old former England under 21 manager was being hotly pursued by the Magpies, and Taylor himself has now said "There's something in it".