Ryan’s in no rush to quit upwardly mobile Hibees
Ryan Porteous wants to remain part of a Hibs’ side that he believes is on the up.
The club rebuffed a £500,000 offer from Aberdeen for forward Martin Boyle and handed him a new, improved contract.
Porteous maintains that’s an outward sign of the club’s ambition, but that work going on behind the scenes is just as important.
Although there’s been speculation about his own future, he maintains that staying at Easter Road will suit him nicely.
He said: “I am really happy here. I feel like I am still learning and developing a lot.
“I want to be at a club that is winning trophies and competing for a European place every year.
“The ambition the club is showing is there with the money they are spending. That’s where I want to be.
“I want to be winning silverware every season and to be as successful as I can in my career.
“And obviously being at a club that is ambitious is going to help that.”
Boyle’s decision to commit his future to the Hibees delighted Porteous.
He said: “It’s something the club wanted to do to show how the future is going to be.
“We were never going to sell to a direct rival.
“We’re really happy he’s still here and I’m happy my mate is still at the club.
“I think everybody’s improving under the manager. He’s brought in a different level of standard to the club, off and on the pitch.
“I think that’s shown in the consistency of our performances throughout the season.
“In the cup competitions, we’ve got to the latter stages and we’ve played consistently well in the league and got results.
“That’s feeding throughout the club. Standards are really good right now and everyone’s improving because of that.”
Hibs travel to Dundee today and the Dens Park men will be desperate to end the Edinburgh club’s 100% start to the season.
Porteous expects a real battle but believes his team-mates are ready for any challenge this term.
He said: “We know you’re not going to win every single game but we go in with the mindset that we should be competing in every game.
“We should fear nothing from any team.
“We need to believe that if we go on to the park against any team, including the Old Firm, we’re going to get a point or we’re going to get three points and get something from the game.
“We’ve still got a few injuries but, on the whole, we’ve got quality throughout the squad and if the gaffer can even add to that then that would be brilliant.
“Going away from home is never easy, especially when you’ve got a team that has just come up and who have invested in their squad.
“We’ll need to be on top of our game. We saw the success we had from winning a lot of away games last season – it was a record total – and we want to get back to that.”