Leigh Griffiths spent two seasons on loan at Hibernian, divided into four six month spells, between 2011 and 2013.
The striker scored 38 goals for the Hibees and, in 2013, the Leith outfit had the chance to sign Griffiths for £50,000. Amazingly, Hibs bosses decided not to make the purchase, instead holding out to get the player on a free. That decision backfired on them when Wolves extended his contract and he found decent goalscoring form for the Molineaux side in the first half of that season in League One.
Griffiths’ performances caught the eye and Celtic moved in to snap up the striker for £1m in January 2014. Since then, Griffiths has gone on to score 115 goals for the Hoops in 243 appearances; a stat that is all the more remarkable when you consider that 94 of those appearances came as a substitute.
Speaking to Open Goal podcast, Griffiths said: “I ended up going back to Wolves in January (2013). It was six-month periods every time. It wasn’t just the full season. Start of January I had scored 19 (goals for Hibs). Went back down to Wolves and they were like, ‘just go finish the season at Hibs and we’ll see you back in pre-season’. I think they (Hibs) had the chance to buy me for like 50 grand because I had a year option with Wolves. If I didn’t have that option Hibs would get me for nothing. Hibs are thinking, ‘we’re going to get him for nothing, Wolves don’t want him, he’s been here on loan the last two years. We’ll just wait until the summer’. Instead of paying the 50 grand to get me they waited until the summer. I had scored an extra nine or ten goals between then and the summer and they (Wolves) were like, ‘we’re taking up the option’. I didn’t know until after. It wasn’t until my agent said, ‘Hibs had the chance to buy you in January and never done it.”
