By Hibernian FC

In what was his first interview since November 2021, Ben sat down with HibsTV for an in-depth interview covering everything from Shaun Maloney’s appointment and the recent January transfer window to his ambitious, future-focused vision for the club.

The decision behind the appointment of the new Manager, investment into the Development Squad and new player signings in January all point in the same direction under Kensell – an ambitious, exciting plan to create long-term success for the club.

Speaking on the appointment of Shaun Maloney, Kensell emphasised the importance of finding the right manager to fit the club’s long term ambitions. He told us:

“We had a very clear specific criteria and we wanted a certain playing style that was possession-based and attack-minded.

“Shaun, for me, is a young, progressive, dynamic coach and a real deep thinker around the game. He's a great mix of that elite coaching experience, but also has that hunger determination to be successful in his own right.

“As a manager, I genuinely believe it's a really positive, promising appointment. But obviously we need to give it time and he needs to get our support.”

Nearly two months have passed since the managerial switch, Kensell reflects on Maloney’s time in the dugout.

“To work with Shaun has been fantastic. But to get to accelerate and understand him and the way that we work as a club, has been a good exercise. We've had some difficult times. We've had some difficult results, but none of us are shying away from that and we all want to win.

“I'm a football fan myself and I want to win. We know that the fans want to win every game possible, but we also know that we're on a bit of a journey here.

“The word ‘transition’ has been used a lot, but you can't call it anything else. It's a process and I'm very, very confident that people are starting to see the green shoots and the signs of Shaun’s sort of playing philosophy, style coming through and the players really adapting to that.”

As aforementioned, Ben is a big football fan himself and winning trophies and playing in Europe is at the forefront of his vision for the club. Not only to create history and give the fans unforgettable memories to cherish, but also for the financial rewards which the Club can use to reinvest in the long term future. He told us:

"Cup competitions are always massively important to this club. We've been relatively successful in terms of in the short to medium history around reaching the deeper stages of the cups.

"We want to win one that will always be an objective for this club - it should be. We're a big club in this league and we have a very clear objective of a top-four finish.

"That will unlock our European aspirations, which therefore unlocks a good financial kind of rewards from that and opportunities to go deeper than we've ever gone into Europe. That's very much Shaun's ambition as well.

"By doing that, that then allows us to have the finances to invest further on the pitch and invest further in capital projects, improve HTC, improve the stadium and ultimately give the fans a team that they're proud of, which is what we're all trying to aim for."

You can watch Ben's interview in full here!