Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths has revealed boyhood club Hibs passed up on the opportunity to sign the hitman for just £50k.
Griffiths spent a total of two seasons on loan at Easter Road in four six-month spells between 2011 and 2013 and scored 38 goals.
And it transpires that Hibs had the option to buy him from parent club Wolves for the paltry sum in 2013 - but opted to wait it out in the hopes of nabbing Griffiths for free.
But the Molineux club took up an option to extend his contract and after another half-season of goalscoring in England's League One, he was sold to Celtic for £1million in January 2014.
Speaking to Open Goal, Griffiths said: "I ended up going back to Wolves in January.
"It was six-month periods every time. It wasn’t just the full season.
"Start of January had (scored) 19. 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 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."
