Hibs favourite shares why he knocked back Hearts advances and night with EPL icons that clinched new contract
He’s a favourite of the Hibs support but has pulled back the curtain on time across the city - and offer from Hearts after his exit.
A Hibs favourite has revealed the night with Premier League icons that tempted him to stay at Easter Road - and why Hearts advances were pushed back at the start of his career.
Jason Cummings, now at India’s Mohun Bagan, was in the Jambos youth academy before being released and making his name across the city. He spent four years as a senior player in Leith, helping Hibs win the Scottish Cup and Championship before heading south of the border to Nottingham Forest. With his family connections to Hearts, Cummings has opened up on his time at the club and subsequent offer that came after crediting a key Hibs figure with bouncing back from injury woe.
He told Open Goal: “I was brought up a Hearts fan. My old man, he's a big Jambo. I was there at 5-1, greeting my eyes out, loved it. It was my dream growing up. I was at Hutchison Vale then Hearts, maybe about 12, till about... They released me at like, 16. But I had bad injuries on my knee. That's what killed me, because I was flying, I was doing well. I done my cruciate. I was young, I was 15. I remember doing it. Twisting my knee and it blew up .But see at the time, you’d never even heard of a cruciate. When you're that young, you're like... I've just twisted my knee. So then I actually remember, about a week later it kind of went away and I played on. I remember just playing through it and I done it again.
Jason Cummings on time at Hearts
“Then I went and I got a look, I got a scan and then it was the cruciate. Then I came back from that then I done my knee again in training. I was devastated but it was my meniscus. So then I got that repaired. I came back again and I'm talking I'm only back for a few days. Done it again. When you're at that age, 15, 16, and all you want to be is a football player, three big operations and I was out for, like, a year and a half. Hearts would put me through just like the NHS. Then when I got back I only had a couple months, really, to earn a new contract before it goes full-time. So then I didn't really have enough time to get into it and they let me go.
“I thought it wasn't for me, kind of. It was like ‘I am going to be a footballer no matter what’ but then when that happened round about that age. I've left school, I've not went full-time, so I'm like, it's not for me. I went back to Hutchie Vale to play with my mates. I had to get a job, I was a gardener for, like, a year and a half.
“I just fell back in love with footy again and I was just playing my mates, enjoying it. But I was doing well, scoring goals still. And then Hibs came in for me. Shoutout James McDonaugh. Legend, it was him that kind of started my career. He came to the Hutchie games and he was like, ‘we'll get you in at Hibs for a trial, you're doing well’, and he signed me at Hibs. Hearts came in for me as well. When they found out that Hibs came in for me then, Hearts actually rang me up and all, and were like, well, you want to come here? We'll take you on. I'm like, very good, mate.”
How Neil Lennon convinced him to stay at Hibs
Then as he pondered leaving Hibs, Neil Lennon arrived, and a boozy night at Euro 2016 with some legends of the Premier League playing their part. Cummings explained: “I was about to leave at that point. But then he's phoned my agent and went, get over here, I'm doing the Euros, punditry. He's phoned me and said right, get over here. So me and my agent went over he's got us tickets for a game. He's like, right, come and meet us. I'm just in the bar, just over the road. He's finished in the punditry so I went in and then Lenny's there like, ‘ah, Cummings. How are you getting on mate?’
“He's sitting there with Alan Shearer, Rio Ferdinand, Martin Keown, John Hartson, full Bhuna. He's like, ‘this is my star signing, Cummings, you're playing with me next year, Shearer, tell him that’. ‘Got to sign with Lenny, He'll look after you.’ So Lennon’s like, you want a drink? We went back to the hotel boardroom.
“All on it and we had the karaoke up. Shearer's up singing. What did Shearer sing? All night long. Lenny's like, ‘Cummings, you've got to sing Sunshine on Leith and you're signing with me next year.’ I'm like, f*** it. I'm up there singing Sunshine on Leith with Rio Ferdinand and that. Honestly, best night ever. So after that, I'm thinking he's a hero, I'm staying another year with him.”