Director of football shares epic one liner that banked £7.5m in Crystal Palace deal for ace now at Hibs

A current Hibs star has proven the subject of a transfer tale that ended up scooping one club £7.5m.

Dwight Gayle has risen from the lower leagues of English football to experience a top career in the game with teams like Crystal Palace, Newcastle United, Stoke City and now he is at Hibs. He scored on Sunday in a convincing 4-0 Premiership win against Dundee to maintain David Gray’s side in third spot.

Back in 2013, Gayle completed a permanent switch to Peterborough United, who then sold him on to Crystal Palace in a big break for the striker. Despite agreeing a deal worth upwards of £6m, director of football Barry Fry has revealed what Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony really thought of the deal.

Gayle deal reaction

Barry Fry said as part of the EFL podcast: “I will never forget. We bought Dwight Gayle from Dagenham for £400k. Ten grand a month for 40 months. After eight months we sold him to Palace. I met Steve Parish in London where he started off with a million and I got up to walk out and he said sit down. We finished up with six million guaranteed and a lot of add ons.

“So I went outside and downstairs , phoned the chairman and said I have got you six millions mate, guaranteed. 'Is that all?' So you know, we got £7.5m in the end because he had add ons and they sold him on, things like that.. So great deals like that. Darragh is never happy so he drives me on."

Speaking after the win over Dundee on Sunday, the striker told Hibs TV: “It was one of those days where we knew they had a lot to play for so it was important we put in a professional performance. I thought first half we started really well and second half it died down a little bit and they started to build a bit of momentum. I thought Kieron Bowie managed to give us a little boost and we finished with a flurry. So it was a great performance all round a big three points.

“Kieron’s done really well to get the ball back to me in a position. I managed to nick it in front of their defender and it opened for me. I tried to hit the back stick and I was buzzing to help the team out.”