Hibernian has set a £5m price tag for their highly sought after midfielder, John McGinn, as revealed by the head coach, Neil Lennon himself. Celtic seemed to be heavy favourites to land the 23-year-old in January but the transfer never crossed the rumour threshold.
West Ham United had also expressed interest in McGinn and maybe another bidding war is about to set off now that the asking price has been set. This gives teams a direction to aim towards and the Hoops are prepared to splash heaps ahead of next season.
McGinn is currently spending his third season with the Scottish Premiership outfit and still has one more left on his contract. The Glasgow-born player made his way to Easter Road in the summer of 2015 and has racked up 126 appearances for the club while registering 15 goals and 25 assists to his name.
He featured in Scotland’s midweek friendly against Hungary and seems to have impressed his manager enough to draw high praise from him. Lennon said, “I thought he was excellent for Scotland. I’m delighted for him. He is in brilliant form and it’s great profile for the club. While he is here we just want to get the best out of him. In the last two or three seasons, he has been outstanding and he is getting better.”
The Northern Irishman also revealed that he would be delighted to have McGinn in his team for another season but the business side of the proceedings need to be considered as well. While it would be a massive boost in their chase for a top-half table finish, losing the player for nothing will be a huge loss in the long-term.
On the other hand, getting £5m or better will help them find replacements while at the same time look to restructure some of their other weaker positions. However, will Celtic agree to the obscene price tag Lennon has set for the central midfielder? No!
Brendan Rodgers already has Stuart Armstrong, Scott Brown, Eboue Kouassi and Nir Britton in the holding midfield role and Olivier Ntcham’s loan spell could be extended for another season if Manchester City agrees.
The former Liverpool boss currently has far greater worries in his head, the goalkeeping position to be exact. As he addresses that along with finding better options on the offensive end, it might be better for Hibernian to start lowering their expectations.
