Wolverhampton Wanderers want Leigh Griffiths back

HIBERNIAN appear to have little chance of keeping hold of Scottish Cup semi-final hero Leigh Griffiths beyond the end of the season after Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Dean Saunders last night revealed that he plans to take up a one-year option on the striker.

Griffiths, 22, who is on loan from Wolves, took his goal tally for the season to 25 in 38 games for Hibs with his double in Saturday’s dramatic 4-3 win against Falkirk at Hampden.

He is out of contract at Wolves this summer but the npower Championship club hold a one-year option and Dean Saunders insists Griffiths will be part of the squad at Molineux next season and that there is no chance of a permanent deal being done with Hibs.

“We have got that option and we will be taking that up,” said Saunders. “He scored a great goal in the semi-final and he has done well for Hibs.

“Obviously he is playing a different level and I think we have strikers here who would do really well at that level, really, really well. But it is progress for him. Goalscorers are hard to find and he has got a fantastic record up there this season.

“I am really looking forward to working with him when he comes back for pre-season. I have told him that if we could have got him back when Sylvan-Ebanks Blake broke his leg that we would have. But when we extended his loan we had to do it window to window.

“I have watched him and he has got to come back here in pre-season ready to get in the team.

“When he came back here after I had just taken over I had to make a decision on what to do in a few days. I had to make a decision right then as the window was opening and closing and at the time he was about fifth-choice striker and I was looking to bring in someone else as well.

“So it was better for his career to have that loan extended. Otherwise he might have been sat here and played three games and not really get a chance.

“But hindsight is a great thing and if we had known what we know now, then we would have kept him. But I am looking forward to getting him back here in the summer for the start of pre-season.”

Griffiths cost Wolves £150,000 from Dundee in January 2011 but his only appearance for the club came in the league cup tie against Northampton Town in August 2011. He spent most of last season on loan at Hibs, scoring 11 goals in 36 appearances.