Lee Johnson brands Ryan Porteous 'underpaid' as Hibs board challenged to bump up contract offer

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Lee Johnson insists the Hibs board need to push the boat out to keep Ryan Porteous after admitting the Scotland defender has been underpaid for years.

A meeting with 23-year-old’s agents is scheduled for next week and Porteous holds all the aces after the centre-back shone on his Scotland debut against Ukraine on Tuesday.

Porteous is in the final year of his contract and is sure to have attracted more admirers on the back of helping keep a clean sheet as Scotland sealed top spot in UEFA Nations League Group B1 in the stalemate.

And Johnson insists Hibs now have to put terms on the table that match the player’s importance to the team. Johnson said: “We’ll have to offer him a very strong deal, he has been at the club a long time, potentially hasn’t been - in my opinion, bumped up quick enough to maintain the importance of the players. "That’s where we’ve put ourselves at risk a little bit and have to try to remedy that.