Source: magnific.com
Scottish pundit Tam McManus has placed a firm £5 million floor on any sale of Zambian midfielder Miguel Chaiwa and declared Celtic unable to meet that price, per Daily Record. The Live Sports Odds editorial team notes that a transfer stand-off at this valuation visibly moves the football odds bookmakers post for both Hibs’ and Celtic’s coming fixtures, the market registering Chaiwa’s worth in the prices set for each club’s season ahead.
McManus Puts a Number on Chaiwa and Backs It With Evidence
McManus was unambiguous. “Five million quid and not a penny less,” he said, anchoring his valuation in what he saw at first hand when Hibs travelled to Parkhead in February and won. Chaiwa, he argued, was the best player on the park that day — a ball-winner performing at the highest domestic level, in a hostile environment, against the league’s dominant club.
The pedigree supporting that reading pre-dates Easter Road. Hibs signed Chaiwa from Young Boys for around £600,000, and the Swiss club had used him in Champions League football before the move. The gap between the £600,000 acquisition fee and a £5 million asking price reflects what that European exposure and a season’s Scottish Premiership evidence have done to his standing. Some observers have placed a £7 million figure in the conversation, though McManus did not confirm it as an established asking price, describing £5 million instead as “definitely in the right ballpark.” Either figure represents a considerable profit on a player Hibs bought for a fraction of the current valuation.
The McGinn Scar and What It Taught Hibs About Holding the Line
The structural reason Hibs hold firm at £5 million has a name and a cautionary history. McManus was direct about it. “There’s no doubt in my mind Hibs are still scarred by selling John McGinn for a song to Aston Villa,” he said. “He went down south and the rest is history. He’s worth an absolute fortune now.” The institutional memory of that transaction, a talented central midfielder moved cheaply and then flourishing in the Premier League, has reshaped how the club approaches valuations of similar profiles.
“There’s no chance they’ll let that happen again,” McManus added. The Kieron Bowie sale gives the argument a more recent reference point. Hibs moved the striker for £6 million, demonstrating that the club can hold out for and achieve significant fees. McManus used the Bowie precedent directly, suggesting a bid in that range for Chaiwa would also be accepted. The McGinn lesson and the Bowie outcome together describe a club that has learned, sometimes painfully, that undervaluing its own players carries long-term costs.
English Clubs as the Realistic Buyers — and Why Hibs Prefer It That Way
Celtic’s position in McManus’s analysis is clear. He does not believe they will meet the asking price. The more likely destination, in his view, is England. “Do I think Celtic will pay it? No. But somebody will. That’s a drop in the ocean for a lot of English clubs and I think he’s well-equipped for the British game.”
That framing matters beyond simple economics. Celtic are believed to have scouted Chaiwa last season, and he has been linked with manager Martin O’Neill’s recruitment list alongside coaches Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham. The interest is real. But McManus argues that even if the willingness were there, the mechanism of a domestic sale introduces complications that an English buyer avoids entirely. “Whether it’s Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen or anybody else, you don’t want your best players strengthening rivals you’re competing against every season,” he said. Selling south removes the player from the Scottish game, protecting Hibs from facing their own midfielder across the league and cup fixtures that define each season’s standing. The preference is logical rather than sentimental, and it applies across the clubs McManus named.
Mulligan, Recruitment Gaps, and What £5m Could Fund for Gray
Chaiwa is not the only player whose future represents a variable in Hibs’ planning. McManus raised Josh Mulligan as a separate thread, noting that West Ham United are reportedly interested and that only an injury suffered in the second half of last season may have kept him at Easter Road. Should Mulligan begin the new campaign in form, McManus said he will be difficult to retain. “In an ideal world,” he acknowledged, “David Gray would keep Chaiwa and build his team around him and Josh Mulligan in the middle of the park.” That ideal scenario is complicated by both players attracting external interest simultaneously.
Hibs’ incoming business this summer has so far extended only to Jason Kerr and Callum Wright. Manager David Gray has been explicit about what he wants from the window. McManus described his approach plainly: “He’s been vocal about not signing players for the sake of it. He wants genuine quality.” One concrete gap McManus identified is a target man to fill the void left by Bowie’s departure. A £5 million Chaiwa fee, he argued, “could well bankroll” Gray’s recruitment drive, funding the kind of purposeful additions the manager has said he is after rather than volume signings.
The stand-off, then, has consequences regardless of how it resolves. If Chaiwa goes for the fee Hibs are demanding, Gray gains the resources to address the gaps McManus has described. If no buyer meets the price and Chaiwa remains, the squad retains a demonstrably high-quality midfielder heading into a competitive season. What the valuation forecloses is a cheap exit, and that is precisely the point Hibs appear determined to make before the new campaign begins.
