Hibs' Sporting Director Graeme Mathie has recalled the humble response he received from John McGinn when the Easter Road club denied him the chance to quadruple his wages in a move to Nottingham Forest.

Mathie was in charge of recruitment when McGinn was signed by Hibs and he repaid the Leith side with impressive performance after impressive performance.

He did so well, in fact, that Forest slapped a bid on the table for the midfielder on a recent deadline day.

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He had helped his club to their first Scottish Cup final win in over 100 years and was attracting admiring eyes all over the place.

Mathie was also the man who knocked back the bid from Forest, denying McGinn the opportunity to rake in the cash.

Understandably some players may have been miffed at the decision, but not McGinn.

Who also didn't need a face-to-face with Mathie to explain.

"I'll never forget the text he sent back," Mathie told Daily Record.

"He came back and said: 'Look, I get it, this is football, it's no problem at all. I'm loving being at Hibs and I want to have the best season of my career and hopefully get a move to a good club'.

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"Let's be honest, while John was committed to Hibs, somebody was potentially offering to give him four or five times his money to take him to the English Championship and us, as a club, had said no to that.

"I thought that was an unbelievable thing for a young man to say."

McGinn's patience and humility have since been rewarded when he opted to move to Aston Villa a short time later.

Where he's now being touted as a potentially £50million player - and a target for Manchester United.