After a two-year sabbatical at Celtic Park and months of rumours, Derek Riordan is back where he belongs – at Easter Road. Many Celtic fans have been mystified as to why Strachan never gave a fair chance to a player he himself signed and once described as “naturally the best finisher at the club”. Despite his troubled time at Parkhead, Deeks still scored 8 goals in 32 appearances, mainly as a substitute. The fact Strachan and Riordan (who both grew up in the same area of Edinburgh) didn’t see to eye to eye was well documented.

Numerous Championship clubs were linked with the player. Celtic turned down a 400,000 offer from Burnley in January and just this summer told Leeds they were looking for a million. Riordan himself previously turned down an offer to join Cardiff when with Hibs, and there was also said to be an enquiry from Locomotiv Moscow, before the Russians signed his Hibs striking partner, Garry O’Connor.

So how did Hibs manage to recapture one of their “Fledgling Five” for as little as 250,000 quid? Perhaps English clubs were not prepared to take a risk on a player who has played little football and has recently been in the headlines for the wrong reasons. That seems unlikely in the insane English transfer market. More likely, Riordan had made it clear that his wish was to rejoin his boyhood heroes, even if it meant taking a hefty drop in wages. A very rare situation indeed these days. But if so, he would’ve been able to decline offers from elsewhere and sign a pre-contract with Hibs in January. By holding off, Riordan and his agent, former Hibs keeper Jim McArthur, gained control of the cards and Celtic were pushed into a cheap sale. Having said that, the Hoops still made a profit on the player. In 2006, Hibs were forced to take whatever they could get with Riordan’s contract running out and an irresistible move to Glasgow in the offing.

Riordan has signed a three-year deal and will now face up to high expectations at Hibernian where he averaged around 20 goals a season between 2003 and 2006. Deeks is the most two-footed striker I’ve seen at Easter Road and arguably one of the most skilful Scottish players of his generation. Scottish football has few enough players of real quality, without letting one go to waste. The fact he usually takes penalties and free kicks with his right foot suggests he is naturally right footed, but Riordan often prefers to play on the left and shoot with his “wrong foot”. Check out this video for evidence of that.