Has Stephane Omeonga dropped hint about his future amid Hibs interest?
Head coach Paul Heckingbottom has admitted he'd be keen to bring the combative midfielder back to Easter Road next season but is aware that lengthy discussions will have to take place if the club are to broker a deal for the 23-year-old.
However, Omeonga - who played 17 times for Hibs following his January switch from Serie A side Genoa - appeared to issue a subtle "come-and-get-me" plea to the Capital club as he discussed the 2-1 loss to Aberdeen.
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Hide Ad"We want to focus on the performance and not the result against Aberdeen," he told Hibs TV.
"If we can build on that performance we can build something good next year. We want to be above that kind of team next year."
He suggested in an interview earlier this year that he had little interest in returning to Liguria if he wasn't going to get game time for the first team.
The Belgian Under-21 international, who is due to represent his country at the 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Italy later this summer, endeared himself to the Hibs supporters with a series of swashbuckling displays in the middle of the park.
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Hide AdAdmitting his disappointment at not managing to find the net for his adopted side - the woodwork denying him a stunning long-range goal in a victory over Hamilton at Easter Road - Omeonga added: "I have felt things at Hibs that I’ve never felt in my career.
“I have got a lot of things to learn as well but I learned a lot of things here and I am happy I came here.”
Omeonga was just as popular with the Hibs faithful off the pitch, keeping them entertained with his piano-playing on Instagram and cheeky posts on Twitter inviting fans to caption an image of him smirking at Celtic captain Scott Brown during a match.
Omeonga continued: "My relationship with the fans is definitely something that I will never forget and I am just disappointed I could not score at least one goal to stay thank you for the love they show me and the messages on social media.
“I don’t know what my future will be but I just want to say thank you to everybody."