Club Career
Hanlon played for the well known Edinburgh youth football club Hutchison Vale, along with future Hibs teammate Danny Galbraith. Hanlon was an attacking midfielder who scored plenty of goals in youth football, but was converted to a defensive position after he signed for Hibs. He played his first senior game for Hibs on 12 January 2008, against Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the Scottish Cup, due to injuries sustained by David Murphy and Lewis Stevenson. Hanlon played for Hibs on a regular basis over the next seven months, and he agreed a five-year contract with the club.
During the 2008–09 season, however, Hanlon was replaced by Ian Murray as Hibs' regular left back. Hanlon was loaned out to St. Johnstone in December 2008, initially for one month. St. Johnstone wanted to extend the loan arrangement, but Hibs refused to allow this. Hanlon went straight back into the Hibs team after returning from St. Johnstone, but he was dropped soon afterwards by Mixu Paatelainen due to a defensive error he made in a match against Kilmarnock.
Hanlon played infrequently during the 2009–10 season, only featuring when one of the regular defenders has been unavailable. One such period was when Sol Bamba was with the Côte d'Ivoire national team at the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations; manager John Hughes described the decision to reinstate Bamba to the team at Hanlon's expense as one of the toughest decisions he has had to make in the job. At the end of the season, Hughes commented that Hanlon was a "great" footballer, but needed to become tougher and show more desire.
Hughes again praised Hanlon before the start of the 2010–11 season, saying that he had a "real future" in the game and had the potential to play in the Premier League. Following the departure of Chris Hogg, Hanlon captained the team at times. Hanlon agreed a new contract with the club in May 2011.
Read more about this topic: Paul Hanlon
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