Nick Montgomery bitten by the Hibs transfer excitement bug as Bill Foley investment sparks major ambition

Nick Montgomery hopes Bill Foley’s Hibs bid will soon get the green light so he can accelerate his own plans to get closer to the Premiership big boys. The billionaire Bournemouth owner wants a minority stake in the Easter Road club as part of his Black Knight consortium.

But the bid - worth an initial £6m - is dependent on being rubber-stamped by the SFA before going in front of Hibs shareholders at next month’s AGM for final approval. Foley also has a stake in Ligue 1 side Lorient and has acquired a licence for a new A-League side in Auckland. The American revealed Hibs would be in line to benefit from not only his cash but also a loan of young Bournemouth talent looking to progress their own journey to the top. And Montgomery reckons that arrangement can only boost his ultimate plan to fire Hibs back into the top three and closer to the Old Firm.

He said: “The club has been talking to the powers that be at the SFA and the SPFL. That’s way above my pay grade. All I can comment on is hopefully it happens because it would be a good opportunity for the club to be in a partnership and be able to tap into young players from the group.

"That would help us moving forward to compete with the big teams in the league with the big budgets. That’s something that’s probably not going to happen overnight.

"But, again, I can only concentrate on today and tomorrow and I’ve not heard anything more than you guys have heard.”

Hibs returned to freezing Leith from their week-long warm weather training camp in Dubai and now turn attention to Saturday’s Scottish Cup fourth round trip to face Forfar. In the background Montgomery and director of football Brian McDermott are working feverishly to add quality to the squad this month.