Former Hibs keeper Adam Bogdan says he experienced one of his biggest heartbreaks in football at Easter Road - and reckons Scottish football is like a time machine.
The Hungarian shot-stopper was drafted in on loan from Liverpool by Neil Lennon in 2018 and initially stepped into the injured Ofir Marciano's shoes. But after suffering a concussion he couldn't shake, he lost his place, and by the time he returned to fitness, Lennon had been dismissed - and he never played for them again.
He did return to the club on a free transfer in November 2019 but didn't get a game and he left under freedom of contract for Ferencvaros in the summer of 2020. Now 36 and without a club since last summer, he's looked back on his time in Edinburgh with mixed memories. He says his injury was his only real 'heartbreak' in football outside of relegation with Bolton Wanderers - and believes Scottish football is unique for more reasons than one.
Bogdan told Ladbrokes' Fanzone: "The Hibernian move is a funny one because I went there, but I didn't want to go there. At that time, I didn't want to move further north than Manchester, and then Neil Lennon called me. He explained that his first-choice goalkeeper had an injury which wasn't really healing, so he needed someone to come in. I obviously knew him from my time at Bolton.
"When I went to Hibs, I fell in love with the city straight away. Edinburgh, for me, was so perfect and compact, we just fell in love with the place. And then, to play for one of the top teams in Edinburgh, in such a nice stadium... for me, it was like the two perfect worlds had met, finally, in my life. I was in a really nice city with so much history and culture, and I was playing for a great team.
"The Scottish league is funny because it's a little bit like a time-travel, sometimes. You know, some places you'd travel to and the games you'd be involved in... there was lots of playing long, and second balls. But then you play against Celtic, who are more like a Premier League team, and then Rangers, in front of 50,000 people. Then you go away to another game, where the standard feels more like League One, or League Two football. You get everything in Scotland, but I really enjoyed my time up there.
"Aside from getting relegated with Bolton, the only other real heartbreak I had in my career was with Hibs. The concussion I suffered was so strange because, although it didn't look too serious at the time, I couldn't get out of it for months. In that time, I lost my place in the team, and then Neil Lennon got sacked, and so all of a sudden it just didn't feel the same anymore.
"Then I found myself without a club for six months. I'd had offers, but I didn't want to take them because I knew I wanted to live in a place where the lifestyle was as good as the football, so I was prepared to wait. I went back to Hibs in the December of 2019, which I was really, really happy about. I couldn't wait to get started, and then COVID came and the league got cancelled!"
