Adam Le Fondre on nearly joining Hibs under Neil Lennon and his blunt response to Hearts player text

It was Neil Lennon who tried to bring Adam Le Fondre to Edinburgh when he was Hibs manager. Back then a deal couldn’t be struck but that hasn’t stopped the Englishman keeping close tabs on the Easter Road club ever since.

“We spoke a lot. I had a great time with Lenny [at Bolton] even though I only spent three months with him. I loved him. He was volatile! But he was my sort of person, he really got me as a player.

“He brought some of the best football out of me in a short period of time and I was really eager to work with him. But at that time the financial side didn’t quite work out.

“It was close, though. It was easy for me to talk to Lenny. I liked what he had to say, the way he wanted his teams to play and I knew I would be successful in his teams so that was never an issue for me.”

Hibs unveiled the signing of Adam Le Fondre at the Hibernian Training Centre earlier this month. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group)

Instead of moving north, the former Reading, Cardiff and Wolves striker spent the majority of the past five years with Sydney, playing in the A League but when Hibs Director of Football Brian McDermott, who was Le Fondre’s manager when Reading secured promotion to the EPL in 2012, got in touch there was a sense of unfinished business. But as well as the chance to take on Celtic and Rangers, and experience the capital derby, there was also the lure of European football.

“I’ve been close to moving to Scotland a few times. And I feel like it was quite a natural progression for me to come here.

“Brian told me the plans for the club and the plans for me as a player and while there might be some naysayers about my age etc etc, one thing for certain throughout my career is I have always scored goals,” added the 36-year-old.

“I’m not scared about what is going to happen here. I know there will be doubters and I know I need to prove people wrong but when the opportunity to come to Hibs arose I was really enthused about it. It’s something different. I didn’t really want to go back to England because I was a little disillusioned with the football there. I wanted to try something different.”

Adam Le Fondre in action for Sydney FC back in May. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Having won titles around the globe, in England, India and Australia, he is back on British soil and excited about the new challenge, with the club’s European qualifiers the first thing to be ticked off his personal bucket list.

“[The opportunity to play in Europe] was huge. At 36 and coming out of Sydney I was looking around thinking realistically who’s going to take a 36-year-old striker to go and play in Europe. I’m not going to get that opportunity unless I’m going to Poland or somewhere like Eastern Europe, away from my family and I didn’t want that so for me this was a great opportunity and a real good thing to keep me enthused in football.

“The drive and hunger in me to win games and score goals in Europe is something that will never go away. As you get older you have to set goals and challenges - that’s what keeps me young.

“I always want to try and get better and do new things because ultimately I might never get this opportunity again.

“I want to keep being successful. It’s great that I’ve played in the Asian Champions League. Now I have the opportunity to come home to the UK and play in the Scottish Premiership and Europe which I’m really excited about.”

With the league fixtures published on Friday morning, October looks like it could be enthralling, with the first derby of the season at the beginning of the month, followed by a trip to Ibrox, before Hibs will welcome champions Celtic to Easter Road.

“Of course, the big draw for Scotland is Celtic and Rangers. They are two great teams and those games will be really exciting but the game I’m most looking forward to is the Edinburgh derby because I watched that last game and the atmosphere was unbelievable. The Sydney derby was a great derby but this one is a level up on that and the rivalry is unbelievable so I’m excited to play in that and make an impact on that.”

The tense but feisty final capital head-to-head of last season only whetted his appetite further, and although he has former colleagues and old mates on the other side of the divide, the affable Le Fondre is already buying into the tribalism.

“Funnily enough, Cammy Devlin messaged me straight away and said, ‘I hear you’re going to Hibs, we’ll have to catch up” but I just replied, ‘f..k off!’”

“I know what he’s like, he’s a little wind-up merchant so I’m looking forward to seeing him on the pitch as well.

“It’s a shame we have to wait until October [to play Hearts]. We’ve got three in a row [with Rangers and Celtic afterwards] and you pencil them in and look forward to them but I’m just going to enjoy each game as it comes and I can’t wait for the start of the season.”

Previously described as a selfless man by McDermott, which Le Fondre admits doesn’t always tally with a striker’s greedy need for goals, he says he does understand that there is more to his job than simply finding the net.

“As an older player there’s going to be responsibility on my shoulders to help the younger players and pass on some expertise to improve them as players and get them into better positions.

“When I was a younger player I didn’t really have that and, looking back, if I’d had someone like that I would have been a better player at 21, 22 instead of being the 25, 26-year-old who started to discover things and work on how to actually play.”