Former Hibernian striker Grant Holt insists his old club could be making their ‘signing of the summer’ if they confirm Ben Kensell as their new chief executive.
The former Norwich City chief operating officer is reportedly poised to be unveiled as the Easter Road club’s successor to Leeann Dempster.
Dempster, now in charge at Queen’s Park, left Hibs in November after six successful years in which she guided the club back from their calamitous relegation to the Championship in 2014 and to their historic Scottish Cup triumph of 2016.
Kensell has been branded hard-working, energetic, open and approachable, and was hailed by Norwich’s majority shareholders on the announcement of his departure from the club last month to ‘pursue new challenges’.
That praise came despite the Canaries hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons just days earlier when they pulled the plug on a multi-million partnership with BK8 after the Asian betting firm’s sexualised marketing techniques came to light.
Kensell joined Norwich in 2014 after spells working for Arsenal and Charlton and was part of the club’s three-man executive committee from 2018.
He said on his exit: “We have created a club that is truly unique and is the envy of many others.
“There have been many highs and lows, but I am leaving the club in a much healthier position than when I arrived.
“Our world renowned, self-financed and sustainable model is now firmly established, and the club continues to lead the way in this area.
"We have proved that an ambitious, progressive football club can be successful, viable and attractive. To have played my part in leading that has been very special and gives me a tremendous sense of pride.”
In recent years, Holt - who won the Championship during his only season with Hibs in 2016-17 - has fulfilled coaching, scouting and ambassadorial roles at Norwich, where he was already a legend following four years as a player.
He is impressed with the prospect of Kensell taking the reins at Easter Road.
He said on social media: “Well, I hope this is true for the Hibs fans - fantastic guy and amazing at what he does.
“Worked with him for five years at Norwich. This could be Hibs’ signing of the summer.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel