John McGinn to Aston Villa transfer revisited as Steve Bruce shares how £2.8m Hibs exit really panned out

The midfielder left Hibs for Aston Villa in the summer transfer window of 2018.

Steve Bruce was the man who brought McGinn from Hibs to Aston Villa

Steve Bruce has revealed the circumstances that took John McGinn from Hibs to Aston Villa way back in 2018.

The midfielder is a hero at Easter Road after forming part of the 2016 Scottish Cup-winning squad. McGinn is now captain with Unai Emery's side pushing for the Champions League spots in the English Premier League, but almost six years ago, it was former Villans boss Bruce who brought him to Birmingham.

A deal was done for a fee believed to be in the region of £2.8m - plus an add-on upon Premier League promotion in 2019 - but Celtic looked like the destination for the Scotland midfielder. Some golf course chat and a mutual contact had Hibs doing business with Aston Villa, then in the English Championship.

Bruce told talkSPORT: "I had heard his grandad used to be Celtic chairman. We had to stall. We didn't have the £2million at the time and he was going to Celtic, but I had heard that his dad and grandad played golf. I thought 'I am going to try and get his dad down to give us a little bit of stalling time'.

"We got him to The Belfry and got the pro to play him - which gave us another 4-5 hours to rustle up the £2million because we didn't have it at the time. I am really pleased for him because he has turned into a really, really top player.

"I remember Neil Lennon's son telling me the best player in Scotland was John McGinn. He was at Hibs at the time, Lenny, so I got straight on the phone to him and said we need to find out about McGinn. So we went to work on it."