Danny Swanson grew up a diehard Hibs fan and lived the dream when he signed for the club in 2017 from St Johnstone.
But many may have forgotten that beforehand, he donned the maroon jersey of his fiercest rivals Hearts for most of the 2015/16 campaign.
Swanson joined from Coventry City after his contract was terminated and couldn’t sign for another English side.
So his only option was to sign for the Jambos after initially asking whether Hibs could sign him instead, which they couldn’t.
And Swanson has revealed from the day he made his debut for Hearts, the Hibee knew it wasn’t going to work out for him because of two particular moments.
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Swanson on signing and playing for Hearts
Speaking on the Open Goal podcast, the former Dundee United star said: “I was at Coventry and I got released during the season but I couldn’t sign for another English team.
“Basically what had happened was I was meant to be getting paid up and I was to stay at the training ground to get paid up before the deadline shut.
“A young boy asked for a lift home so I took him home, but I ended up missing the deadline and they were like, ‘well, you’ve f***ed it basically.’
“They said, ‘the only way we can do it is give you your money but you can’t sign for another team from England.’ So I said that’s fine and then Hearts came in.
“I actually contacted Stubbsy (Alan Stubbs, former Hibs manager) at Hibs first and said, ‘Hearts have contacted me, would Hibs take me?’
“But at the time they’d just signed Fraser Fyvie so they can’t do it. So I signed for Hearts and listen, I was delighted, it’s a massive club.
“But obviously being a mad Hibs fan and everybody knew it, there were people phoning my dad’s pubs saying, ‘your laddie’s not signing for Hearts or we’ll do this and that’.
“So right away, I found it so difficult at Hearts. The pressure I just couldn’t deal with it. It wasn’t like the fans were terrible (to me) but I always felt at the back of my head that they were – and it was just hard.
“I never really played. I had a good debut actually. Yogi’s maybe mentioned this before but I made my debut against Inverness Caley for Hearts and we ended up getting beat, but I played really well.
“So I’m coming in the tunnel and somebody’s picked me up from the back saying, ‘aw your dad will be buzzing with that result’. And I’m laughing and just joking but I turn around and Robbie Neilson’s just standing there watching us and that was it for me.”
The ‘final straw’ at Hearts
Despite the awkward start, Swanson would go on to play nine games for Hearts that season. But he knew for sure that his Gorgie stay was doomed ahead of the club’s Scottish Cup fourth round clash with Hibs.
Swanson continued: “And then the final straw was when we were playing Hibs in the Scottish Cup, the year Hibs won the Scottish Cup (in 2016) and we had a big meeting.
“Robbie was going over tickets asking, ‘who wants tickets for the game?’ And I was just joking and said, ‘I’ll take 15 tickets for the Hibs end’.
“I was just joking and all the boys were laughing. But that was it because Robbie just wasn’t pleased and I think that was it, that was it done. It was never going to work there.”