Top of f the league and if big names remain, Porteous is confident Hibs can aim high
RYAN PORTEOUS is delighted to hear manager Jack Ross speak with quiet confidence about striker Kevin Nisbet remaining at Easter Road beyond the closure of the transfer window tomorrow evening.
And the 22-year-old centre-half insists he will be perfectly happy if Wednesday comes and he is still a Hibs player too.
Porteous, who reached the milestone of 100 first-team appearances in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Livingston, and Nisbet were the subjects of seven-figure bids rejected by the club in January and have been attracting further interest over the course of the summer.
Porteous saw a £1million offer from Millwall knocked back at the start of the year and has even been linked with Turkish giants Galatasaray over the course of the past couple of months.
Nisbet, meanwhile, has buckled down after seeing a £3m-plus offer from Birmingham City batted away seven months ago and has actually started negotiations on an improved contract.
Hard on the heels of Martin Boyle signing a new deal until 2024 after seeing a £500,000 offer from Aberdeen turned down, Porteous feels Hibs are sending out a message to vultures circling around their key players that they won’t sell on the cheap and would prefer to keep their main performers to have a go at making this a real season to remember after moving to the top of the Premiership and reaching the last eight of the Premier Sports Cup.
‘We have talked about ambition at the club before. I’m a Hibs fan and it’s good to see times are changing and we are holding onto our best players,’ stated Porteous.
‘Kevin is one of them and is really important. He gets goals and assists and scored out of nothing on Saturday. Big players arrive in big moments and Nissy is definitely one of them.
‘That’s why he is in the Scotland squad. He has had a great start to the season and Martin Boyle is the same at the end with his goal.
‘He has run about daft all day but then to find a finish like that out of nothing is brilliant. We are delighted the pair of them are still here.
‘I was always relaxed with the last window. I was never pushing to go.
‘Things can happen and get into your head, but I am happy here and I think it’s the same for Nissy and Boyley. It’s a great group, we are all friends and we want success for the club. We want to be back in a position where we are finishing third and competing against the Old Firm and winning trophies.’
Hibs were the better side at the weekend against a Livingston team running on fumes. Missing 11 players, they lost Bruce Anderson just before half-time as a result of him collapsing through a problem related to diabetes, took Jack Fitzwater off in the second 45 after he had been sick in the dressing room at half-time along with keeper Max Stryjek and had to field substitutes in Craig Sibbald and Sean Kelly despite them carrying injuries. Yet, the home side needed the quality of Nisbet and Boyle to make the difference as a result of never really getting going in the final third. Nisbet turned Kelly on 51 minutes after collecting a long ball from skipper Paul McGinn and finished expertly. Boyle then wrapped it up at the death when playing a one-two with substitute Scott Allan, his contribution being a cheeky little backheel, and dinking the ball past Stryjek from an acute angle.
Ross, who has put together a loan deal for Middlesbrough’s England Under-20 defender Nathan Wood, admitted afterwards that following up on interest in Norwegian left-back Kristoffer Tonnessen depends on bids being received for Josh Doig.
However, Porteous is strong on the need for the club to protect assets in a market where clubs south of the border, in particular, still think they can raid Scotland on the cheap.
‘We need to,’ he said. ‘The fans have a massive expectation and expect us to be third and fourth every year. We are a club that should be looking to do that, but we need to keep our best players and the manager needs backed.
‘Our chairman Ron Gordon is certainly doing that. If Aberdeen and Hearts are spending big money then we need to keep a hold of our best players and add to it.
‘We have a good squad. We are a bit depleted just now, but we are still picking up results and sitting nicely at the top.’
Just behind them on goal difference are city rivals Hearts and that makes for a blockbuster of a derby in just under two weeks’ time when they face off at Tynecastle after the international break.
‘It’s a game we will both want to come quickly because we are in good form,’ said Porteous. ‘It’s not often you’ll see this derby as a top-of-the-table clash, but derbies are always must-wins. And we look forward to it.’
In contrast, Livi must be welcoming this interval in the campaign to try to get bodies back into the fold. Sibbald, though, has made it clear they must also use the time to work on sharpening up their defensive skills after making life easier than it should have been for Nisbet and Boyle to score those all-important goals on Saturday.
‘Those were slack goals to concede, where we let boys get inside us again,’ said the former Falkirk man, told to play despite a hip issue on Friday night after Rangers demanded on-loan Ben Williamson be left out following the results of a post-Covid blood test.
‘It has happened over the last couple of games, and we’ve been punished again for it.
‘We did quite well in the first half but then we go out in the second half and we chuck it all away. We should have been showing people down the line and been defending better.
‘We need to get nastier and more streetwise. We need to see out games better, even if it is 0-0, to get points on the board. We need to get our season going.
‘If we defend like that, (relegation) can be a possibility, but I’m sure we will turn it around.’