Stenny CEO hoping to see next Kenny Miller at Ochilview as part of Strategic Partnership with Hibs

The Warriors announced a groundbreaking new agreement with the Hibees last month which sees young players at the Edinburgh club being identified for loan spells at Ochilview to give them regular first team football and develop them as players.

Unlike traditional loan deals this partnership sees specific players identified as early as the season before they join to make sure of the best fit for both clubs.

Stenny already have a good track record of seeing loanees succeed after leaving them with the likes of Oli Shaw and Harry Paton regular starters at Premiership side Ross County.

Long before that though, they had a young striker on loan from Hibs during the 1998/99 season by the name of Kenny Miller and CEO Swinney hopes this new partnership could see another future Scotland icon turning out at Ochilview.

He said: “We’d love to help produce another Scotland internationalist who achieves everything Kenny did.

"To this day he still talks about his loan spell here and the benefits it had for his career at just 17.

"Over the years we have demonstrated a reputation for looking after and developing young players and I hope are seen as one of the best clubs in Scotland for doing that.

"When you think about the normal loan process, the senior club has a young player they wish to loan out and might get a call from a lower league club asking for a player in a certain position.

"That's flawed from the very beginning because you don't have a proper relationship or proper understanding of the player you're getting.

"As part of this partnership the two clubs identify players as early as March so that they can be prepared for pre-season and competitive football in July.

"We also have a liaison coach who works between both clubs and sees players in both environments.

"A lot of the time with loan deals the thing that causes them to fail is communication between the two clubs where maybe the senior team expects a player to start more regularly or be played in a different position but with this partnership we can address those issue with proper communication channels.”

At the moment Stenny have three players in on loan from Hibs; Paddy Martin, Callum Yates and Jayden Fairley but the partnership extends beyond just the loaning of players to a sharing of all sorts of resources.

"There is a sharing of analysis, sport science and sports psychology,” said Swinney.

"We can share those resources with each other which is a real benefit of the partnership.

"I don't know if anything formal like this has ever existed but clubs have had more informal relationships which are sometimes down to managers and their relationships.

"The problem with those is, because they are a bit more informal and not at strategic level, if a manager moves on that relationship disappears.

"If we had to recruit a new manager and a candidate didn't buy into this partnership we wouldn't hire them, it's as simple as that."