Vente departure prompts Hibs striker hunt as Gray looks to maintain competition for places

Vente, pictured scoring against Elgin City, has joined PEC Zwolle on a season-long loan - leaving a gap in the Hibs squad. | SNS Group

Hibs will look to replace Dylan Vente after the Dutchman agreed terms on a year-long loan deal with Eredivisie club PEC Zwolle. But David Gray admits he won’t find it easy to land a proven goal scorer in a red-hot market for strikers.

With new signings Mykola Kuharevich and Kieron Bowie now on the books, out-of-form Vente – a £700,000 signing by Lee Johnson last summer – decided to explore his options away from Scottish football. It was confirmed earlier today that the 25-year-old would be joining Zwolle, who finished mid-table in the Dutch top flight last season, for the duration of the campaign.

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Speaking before the Vente deal had been confirmed, but addressing the possibility of losing the forward, Gray said he would be keen to recruit another front man in the event of the former Feyenoord prospect leaving, admitting: “That would definitely be something we'd need to look towards, yeah 100 per cent, just because you need that competition for places. If Dylan were to move on it needs to be at least at that level or else you'd put yourself in a weakened situation, weaken the team.

“It’s not as straightforward as that (Vente leaving) meaning we go and sign a centre forward; you've already seen it can be very difficult to bring the right people in. And I keep going back to it, it's the right type of people we bring in. You just don't go and sign a striker, the person you bring has to be able to affect the group in a positive way.”

Even with solid backing from the board, market forces mean Hibs could struggle to land a quality striker to compete with Bowie and Kuharevich, Gray saying: “Yeah, well obviously they're very high in demand. Centre forward, scoring goals is the most important part of the game, they're hard to find and that's why they get paid more money than most people, nine times out of ten.

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“The work's going on all the time, we're constantly looking to try and improve the squad, and we'll continue to do that. Because while the window's open you need to be proactive all the time; the situation can change.

“Our ideal situation might not be where it is right now - and in a week's time it looks completely different. I think we've already demonstrated that in the last ten days with the players we've brought to the club.”