Hibs transfer stance revealed amid latest Nectar Triantis Sunderland development

Triantis was nominated for Scotland’s player of the year after becoming a key part of a Hibs team that finished third the Premiership. He was a stand-out in the No 6 role and while Hibs were prepared to pay a significant amount of money to land the 22-year-old on a permanent deal, it appears his future lies elsewhere.

Triantis has two years left on his Sunderland deal and is expected to either leave on loan or be transferred, with a host of clubs in England and beyond monitoring his situation. The Australian has spent the past two seasons in Scotland and it has been reported that both he and his representatives want to step up a level.

Hibs will now turn their attentions to other targets, with head coach David Gray wanting to add depth to the No 6 role in his 3-5-2 formation.

Speaking on Triantis in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Europa League second qualifying round second leg against Danish side Midtjylland, Gray said: “If that's the lie of the land, I think I've been very consistent. We've also been very clear that it's not just Nectar Triantis, we can't put everything into one position or one player, we know that.

‘Clear focus’

“So the hard work has been going on and whilst it was still a potential opportunity, you'd always look to try and explore it because of how well he'd done. But it was always going to be that with it being, you know, his second loan spell here, how well he'd done, his parent club getting promoted and what his situation was going to be.

“So I think that was always going to be the case naturally, so we are constantly looking to see what can be done to try and improve the squad - but clearly my full focus right this minute in time is tomorrow night and the game.”

Gray says he will take great pride in how Triantis has performed and developed under his watch. “I think that's something that one thing I would always say, he was a pleasure to work with, that was one of the reasons why we wanted to bring him back in the first place,” the head coach continued.

He's a real humble, hard working boy that's constantly trying to improve all the time and as a coach that's what you want as a dream to work with, and he's said a few times now how grateful he is for the opportunity it has because you're only as good as your teammates round about you and he had such a good season last year.

“the strength of the group and the coaches around that as well a lot of coaches have done a lot of hard work with him to get him progressing all the time he's got a lot of progressing still to be done and he's someone that I've worked closely with and I'll be definitely keeping an eye on him to see how he gets on and wish him all the very best if it's not here.”