The most famous transfer near miss in recent times is clearly Steven Fletcher.
In January 2009 and on course for a fourth successive title Gordon Strachan was looking for more firepower to compete with McDonald and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.
Fletcher had never been prolific but had the pedigree of being a Scotland youth and u-21 internationalist- two years earlier Celtic had paid Hibs £4.4m for Scott Brown.
Celtic’s offer of £2m seemed reasonable but Hibs were looking for £2.5m and for £500,000 no business was done- and the title slipped away from Strachan’s side.
At the end of the season Hibs got their £2.5m from newly promoted Burnley, managed by Owen Coyle and Fletcher set off on a career that has made him one of the richest Scottish players in football history.
On the pitch he has tasted relegation at Burnley and Wolves but his bank balance hasn’t suffered with £6m taking him to Molineux and Martin O’Neill spending £9 to take him to the North East.
In January he was again linked with a move to Celtic as the ‘£6m striker’ card was played but after fuelling the story Celtic took a step back and signed Griffiths for £1m.
It wouldn’t be a great surprise to see Fletcher linked again with Celtic at some stage but the most likely time to ‘get him signed’ was in January 2009 from Hibs before he got a taste for Premiership wages.
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