Hibs have accepted a £450,000 offer from Watford for Ryan Porteous.
The defender looks certain to have played his last game for his boyhood club and is heading to London to talk personal terms with the Championship club today. Hibs have been resigned to losing the 23-year-old since he turned down the offer of a new deal shortly before Christmas.
Udinese, Toulouse and Blackburn were all keen with Rovers making their first move last week. But Watford ramped up their interest over the weekend and have now struck a deal worth just under half a million which is made up of add-ons. Hibs have inserted a sell-on percentage in the deal. Porteous has made over 150 appearances for his boyhood club since breaking through as a teenager in 2016. The defender said last week he’s made his decision to leave Scottish football to get out the goldfish bowl.
He said: “I wouldn’t say I was forced out, to be honest, but the best place to go is out of Scotland. A lot of people jump on the backs of Scottish talent. John McGinn said it after the Ukraine game that we should try to get these players to flourish and help them.
“I don’t think we do that enough. You want to be the best you can be and if that was in Scotland I would choose it.
“But for me I think it isn’t. I think I can go elsewhere. You see a lot of players that have gone down south, John McGinn and Scott McKenna in recent years, and others who have gone abroad, Lewis Ferguson, Aaron Hickey, Jack Hendry.
“A lot of players that a lot of people said weren’t good enough have left Scotland. It is a fishbowl here. You get caught up in it.”
Kevin Nisbet could follow Porteous out the door at Easter Road with the club locked in talks with Millwall over a January move worth over £2million.
But Record Sport understands as offer has yet to be accepted.
