Scottish Cup: Arbroath v Hibernian - How Dick Campbell has Hibs in his sights

Dick Campbell is leading Arbroath's astonishing charge for the Scottish Premiership, but what price a Scottish Cup run into the bargain?

The wily Gayfield manager will be licking his lips at the prospect of a top-flight scalp when his Championship leaders host Hibernian on Sunday.

Perhaps the most colourful figure in Scottish football, Campbell has drawn praise, humour and admiration from across the game, including from long-time friend Sir Alex Ferguson.

The contest, live on BBC One Scotland, will be a clash of styles: the part-timers from Angus against the capital city slickers. Experienced lower-league campaigners against those expected to compete at the top end of the Premiership.

And, in the dugouts, the gritty nous of 68-year-old Campbell against Shaun Maloney, nearly 30 years his junior, who was most recently coaching the world's top-ranked national team.

'I quite like dinosaurs!'

Last week, Campbell oversaw a dogged 1-0 win over Kilmarnock, their nearest challengers for top spot and a side whose budget and top-flight pedigree vastly outweigh Arbroath's.

Typically, Campbell danced a meme-friendly jig as he took the acclaim from a packed-out Gayfield, more fodder for the social media account entitled 'No Context Dick Campbell'.

A last-gasp penalty equaliser at home to Hamilton Academical on Wednesday extended their lead to five points, now cut to two with a game in hand over Killie.

"People have criticised him in the past," says Craig Levein, a former Hearts and Scotland manager, and friend of Campbell. "People say he is a dinosaur - that's a word that gets used against a lot of the managers who have had success.

"I quite like dinosaurs! He's true to himself. He tells the truth. And he's got a great personality.

"He's larger than life. But he even says it himself - he has taken things much more seriously than he did. It's a remarkable job he's doing.

"In modern football, nobody gets to build a club any more. He's done that with Arbroath. He's taken them from League 2 to going toe-to-toe with clubs who are much bigger and have much more resources.

"It's the way he deals with players, his recruitment. Things that are really important in football, he is really good at them."

The best part-time players

Arbroath were in League 2 when they hired Campbell in March 2016. Two titles and two promotions later, they are within touching distance of unimaginable glory.

Incredibly, they are the only part-time team in the Championship. A team Campbell has carefully and methodically assembled in his six years in charge.

"He's got the best group of part-time players in Scotland," Levein says. "I don't know if there's another part-time player in Scotland who would be good enough to get into Dick's team.

"You only get a couple of training sessions a week in part-time football. All the other Championship teams have more time training. Mind you, only seeing Dick two or three days a week could be quite a good thing!

"That training time is critical. He's had a lot of these players a long, long time. Most of the time he plays 4-4-2. They know what he expects of them.

"Any tinkering he's done has been to bring in players and they've always been better than the players he had. That's why his team keeps improving. He is going to get to a point where he can't get any who are better."

Promotion, should that Utopian scenario actually happen, would throw up an interesting dilemma. Could they actually remain part-time as a Premiership club?

"The players he's got have good jobs and are paid well at Arbroath," Levein goes on. "If they go full-time, could Arbroath pay those players enough?

"If you've got a settled job and you're getting, I don't know, £500-600 a week from Arbroath on top of that, it would probably be impossible for Arbroath to reach those amounts. Even if Arbroath double their budget, they wouldn't be certain to get the same quality of players they've got at the moment. That's their problem.

"I don't think they would go full-time because Dick would lose all his squad unless some are willing to chuck their jobs. I don't know if they can get enough money and I don't know if the dynamic would change."

'It's about absolutely trusting your manager'

Shaun Maloney is taking his first steps in management at Easter Road

While Campbell flourishes, Maloney founders. Early in his Hibs reign, defeat at Gayfield would be hugely damaging as the former Belgium assistant seeks to restore feel-good in Leith.

The positivity of his opening games in charge - wins over Aberdeen and Dundee United - has cooled substantially. In the previous round, Hibs struggled past Cove Rangers in extra time and have failed to score in five of their seven games in 2022.

"I'm not speaking about Shaun in particular here," Levein says. "It's alright understanding tactics - a lot of people can - it's the connection between coach and players.

"You have to have a group who want to go out and, without realising it, absolutely bust a gut. The reason they don't find it hard is they actually enjoy it, it's fun.

"A lot of young coaches think their way of playing is the right way. That's fine. Go into the dressing-room with 20 players and explain what you want them to do and get them to do it. Then you'll understand how difficult it is.

"It's not just about ideas, it's about absolutely trusting your manager, respecting your team-mates and wanting to work with them. I think Dick's way of recruitment and keeping players happy has been very clever."