HIBERNIAN head coach Neil Lennon has urged supporters not to judge Deivydas Matulevicius by his record on Wikipedia, and believes the British football public ‘live in a bubble’ with their dismissive attitude towards other leagues.
The Lithuania striker became Lennon’s sixth summer recruit on Wednesday after signing a two-year contract in a move from Belgian side Royal Mouscron.
A quick glance at the 28-year-old’s online biography suggests Matulevicius, who scored four times for Mouscron, will not be the outright striker that the fans, are looking for to fill the void left by Jason Cummings, who has joined Nottingham Forest.
However, Lennon insists the 6ft 3in player will offer a physical presence to his attack in the same way that former Norwich City player Grant Holt did last term.
Lennon, whose side take on Ross County this evening in the Betfred Cup, said: “I’m really pleased with Deivyd. We’ve basically been looking at him since we came in. When we knew he was going to become available then we pushed the button.
“He’s a target man and he’s mobile. I wouldn’t say he’s prolific, but if he was then he certainly wouldn’t be coming to play in Scotland with the attributes he has. Anyone can go by Wikipedia pages and a lot of fans tend to do that, then make a decision on someone based on that. Wikipedia can hide a multitude of sins. I hope people judge him on his all-round game because what we’ve seen, we’ve liked.
Lennon added: “We live in a bubble. There are a lot of good teams in Eastern Europe and a lot of good individual players. He has played in Romania. He has played in Belgium at quite a high standard. Sometimes
we dismiss these leagues because we are in a bubble here in Britain."
Ross County added their own attacker yesterday when they secured the return of Jim O’Brien ahead of the televised match against Hibs.
After severing his contract with Shrewsbury Town, the former Celtic, Motherwell, Barnsley and Coventry City midfielder signed a two-year deal with the Dingwall outfit.
Meanwhile, Dundee have signed the former Aston Villa and England under-20 goalkeeper Elliot Parish on a one-year deal. The 27-year-old counts Cardiff City, Bristol City, Blackpool and Colchester United among his former clubs and spent last season with Accrington.
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