OPINION  Aberdeen have ripped £5m away from Hibs and I know the real problems now facing David Gray – Tam McManus.

Aberdeen has a guaranteed position in either the Europa League or Conference League group stage. David Grey and the Hibs hierarchy must have felt like putting a foot through the TV when Aberdeen took £5 million from their hipper. But let me make one thing clear. That money hasn’t merely disappeared. It is still there to be won. And Hibs’ focus must now be to go out and grab it. Listen, I am well aware of the consequences of Aberdeen winning the Scottish Cup and securing assured group-state football.

Nothing is taken for granted in this game, and I’m sure no one at Easter Road was counting their money until the game at Hampden was over. But that had to be a jab in the teeth for Celtic, who were overwhelming favourites. They’d ripped Aberdeen apart without a slew of first-round picks the week before, and when Grey and his team finished third, they must have thought they were as near to clinching the title as possible. There may need to be some risk taken. I don’t use that term lightly because I realise it’s stupid to get oneself into trouble, which isn’t what I mean.

What I mean is, spend the extra £500 or £1000 per week on a contract offer to get someone in the door sooner. A lot of work needs to be done with the team. I believed that a robust 24-man squad of ready-to-play players would be required to meet the demands of the group stages if they were secured, but I now see that this is no longer the case. But Grey has demonstrated what he can accomplish with the people he has at his disposal, and he has earned the right to go get the ones he wants in order to give himself the best chance of navigating these qualifiers while keeping his foot on the domestic pedal.

Not having the Premier Sports Cup will help, but these qualifiers are huge. Scottish clubs outside of the Old Firm have struggled to get through them in recent years, and there’s a reason for that. They are quite tough. I’ve been there but not made it.

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