'Not true' - Reports linking Hibs target Marc McNulty with Coventry 'wide of the mark'

Marc McNulty won't be joining Coventry - according to his dad

The Scotland striker, who scored eight goals in 17 games for Hibs while on loan from Reading in the second half of the 2018/19 season, had been touted for a return to his former club. McNulty helped Coventry to promotion to League One via the play-offs in May 2017.

Hibs fans desperate to see the 26-year-old return to Easter Road quizzed the player's father on social media after the Edinburgh-born player was linked with the Sky Blues, with whom he scored 28 goals in 51 matches.

However, McNulty's father Jimmy said in response to the questions: "Not true. Paper talk."

McNulty senior also branded the link "s****", fuelling Hibs fans' hopes that the player could yet return to the Capital club during the summer.

McNulty is not thought to be in first-team plans at the Madejski Stadium, with Royals boss Jose Manuel Gomes telling him he wasn't in his plans after he took the reins in December.

Gomes also indicated a need to reduce the playing budget at the Championship side. He said in May: "We need to reduce the budget and the number of players we have to get some money and make a good job of the following weeks."How we work in the next two or three weeks is key for the new season. It will be difficult and some things aren’t in our hands, but it’s our job.

“We have players that have finished their contracts and others still under contract, but we must find a way to resolve the problem because they can’t go on with us any more.

“We have others that have finished their loan but we don’t know if their clubs accept that they can return. We have until June 30 to make money with players and we must now put everything on the table and make decisions.”

McNulty told the Evening News last month: “I’ve just been told to report back to Reading for training on July 1 and Hibs are back on June 20.

"I’m going to guess Hibs will try and get something done before then so I am in with the boys, and personally I would like that too.

“I’ve got three years left at Reading. It’s not just a case of me saying I want to go and Reading saying ‘all right, see you later’. It’s very complicated. It took ages to get the loan deal done.

“To make that permanent, I’m guessing it will be the same. There’s a lot of stuff in the background that makes that difficult. But if I need to push it, then I will.

“I don’t want to shut the door on anything, but I think I need to be settled somewhere. I can’t just keep going on loan after loan. I would push for the permanent side and try and get myself settled, but if that wasn’t possible and the only option was a loan, then I would be happy.”