Even before a ball had been kicked in Sunday’s game against Aberdeen, Nick Montgomery sounded like a man under pressure.

In a pre-match interview, the Hibs boss spoke about his team’s xG (expected goals) and how they really ought to be higher up the league table.

As soon as a manager starts wheeling out the XG stats, it is invariably a tell-tale sign they are feeling the heat.

A chorus of boos rang out as the home crowd rightly voiced their disapproval. It would have been far louder, had most fans not headed for the exits long before full-time.

Not for the first time in recent seasons, the sense of crisis at Easter Road has now become impossible to escape as their campaign has gone down the drain.

Just a few weeks ago, Hibs were a matter of seconds away from securing a place in the top six, only to be denied by the concession of a late goal in a 1-1 draw at Motherwell. Yet, truthfully, even if they had finished in the top half, it would only have papered over the cracks and changed nothing in the grand scheme of things.

The expectation is that the Hibs squad will undergo the football equivalent of open-heart surgery this summer. It has already been confirmed that club stalwarts Lewis Stevenson and Paul Hanlon will be moving on. Plenty of others will surely follow.

Whether or not Montgomery will be the man entrusted to oversee the rebuild remains to be seen. For now, he seems determined to carry on.

With a home game against Motherwell to come tomorrow night, before a trip to Livingston on the final day, he insists nothing has changed with regard to his position as manager. But it has. Of course it has. As soon as Hibs pushed the button on a bizarre club statement after missing out on the top six, it was clear that Montgomery’s jacket was on a shoogly peg.

Branding the team’s league position as ‘simply unacceptable’, the statement outlined plans for a major review of their football structure behind the scenes.

Telling the manager publicly that his job is on the line was certainly an interesting approach from a club hierarchy most punters in Leith probably wouldn’t trust with the weekly shopping list.

A real doozy that could be added to a highlights reel, which would include the club being booted out of the League Cup a couple of years ago for fielding an ineligible player.

And therein lies the problem. Behind the scenes, Hibs are a mess. People with no football expertise or experience are making key decisions.

Montgomery may well be the fall guy if the club decide to pull the trigger, but Hibs’ problems run far deeper than just the manager.

There is a lack of identity and purpose. The Gordon family still call the shots, with Bournemouth billionaire owner Bill Foley holding a 25-per-cent stake. However, it’s on the recruitment side of things where Hibs have faltered badly.

Over the past couple of years, one poor signing has been compounded by another.

Last summer, they forked out £700,000 to sign Dutch striker Dylan Vente. For Scottish clubs outwith the Old Firm, that is serious cash. But a return of just five league goals from the player this season is pitiful.

A poor signing who has offered Hibs no bang for their buck, he embodies a failing recruitment policy. One that has seen a succession of managers try and fail to make things work over recent years. Often working with players they didn’t sign.

Since Neil Lennon left in 2019, Hibs have had five permanent managers; Paul Heckingbottom, Jack Ross, Shaun Maloney, Lee Johnson, and Montgomery.

When Montgomery took over from the sacked Johnson last September, his appointment was generally met with optimism among supporters. A title winner with Central Coast Mariners in Australia, there was much intrigue as to how the former Sheffield United and Scotland youth midfielder would fare.

A record of 12 wins, 12 defeats and 13 losses isn’t disastrous, but it was the nature of Sunday’s capitulation against Aberdeen that was most alarming.

Particularly in the context of that club statement a few weeks ago, it was the sort of performance and result that will significantly reduce a manager’s lifespan.

Some people will be quick to point out that clubs can’t just continually keep on sacking bosses. But that’s just a cliche.

Hibs do keep on sacking managers. It’s almost their modus operandi. To the tune of Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division, rival fans often sing about how Hibs Are Falling Apart. A 4-0 home thrashing by a poor Aberdeen side is inexcusable and will have pushed Montgomery closer to the brink.

At a time when the club are trying to sell season books, it feels like there’s as much optimism at Easter Road as there was at the foot of that hill when Irvine Welsh wrote Renton’s speech about being Scottish.

As always with these things, the sense of pain and disillusionment being felt by Hibs fans is only made worse when they look at what’s happening across the city.

Hearts have romped to third place. They have guaranteed group-stage football in Europe to look forward to next season. In Lawrence Shankland, they have the best player in the country.

Right now, Hibernian are a million miles away from that.

If the statement released a few weeks ago was intended to try and engineer a response from the players, it patently hasn’t worked.

Under major scrutiny heading into the post-split fixtures, two defeats in three games since then have only served to pile more pressure on Montgomery.

His job is on the line and, deep down, he knows it.

There will be a massive clearout of players at Hibs come the summer. If the current slide continues, the manager might well be the first out the door.