Manchester City are the latest club to join the growing list of admirers of young Hibs striker Steven Fletcher. Fletcher, a product of the youth academy at Easter Road, was also linked with a £4m move to Real Madrid in the summer. Middlesbrough, Bolton, Everton and Aston Villa are among the other Premiership clubs that have kept track of the striker’s progress.
Fletcher was part of the Scotland U-19 team that lost to Spain in the final of the European Championships two years ago. He made his debut for Scotland in a friendly against Croatia in March 2008.
Although Hibs boss Mixu Paatelainen says that he would like Fletcher to stay one more season at the club, assistant manager Donald Park says that the Edinburgh outfit are resigned to losing him soon.
Fletcher has been a regular at Leith for the past four season, scoring a total of forty seven goals in one hundred and sixty eight appearances so far. He was in fine form when Hibs beat Motherwell 4-1 last week.
Fletcher signed a new six year deal in 2007 that would keep him at the club till 2013. It remains to be seen whether Celtic make an approach for the striker and break the Scottish transfer record of £.5m that they paid for Scott Brown.