Leigh Griffiths reveals Hibs could have signed him for £50k during 28-goal season

The striker had four loan spells at Easter Road

Hibs missed out on signing Leigh Griffiths permanently for the measly sum of just £50,000, according to the player.

The Celtic star had what was effectively four loan spells at Easter Road from Wolves across two seasons, between 2011 and 2013.

During the 2012/2013 campaign, Griffiths was on fire for Hibs as he emerged as a talismanic figure.

Leigh Griffiths reveals Hibs could have signed him for £50k. Picture: SNS

Despite his scintillating form and Wolves’ own struggles in the English Championship, the striker was allowed to finish the season in Edinburgh.

Griffiths would later find out that Hibs took a risk and missed out on the chance to sign him permanently for a low fee, with his 28 goals persuading Wolves to extend his deal.

“I ended up going back to Wolves in January,” he told Si Ferry in an Open Goal interview. “It was six months periods every time. It wasn’t just the full season.

“Start of January had [scored] 19. Went back down to Wolves and they were like ‘just go finish the season at Hibs and we’ll see you back in pre-season’.

“I think they had the chance to buy me for like 50 grand because I had a year option with Wolves. If I didn’t have that option Hibs would get me for nothing.

“Hibs are thinking ‘we’re going to get him for nothing, Wolves don’t want him, he’s been here on loan the last two years. We’ll just wait until the summer’.

“Instead of paying the 50 grand to get me they waited until the summer. I had scored an extra nine or ten goals between then and the summer and they [Wolves] were like ‘we’re taking up the option’.

"I didn’t know until after. It wasn’t until my agent said ‘Hibs had the chance to buy you in January and never done it.”

Griffiths would end up gettnig the No.9 jersey at Wolves, playing in English League One for half a season before Celtic brought him back to Scotland.

“Wolves ended up sacking the manager in May, they had got relegated twice on the bounce so were in League One,” he said.

“It was Kenny jackett. He phoned me and said we’re taking up the year option, want to do a pre-season up in Scotland.

“We had a chat, trained at Stirling Uni and he said ‘we’re going to give you the No.9 jersey’. I was like happy days.”

Griffiths did almost return in to Hibs in 2014 before Ronny Deila pulled the plug on the move.

The full interview with Leigh Griffiths is available on Open Goal’s YouTube channel where he talks through his career.