Hibs January transfer latest: Sunderland's loanee long-term future, Garvan Stewart and a striker impressing away from Easter Road

Edinburgh Evening News

Hibs correspondent John Greechan provides the latest on the transfer front at Easter Road,

Transcript

00:00Yep, and we'll have a wee look at some transfer-y news, maybe scraping the barrel because it's

00:05been tumbleweed town over the last week at Hibs.

00:08I was going to say, you said transfer news?

00:10I was going to, I, news is maybe a transfer bulletin, it'll be quite interesting to see

00:17how we put this together.

00:18There is a couple of wee things, David Gray was on the Premier Sports Social Club on Monday,

00:22fairly political stuff on whether Hibs can expect business before the end of this month.

00:28I did probably find the most interesting thing from that was the role of Garvin Stewart,

00:32which was discussed.

00:34It sounds as if, to me, that obviously beforehand it was David Gray and Malcolm McKay who were

00:40more the faces of recruitment at Hibs, whereas it seems like just adding an extra layer to

00:46that maybe just takes things off the manager slightly in terms of what he has to focus,

00:51he'll obviously still have a big focus on it, but it doesn't need to be as all-consuming

00:55as it maybe would have been without an extra body there.

01:00Listen, he'll still get involved every step of the way because that's what football managers

01:05do, and they have to, but I think Garvin Stewart, I think Gray mentioned his access to his network

01:16is the key thing, so someone who can cast the net very wide, who has insight, has a

01:22track record of at least filtering players to get to a point where a manager can make

01:28a decision and decide what he wants.

01:31As I said, this is a fascinating transfer window.

01:36January is often difficult.

01:38Quite often bad buys get made in January or bad loan deals because people are a bit desperate.

01:45The Black Knight influence will be really fascinating to watch, and I remember in the

01:51summer, Malky Mackay, very clearly, I interviewed him at one point, and we wrote about it, and

01:58him saying we weren't going to take a player from the Black Knight group just for the sake

02:04of taking a player, so the implication being that there'd been two or three offered, but

02:09we've got this guy, how do you fancy it, and between Malky and David Gray they went, well,

02:15no offence, lovely footballer, we don't think he's right for what we're trying to do, or

02:20we don't think he's right for this league, or his age profile, or whatever it is, doesn't

02:25really fit with what we're doing, can we narrow that a little bit?

02:27And I think there's been a little bit of back and forth in that, and with Garvin Stewart

02:30coming in, there was maybe a little bit of disconnect on what Hibbs wanted wasn't as

02:38clear to Black Knights, and they were maybe bringing things that were non-starters.

02:43So now it should all be aligned with Garvin Stewart actually in the building, appointed

02:49by Hibbs, that he should be, there's no excuse, he knows exactly what Gray's looking for,

02:53he knows exactly what McKay, what restrictions will be placed on wages, budgets, whatever

03:00it is, even allowing for the fact that there's hoping there's going to be some kind of help

03:05on that front as well.

03:07In fairness, whenever they needed a player, the board and the Gordon family have just

03:14said, right, okay, well, there's the money, we'll get it done, we'll find a way to work

03:18it out, you can tell.

03:20Otherwise, there wouldn't be a first team squad of 89!

03:24There's a rather large squad at the minute.

03:27It's gone down!

03:29Aye, it's gone down slightly, still hovering about the 85 mark, I think, by the last count.

03:35So a couple of other wee snippets, Dylan Venta scoring against PSV, only their third

03:41defeat of the season, so they've warmed up for clashes against Red Star Belgrade and

03:45Arnie Slott's Liverpool by the end of this month, with Dylan Venta putting them to the

03:50sword.

03:51We've had Tony Mowbray, I think everybody was quite glad to see him return to the folding

03:55football over the course of the last week, you were talking about the Scott Brown sort

03:59of era at Hibbs, Tony Mowbray, the orchestrator of that, he did a podcast earlier in the week

04:04where he was speaking about Hibbs and he pretty much just said, I had this rabble of

04:08young guys who didn't know where they were going, and I just funnelled them in the right

04:12direction, and that's all I did.

04:14Probably underplaying his part in that slightly, but great to see him back.

04:18He was, love it, he was so much fun at Hibbs, and he was just brilliant.

04:24He's a lovely man, dealt with him a lot when he was at Hibbs and then at Celtic as well,

04:29where it didn't work out, but that just happens at Celtic for a manager sometimes.

04:35He, I always think of it, I know people have got their own favourite eras of when they

04:41club, but I always think of that as a peak Hibbs era, and it was as exciting as it was

04:46going to get, because as he said, this rabble of young players, he had these outstanding

04:53young talents, he had some absolute class, experienced pros in there as well, and they

05:00played ridiculously good football, and it was just such an exciting time.

05:05You pitched up at Easter Road for a game, if you were doing a game that weekend, you're

05:09like, what are we going to see today?

05:12This is a bit of fun.

05:13So yeah, lovely to see Tony Mulbray back in.

05:17Sorry, what was the first part you mentioned there?

05:19Because I got distracted with whimsy and nostalgia for bygone days.

05:24I think Dylan Venter was what I'd mentioned.

05:26Oh, yeah, yeah.

05:27So funny.

05:29Yeah, we asked Gray about him, I'm going to say maybe a month or six weeks ago, and he

05:36didn't shut the door.

05:38He's like, well, keeping an eye on him sort of thing.

05:41I do very distinctly get the impression he's just not what Hibbs wanted, or certainly not

05:46what Gray wanted.

05:49Not what Nick Montgomery wanted either, to be honest.

05:53I think he's a player who, at the right team, in the right competition, will get you goals.

06:02I just don't think Hibbs in the Scottish Premiership was the right competition for him.

06:07And you looked at his profile and you thought he's getting bounced around a bit.

06:11He's not quite quick enough to do that.

06:16He's got skills, but it maybe suits a different style of play.

06:20Although he still is under contract, I think.

06:23I'm going to have to check this now.

06:25You asked me about things I wrote about six weeks ago.

06:27I can't remember that far.

06:29But yeah, yeah.

06:30I think he didn't shut the door on him.

06:32But as we discussed earlier, if you've got Bowie and Boyle and Gale and Kuravich and

06:40Yuan who can play up there, then you're pretty well set for centre-forward.

06:46And finally, just to touch on, because somehow we have extended this episode to 37 minutes

06:50and probably the least newsworthy week in Hibbs in quite some time.

06:53Nektar Trianas was talking about his future with his parent club Sunderland over the weekend.

06:57That was a fairly detailed piece they did with him.

07:01Spoke at the end of it about his aim is to be a consistent feature for Sunderland,

07:06but focusing on time with Hibbs at the minute.

07:09No real great shot there.

07:11Australia have spoke about him in the past week there.

07:13Boss Tony Popovich, speaking about he's been on the radar since autumn.

07:18With every passing week, I mean, I think it was quite clear when Sunderland put that article up on X

07:25that the Hibbs fans had started commenting with the now bordering into cliche territory of

07:30do not sign this, do not bring this player back, Sunderland.

07:33He is garbage.

07:34You should let him go back to Hibbs because we will be able to take care of him and develop this garbage.

07:40But with every passing game, is there any chance of him going to have some sort of future at Hibbs beyond this season?

07:48It's funny, isn't it?

07:50You're looking for that sweet spot where he's good, but not that good.

07:54Now, listen, you know, clubs the size of Sunderland don't just discard assets

08:01without taking a proper look at what they've got there.

08:04And they clearly signed him based on something.

08:08They're probably just seeing what they expected to get.

08:13He's playing very, very well.

08:15It'd be lovely to see him continue to develop in that central midfield role.

08:19And it's not just a destructive midfield role.

08:21It's, you know, his passing is outstanding.

08:24He will break the lines.

08:25He will charge forward.

08:27But it'd be lovely to see him develop.

08:29And then who knows?

08:32Who knows?

08:33It depends what the finances are.

08:36It depends what else Sunderland have got in those positions where they see him.

08:41You'd love to think it was possible because he would help you build around there.

08:47And I actually forgot about him earlier when I was mentioning Joe Nuone and others.

08:50But, I mean, obviously, Triantis almost feels like he's a stick-on at the moment to play in that position.

08:58And you hope he stays at least until the end of the season.

09:02They're still looking for a centre mid though.

09:04So I don't know.

09:05And maybe that's with one eye on, well, we're probably going to lose him at the end of the season.

09:08So if we can get someone in now, at least we're covering ourselves.

09:13By the way, you do forget Joe Nuone is still injured with that groin problem, which is a bit longer.

09:20And considering he had double hernia surgery earlier in the season, you don't want to take any chances with that.

09:27And, yeah, so Triantis will be fascinating, I think.

09:33You asked Hibs fans now.

09:35They'd love to see him stay.

09:37If you'd asked them three months ago, they said, no, you can go back any minute, any time you like.

09:42So let's just hope he continues this form and gives everyone a nice tug of war in the summer.

09:49That'd be good.

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