A Vente to go for Hibs? Gaffer Gray addresses striker's future as Dutch club show interest

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Dylan Vente is moving closer towards a Hibs exit, despite manager David Gray insisting he’d love to keep the Dutchman as a forward option. But the new Easter Road boss says it’s proving harder to shift less valuable squad members during a busy transfer window for the club.

Gray, who made his ninth acquisition of the summer by bringing in Celtic midfielder Hyeokkyu Kwon earlier this week, is aware that Vente is attracting interested back in the Netherlands, with Eredivisie club FC Zwolle keen to sign the 25-year-old. With new strikers Mykola Kuharevich and Kieron Bowie now on the books, Vente – a £700,000 signing by Lee Johnson last summer – is concerned that he’ll be squeezed for game time if he stays in Scotland.

Gray, who sees Vente as a real asset, played the question with a straight bat as he addressed the media today, saying: “There's been a little bit of interest there but at the moment he's still very much a Hibs player. I think it's great. I've just touched on that, the strength and depth in having competition for places.

“At the moment I'm just fully concentrating on whilst he's still a Hibs player, how do I get the best out of Dylan? And that's something we're doing every single day and we'll continue to do so unless that situation was to change. 

“It's great to be able to bring players off the bench at the weekend, albeit not up to speed yet, but you can see that. I think at this moment in time I'm really happy with where we are.”

In reality, however much Gray might appreciate having another option to fill the No. 9 role at Hibs, it’s likely that Vente will look for a return to his homeland. As sporting director Malky Mackay looks to complete his overhaul of the squad before the deadline, there is also a renewed emphasis on cutting numbers.

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But Gray stressed that it isn’t easy to off-load players who have been given very little game time at Hibs, saying: “There just has to be an understanding of everyone's in different situations. It's not just as straightforward as that (just letting players go).

“There needs to be another party involved that want to take the players or the player would need to want to move on at that same time as well. It's not just as straightforward as we'd like you to leave so off you go. It never is as straightforward as that.

“And whilst they're still on the building it's my job to try and get the best out of everybody we've possibly got. As I say, while the window's open and the longer we get towards the end of it, naturally things will start to move because some managers might not get their number one target, the second, third and maybe even not their fourth target. So as it starts to go down the list and people start to move and the top of the food chain start to move a bit more, it filters down. So I'm fully expecting that to still move ins and outs before the end of the window.”