Simon Murray fights for place at Hibs as Turkish bid is rejected

Simon Murray fires Hibs into the lead against Dutch side Willem II yesterday, but they went on to lose the friendly match 3-1. Picture: SNS.

Turkish top-flight club Elazigspor had a six-figure bid for the flame-haired hitman turned down by the Edinburgh club earlier this week.

But while admitting it was a compliment, Murray, who is Hibs’ leading scorer with 14 goals this season, has no interest in leaving a club he only joined last summer.

He said: “The gaffer pulled me into his office the other day and told me there had been an offer put in for me from a club in Turkey. It was a bit random but I am fully committed to Hibs. I don’t want to leave this club. It’s not something I have been thinking about. I told the manager I wanted to stay and prove I could do the job here.

“The gaffer says it’s something I should take as a compliment but it is what it is. Teams look from all over and it’s nice to be noticed but I told him I want to stay here at Hibs and prove I can do the job.”

It was, though, Murray admitted, a far cry from his days – not so long ago – when he was playing junior football on Tayside. “From Tayport to Turkey,” he joked. “That would be some journey, but I am happy to be a Hibs player. Why would I not be?”

Murray is well aware he faces even greater competition for a place in Neil Lennon’s side, Australian internationalist Jamie Maclaren having arrived during this transfer window while teenager Oli Shaw has begun pushing for a regular starting place in the past couple of months.

Anthony Stokes has also hit double figures this season, while the emergence of Shaw, a prolific scorer for the Hibs development squad, has pushed Murray down Lennon’s pecking order, but the 25-year-old gave his manager a timely reminder of his potency in front of goal by putting Hibs ahead as they rounded up their week training in the Algarve with a match against Dutch side Willem II.

It was a trademark strike, Murray being in the right place to turn home John McGinn’s volleyed cross from a glorious Dylan McGeouch ball which had spreadeagled the Dutch defence.

The former Dundee United player said: “You can’t go through a whole season on form. As a striker, that’s very hard. You get hot spells and cold spells. You need competition to push you – and you push them in return. Jamie Maclaren has arrived and he’s scored a lot of goals in his career and he is also an international player for Australia.

“Young Oli came on in the cup semi-final against Celtic and he scored a goal. Any time he has been called upon he has done well for the team.

“I’ve been through a patch of scoring then not scoring and scoring again. That’s football. You just make sure you keep your head down, work hard and ensure you don’t get distracted.

“Hopefully the competition pushes me on in my fight for the starting place – and that I am starting the next game against Hearts.”

That, insisted Murray, was more important than the outcome of yesterday’s game, Hibs defeated 3-1 as the side from Tilburg scored three times in ten minutes despite, in Lennon’s estimation, Hibs having been the better team for the first hour of the game.

The Hibs boss said: “I was pleased, really pleased. Until the substitutions we were the better team. I needed to make the changes to give everyone a run out.”

Murray insisted there were mitigating factors in the defeat. He said: “We’ve had a hard week in training after having five days off after the Kilmarnock game and were perhaps a bit rusty. It was good to get a goal but I should have scored a couple in the first half.

“The gaffer was not happy with the result. Nobody was because you never like losing, but the performance was good, especially in the first half. It was a good run out.

“The first few days here in Portugal were really tough – double sessions every day – so the boys, while looking fit, were perhaps a bit leggy. It’s been a hard week but we have a massive game (against Hearts) coming up as everyone knows.”