David Gray names Hibs three stars who can fill Nectar Triantis void
David Gray insists Hibs can be proud of the platform they gave Nectar Triantis after all but confirming that the midfielder will not be returning to Easter Road.
The Leith side were desperate to bring back the 22-year-old following the success of his loan stint from Sunderland last season.
Even if the Sydney-born player does not get the chance to feature for the Black Cats in the Premier League, Triantis wants a fresh challenge with clubs from the English Championship, MLS and mainland European all interested.
And despite facing a losing battle in his bid to re-sign Triantis as Hibs prepare for tonight's crunch second leg against Midtjylland, Gray insists there are no hard feelings.
He said: 'We've also been very clear that it's not just Nectar Triantis, we can't put everything into one position or one player.
'So the hard work has been going on and whilst it was still a potential opportunity, you'd always look to try and explore it because of how well he'd done.
'But it was always going to be that with it being his second loan spell here, how well he'd done, his parent club getting promoted and what his situation was going to be.
'He was a pleasure to work with, that was one of the reasons why we wanted to bring him back in the first place.
'He's a real humble, hard working boy that's constantly trying to improve all the time and as a coach that's what you want as a dream to work with.
'I'm the head coach I've judged every week at 5 o'clock and what the result is, that's the immediate job is to win games of football.
'But my job title and my first thing is to make sure I improve every single player every day if you can, and make sure every player feels like they're improving all the time.
'Nector's a positive example of someone who came in, found a new position and has certainly improved over 12 months and that's a lot of hard work from everybody involved and the group of players he's working with.'
And Gray insists he will not necessarily need a like-for-like replacement with midfielders Jamie McGrath and Josh Mulligan having already arrived this summer.
He added: 'We've got a lot of quality in there currently in the building which is great.
'We've added to that as well with Jamie and Josh that can play centrally and still got Joe Newell to come back, he's someone that's been out for a significant period.'
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