JACK Ross has expressed confidence he can strengthen his Hibernian squad this summer and build on the progress the Easter Road club have made during his 18 month tenure next season despite several of his most important players being tipped to depart.

Ross was irked by stories linking key members of his first team, including Martin Boyle, Josh Doig, Melker Hallberg, Kevin Nisbet and Ryan Porteous, with moves elsewhere during the build-up to the Scottish Cup final against St Johnstone on Saturday.

The former St Mirren and Sunderland manager, whose third-placed Premiership team was beaten 1-0 by their top flight rivals at Hampden at the weekend, stressed that none of his men have asked to leave. 

And he is confident that Hibs owner Ron Gordon will back him with the funds that he needs to bring in reinforcements if any bids are received and accepted in the coming weeks and months and hopeful that his team can challenge strongly for silverware again in the 2021/22 campaign. 

“There were some headlines last week that I thought were poor in the lead-up to the final about the number of players that were supposedly departing,” said Ross. “There was not one single player in the dressing room on Saturday who has given me an indication this will be their final game.

“There will be plenty of speculation, I am sure there will be some concrete interest. If you are asking me to be in direct control of it, then I want to lose none of them. However, there will be other factors that will come in to play.

“We have got a squad that has delivered something that Hibs haven’t had often enough in terms of league position. I want to keep them together. If we don’t? I want to solve the puzzle again. We will see what the next days and weeks bring.”

He continued: “I think we need to (strengthen) if we want to continue to have prolonged success as a club. It is something this club haven’t done regularly enough. It has had moments, but it hasn’t had periods of sustained success in terms of league positions and being in finals and winning silverware.

“I haven’t done it perfectly, but I would hope I have done a good job so far. To do it, we need to get better and better as a squad.

“Ron is a brilliant  owner – his communication that he has with me, his understanding of the job and his support when I have wanted to strengthen. Recently we had Daniel Mackay coming in from Inverness. We have got a synergy in terms of the model and what we want to do.

“We are prepared to gamble on younger Scottish players and believe we can turn them into players that become Kevin Nisbet and keep progressing them. We will look to do that with Daniel and we will look to do that with others hopefully as well.”

Striker Nisbet, who scored 18 goals in all competitions this season, was last week named in the Scotland squad for the Euro 2020 finals next month and Ross feels that will encourage ambitious players to move to Easter Road. 

“First of all, the credit is due to him in terms of his career progression,” he said.  “But to get from where he has been in recent years to being involved in the European Championships is a reflection on my group of players because they have given him that opportunity.

“They have enabled him to play the way he has and score the goals he has. His inclusion in the squad is another positive reflection on the season for us.”

Hibs will play into the second qualifying round of the new Europa Conference League next season after failing to win the Scottish Cup at the weekend and will have their first competitive match on July 22.

Ross is keen to see the capital outfit qualify for the group stages of that competition and do even better domestically going forward.

“We will regroup, we will have a break,” he said. “We need that. We have got players away on international duty. That will give them a busy summer as well. It has been a long season for us, a long tough season. We will take the opportunity to recover, dust ourselves down again and look to produce this kind of season and go one step further next season.

“I took this job when Hibs were eighth or ninth in the league and a point above the relegation zone at the bottom of the table. What they have done in that period has been brilliant. We have been to two semi-finals, a final, we have finished third in the league.

“You want to set ambitions higher. I had the guts to come out and say it – I want to win trophies with Hibs and I want to finish where we have in the league every season. Those players have delivered. I am immensely proud of them. They are sore, disappointed, hurt at not winning the cup. But they have been terrific all season.

“I am devastated for my players. They are a group I am immensely proud to put my name to. They have been fantastic for me this season for what they have delivered. The pain they are feeling just now is sore for me to see because I wanted them to achieve success.”