Hibs star's Celtic interest addressed as Easter Road boss makes 'not surprised' admission over speculation
MOTM performance in historic win sparked fresh talk of summer move for all-action midfielder
David Gray insists he’s not surprised to see Miguel Chaiwa attracting interest from rival clubs – including repeated speculation linking the midfielder with a move to Celtic. And the Hibs boss has backed the 21-year-old summer signing to stay focused despite the noise surrounding his next step in football.
Gray isn’t the only manager who has been impressed by the sight of Zambian midfielder Chaiwa “running over the top of people” in his first season at Easter Road. The former Young Boys player, who cost the Edinburgh club just over half a million pounds when they signed him on a three-year contract in early August, has consistently been the subject of stories crediting Celtic with concrete interest.
“His energy and his enthusiasm to get after the ball is excellent,” admitted Gray. “But even when he's on it, I think there's still a lot to come with Miguel.
“I think he's improving all the time. I think quickly getting up to speed with intensity and physicality in the Scottish game, which suits him because he's got the attributes, there's still a lot more to come.
“He's still a young boy. He's still working hard on his game and improving his game, but for the attributes and main reasons why you want to try and bring someone like that to a football club is he's got attributes that really can be showcased in Scottish football.
“Going toe-to-toe with people, physicality, running over the top of people, you can see that in the games he's played in. And there's still a lot of areas to improve on him as well.
“So I'm not surprised there's interest. I'm not surprised there's speculation.
“But the biggest thing for him is he keeps his head down, keeps working hard, which he does do, because he knows he's got a lot of things to still work on, which we are doing.
“He's enjoying a run in the team, which is the most important thing for him.”
UEFA play-off screamer against Legia Warsaw
Chaiwa exploded onto the scene within weeks of his relatively unheralded arrival from Swiss football, netting a goal as Hibs produced a memorable scoring blitz against Legia Warsaw in the Polish capital, forcing their dramatic UEFA Conference League play-off into extra time. Although the hosts eventually triumphed 5-4 on aggregate after extra time, Chaiwa – who had only been on the pitch a matter of moments as a second-half substitute when he scored - emerged from a truly spectacular night of football with his reputation enhanced.
Man of the match as Hibs beat Celtic away from home for the first time in 16 years, Chaiwa hasn’t always been guaranteed a starting place in the Hibs line-up, with the injury to Josh Mulligan opening up a chance of more regular football. The all-action star has also admitted that he struggled with fitness during his first months adapting to the pace of Scottish football.
Now that he’s firmly in the spotlight, Gray is confident that Chaiwa will follow the example of other Hibs players linked with life-changing moves – by continuing to focus on his performance levels as the team chase a return to European football.
Asked if he believed Chaiwa would be able to stay zoned in on continuing to contribute to the collective cause, the gaffer didn’t hesitate before declaring: “Definitely. I think that's important. I think that's something that this football club has been good at.
“You look at Kieron Bowie, you look at players that have moved on in the past. You need to be playing well week in, week out for people to attract interest.”
Hibs chasing first back-to-back Euro campaigns in 50 years
Pointing out that Hibs being in the race to qualify for Europe again, something the club haven’t achieved in consecutive seasons in half a century, can only increase interest in players with ambitions to move up the footballing ladder, Gray added: “And I think now going towards the end of the season, this is the business end of the season. I say it all the time.
“The games are huge. Everybody's watching. The exposure Scottish football has, not until you're actually playing it, you understand the magnitude of it, the amount of games it gets covered on TV and the exposure you get,
“And especially with us competing at the right end of the table for where we need to be. That European football is the driving force for everybody.
“And then you talk about Miguel. So Miguel, how well he in Europe this season, having just joined the club. And I know there's a real sense for everybody in the squad that if we want nights like that again, we need to finish the season as strong as we can.”
Chaiwa spoke just a few weeks ago about how he’d changed his diet – ditching traditional carbs-heavy Zambian food like fufu – in a bid to keep up with the mayhem of the average Scottish Premiership contest, explaining: “What surprised me is the aggressiveness. Most of the time it's always duels, each and every time. The physicality.
“So I had to speak with one of the physios and I had to mostly adjust to my physique. Because looking at it, I was a little bit, I might say, less thin!
“So I had to speak with one of the physio coaches and I had to build on that. That meant in the gym, adjusting to what I'm eating as well. So that helped me really, really good.
“I'm sure after two months, I think, I decided. After that, I had to adjust to myself. Like: ‘OK, this league is all about …. some teams are more physical. Some teams are more in terms of long balls.’
“So I spoke with my physical trainer about it and he was the one who decided: ‘Perhaps maybe let's try to shift from what we were doing. Maybe let's try to do this and this. To build muscle, to build speed, agility.’ I still have more work to do.”