Bohs ace Danny Grant hopes to have his club future sorted by Christmas and is still leaning towards a move away.
Crowned PFAI ‘Young Player of the Year’ this week - having also been shortlisted for the senior award won by Jack Byrne - his stock is on the rise.
Hull City boss Grant McCann has already confirmed his interest in the winger, but stopped short of committing to a move.
But the Tigers are just one of a number of clubs tracking Grant and the Lucan lad is eager to get away this winter.
“There’s still a possibility that I’d stay at Bohs or in Ireland but it's leaning towards trying to get away,” he said.
“If I want to get the most out of my career, I have to try and move up the levels. It might mean that I don’t walk into the first-team.
“It'd be a shift from playing every week and scoring goals to being somebody who's not expected to start. But that’s the shift I'm willing to make.”
Grant is in his third and final year of a Business & Management degree in Maynooth University.
But with most of his modules conducted online because of Covid-19 measures, he anticipates it’ll stay that way for the foreseeable future.
The course finishes around March or April and the English clubs he’s speaking to have indicated that they will accommodate his online studies.
Although Grant is keeping his cards close to his chest, he’s sounding out his team-mates in the Ireland Under-21s for their opinion on his options.
“I speak to them confidentially and I’ve spoken to Conor Masterson (QPR) about clubs and also my family and agent.
“I haven't set myself a deadline but I’d like to have it sorted before Christmas so I know what I’m doing in the New Year.
“I don't want to go to a club with five or six wingers and it could take me three years to get into the team.
“It’s also important that the club can make me a better player. Bohs have done that through Keith Long and Trevor Croly. They've been top drawer.”
This would be Grant’s first meaningful taste of football in the UK, having gone on various trials as a youngster.
Cherry Orchard team-mates at the time, Tykre Wilson and Aaron O’Driscoll, were signed by Manchester City and Southampton respectively.
Others went to clubs like Everton and Aston Villa but Grant said: “It never came about for me. There was a year then when I couldn't get in the Cherry Orchard team!
“I just felt it was time for me to leave and enjoy my football again. I did that and it's taken me to where I am now.
“I look at it as a blessing in disguise. I read something last week that there's about 90% of people who go away at 16 and come home. It's crazy.
“It’s very tough that young, so I wasn't really obsessed with going away. A lot of people are, but I wasn't. You're probably better off.
“Don't get me wrong, some people go at that age and they succeed but the vast majority of them end up coming home.
“But the majority are better off going when they're that bit more mature and you've experienced playing men's football and experienced that before you go.”
