Hibs signing Tom Taiwo is grateful for his time at Chelsea with Claude Makelele.

Taiwo had massive pressure heaped upon his shoulders as a 16-year-old, when Chelsea paid £5MILLION for him and his Leeds team-mate Michael Woods.

But the teenage prodigy saw a broken leg stunt his development at Stamford Bridge.

He still used his time wisely, though, by studying the performances of former Real Madrid midfielder Makelele.

He told the Scottish Sun: "Claude Makelele was the man I used to look at and try to model my game on.

"But also, because I can run quite well, I don't really want to pigeon-hole myself as just a sitting midfielder. However, in terms of reading the game, retaining possession, that's the guy I would look to for inspiration.

"I looked at David Batty as well, and he even chipped in with a good few goals. I'm not promising but I would like to do that at some point.

"He made a great career from doing the ugly things and doing them well, so that's someone I would look up to as well."