Inside David Gray's Hibs interview as Malky Mackay reveals why legend finally landed permanent job

Malky mackay has revealed why David Gray was given a full-time crack at the Hibs job.

Nick Montgomery's sacking saw Gray thrust back into the dugout as caretaker boss for the fourth time, having also tried to steady the siop after the departures of jack Ross, Shaun Maloney and Lee Johnson before Montgomery became the latest to fall by the wayside. Now Gray is the main man at Easter Road for the next three-years.

Mackay led on the hunt for a new boss after his controversial appointment as director of football. Sceptics will suggest that by appointing the guy already in the seat was the cheapest and easiest option for a new DOF looking to establish his own authority at the club. But Mackay insists gray simply nailed his interview. The Scottish Cup winning legend will enjoy buy in from the fans regardless, but his attention to detail and thoroughness left one panel member with no questions at the end of the process.

"David's been here a number of years, but he had to earn his spurs in the interviews," Mackay told the Hibs Observer. "He really, really nailed the main one. I really enjoyed the fact that he knows every fabric of the club. He can eat, sleep and breathe it.

"Obviously, we need to deal with recruitment, but we’re hitting the ground running because we’ve got somebody who already knows the whole building, the staff, the players, and what he thinks he would change. One of the interviewers didn’t have any questions to ask him, because he’d covered everything. I really liked that. By the end, in my head, I was going: 'you've absolutely nailed this'.

"What stood out? I loved his attention to detail. We went through his career and his journey, his learning under the four managers and the things that he took from them. We watched him coach. We saw clips of him coaching in the times where he had taken over, and saw things that he would do in training that were then happening on the pitch. You could see him coaching it, then seeing it when someone’s playing against you in the Premiership. I liked that.

“There was also his attention to detail with the players – who they are, and what we might need to do going forward. The attention to detail around the building, what he thinks needs to be better, and what he thinks has gone well. There was two-and-a-half hours of attention to detail that built up."