CHRIS SUTTON has slammed Hibernian's "ridiculous" decision to sack manager Shaun Maloney after just four months.

Maloney has departed in the wake of Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final defeat by Hearts.

Chairman Ron Gordon said in a statement: “Our hope in appointing Shaun Maloney as a young, highly regarded coach was that he would help us take the club forward, but ultimately it didn’t work out.

“We thank Shaun and his coaching staff for all their hard work and efforts and wish them all the best for the future.”

The former Celtic and Scotland midfielder left his post as Belgium assistant manager to succeed Jack Ross in December and won his first two matches in charge against Aberdeen and Dundee United.

But Hibs have only won one cinch Premiership game in 2022 and a 3-1 league defeat against Hearts the week before the semi-final consigned them to a bottom-six finish.

Despite this, Sutton vented his frustrations on Twitter over Maloney's sacking.

He wrote: "This is ridiculous. He’s hardly been in the door 5 minutes… what message does this send to young aspiring coaches??"

Maloney has been without a full team of players at times through illness, injury and suspension and the club sold Australia winger Martin Boyle late in the transfer window.

The 39-year-old claimed on Saturday at Hampden that he knew “exactly” what was needed for his side to be able to compete with Hearts next season.

“I have known for quite a while the areas where we need to be better to give us an opportunity to fight for top six, top four, Europe. I have known that from very early on,” he said after his 10 men suffered a 2-1 defeat.

“I have worked extremely hard with the players we have, young players, but we all have to make sure that come the summer, come pre-season, we are a lot stronger in certain areas, so that when we have performances like this, we take advantage.

“The money we have, we have to spend it wisely this summer, and we have to be a lot, lot different at the start of next season.”

Maloney will not get the chance to implement his plans with backroom staff Gary Caldwell, Valerio Zuddas and Brian Doogan also leaving with immediate effect.

Former skipper David Gray will take caretaker charge for the remainder of the season with support from Eddie May and Jon Busch.