Will top play-off performers earn Hibs recalls amid summer clear-out?

Airdrie's Kanayo Megwa and Partick Thistle's Harry Milne in action during the cinch Premiership play-off quarter final first leg.

Diamonds sparkling in pursuit of Premiership promotion

Hibs boss Nick Montgomery is keeping a close eye on the young Easter Road prospects currently battling to win Airdrie a place the Scottish Premiership. And he’s looking forward to seeing the very best of his club’s loaned-out talent back at East Mains for pre-season.

Particularly impressed with right back Kanayo Megwa’s performances in the play-offs, helping Airdrie to a 2-2 draw with Partick in this week’s first leg, Monty will be tuning into Friday’s decisive second leg. Although striker Josh O’Connor didn’t feature in the first match, midfielder Murray Aiken was on the bench against Thistle after recovering from a long-term injury.

Montgomery, who remains keen to offload a large number of the 18 Hibs players currently out on loan, said: “Kanayo has been back at the club, so I can talk about him more, having seen him in training. I think he’s developed a lot over the last 12 months.

“His character and his personality have shone through, which is probably a result of not just playing out on loan but coming back to train with the first team here, making his debut against Rangers and being in and around the first team squad. That’s always a period of adaptation for any player.

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“Out on loan with Airdrie, he’s done really well and been consistent during the spell. It’s great to see him and Josh in the play-offs. Hopefully that ends in success.

“Decisions will then be made on all the players out on loan, coming back at the end of the season. That’ll be a process when the season ends.

“I’ve tried to watch as much as I can, been to a few games and watched as much video footage of players out on loan. Some haven’t played as much as they would have wanted – or as much as we would have wanted.

“As a club loaning players out, you want them to get regular football. That hasn’t been the case for a lot of the players.

“Josh has got good attributes. He’s very quick. I suppose he would have wanted to play more this season, because the one thing you need as a young player is to play regular football. That’s something that will be discussed internally on the football review for players coming back from loan spells, what the future looks like for them.”

Facing a massive summer rebuild that will require a close-season clear-out, Montgomery added: “Ideally, you want to see these players up close. I haven’t had a pre-season here, came in mid-season, so you come into the situation and try to catch up.

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“The end of this season gives us a chance to sit down and see what it actually looks like, what pre-season looks like, which players are coming back. Some have an interest to go straight back out next season.

“That’s where we need to make decisions on reducing the size of the squad. Because we need starters who can make impact on the next season.

“It’s a process you go through. But you can’t have 30 players back training in pre-season if a lot of them aren’t going to be involved in the first team next season.”