ALAN Stubbs, the Hibernian manager, reckons that securing of Anthony Stokes on a loan deal from Celtic merely underlines the club's Premiership ambitions. Confirmation of the deal for the 27-year-old Dubliner, who was in the stands at the Falkirk Stadium on Sunday while paperwork was being finalised, eventually came through yesterday, and Stubbs is understandably delighted to land the striker who scored 24 goals in 48 appearances on his first stint at the club between 2009 and 2010.
Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Dundee United had both expressed an interest in securing the player's services, in addition to clubs south of the border, but Stokes was adamant that he wanted to play out the remainder of this season at Hibs. The Republic of Ireland international, who has 18 months remaining on his deal at parent club Celtic, will be formally announced to the media at the end of this week, but first has a courtroom date in Dublin today as he contests allegations of assault against an Elvis impersonator.
"We had a chat yesterday and I think from that chat, it was very evident that we got on well together," Stubbs told Sky Sports. "He wanted to come here, he wanted to come and play under me. I didn't need to sell him the club, he knows what it's all about and he was excited to come and be part of what we want to do here.
"We are in the Championship but we've got the nucleus of a Premiership club here," the Englishman added. "We still feel as if we are. Everything we've got, the stadium, the training ground, we are a Premiership club in the Championship. Our ambitions are of Premiership standard.
"I think Anthony is a fantastic statement from the football club. The chairman and Leeann [Dempster, the chief executive] and everybody deserve a lot of credit for that. We're ambitious and I think this just sends out a statement of how ambitious we are.
"Anthony is a fantastic footballer and will really strengthen the squad. We have a number of options in attack and real competition for places which is what every manager wants. We are excited about Anthony coming here and I think he will prove to be a real asset."
Hibs, who are tied with Falkirk and currently trailing Rangers by five points at the top of the Championship table, also have former Dundee midfielder Kevin Thomson training with the club but Dempster said the club's January business was all but done.
"Alan said at the start of the window that he’d like to feel we were stronger at the end of the window than we were at the start of it," said Dempster. "It’s never finished until the month has ended but I think, for all intents and purposes, that we’re nearly there. We’ve backed the manager, the players and the supporters. We’re doing everything we can, as everyone can see, to gain that promotion place that everyone covets.
"We’re not quite finished on everything so there may be one or two possibilities," Dempster added. "Kevin Thomson falls into that camp. He’s in at the minute and Alan, like many others managers, is just weighing up what he wants to do before making a decision."
The future of prolific striker Jason Cummings, who is apparently interesting championship sides Derby County and Brighton, could yet place an additional goalscoring burden on Stokes but Dempster is determined to hang onto the club's asset.
"Jason is playing really well for us at the minute," she said. "We want that to continue. We know he will remain a Hibernian player. Like everything else, when a manager is winning games and players are scoring goals then there will be interest. It’s hypothetical at the minute and we’re certainly not encouraging anything."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel