Dylan Vente is open-minded over staying at Hibs next season despite hitting top form on loan back in the Eredivisie.
The Dutchman – who has 18 months left on his Easter Road contract – has struck six goals in his last five games on loan with PEC Zwolle. That form has caught the attention of rival top flight clubs in his homeland who could be tempted into a summer bid. It’s also left Hibs facing a huge decision on a player they spent £700,000 on just a year-and-a-half ago. Easter Road chiefs will wait until the end of the season before deciding the 25-year-old’s future with the door still very much open to him picking up his career in Leith.
And sources close to Vente say he is open-minded on his future as he prepares to enter the final year of his deal. Record Sport understands key to his happiness will be whether he will be deployed as an out and out number nine – having spent much of last season under previous boss Nick Montgomery as a secondary striker.
Vente has hit a rich vein of form as PEC Zwolle’s first choice frontman and is the Dutch top flight’s hottest goalscorer with five strikes in his last three outings. One of those came in a stunning 3-1 win over champions PSV Eindhoven with another double arriving in the weekend draw against Utrecht.
Vente opened the season with a hat-trick for Hibs in a League Cup win over Elgin but was shipped out on loan to his homeland after Kieron Bowie was signed from Fulham. Veteran Premier League marksman Dwight Gayle also arrived on a free transfer but will be out of contract in the summer while Mykola Kuharevich was loaned in from Swansea for the rest of the season.
With Bowie returning from injury last month Hibs decided against a January recall for Vente. But speaking at the time, boss David Gray insisted he would never shut the door on the Dutch hitman. He said: “I’d never ever close the door on anybody, absolutely not. He’s still a contracted player, he’s still a very good player, you can clearly see that, he’s a goal scorer. That would just be something that we address when it can actually be changed, or looked at.”