De Vries becomes forefront of Hearts

MARK De Vries may have been suddenly brought to the attention of Scottish football on Sunday, but he is certainly no overnight sensation to Hearts coach Craig Levein. Alerted to the player’s talents by contacts over eight months ago, Levein has been awaiting with relish the player’s first full game in a Hearts jersey. It came against Hibs of all teams, and few debuts have contained such impact.

De Vries announced himself with four goals, but Levein and his Hearts coaching staff were already well acquainted with his talents after what became one of the most thorough player searches in the Tynecastle club’s history. A quartet of individuals in the Hearts camp must have felt a particularly intense surge of pride at what unfolded before them. De Vries might have been scoring a goal for each of them such was the part they played in his journey from the second tier of the Dutch league to Tynecastle.

Levein was yesterday quick to credit his backroom staff for searching out the 6ft 4ins target man, name-checking director of youth development John Murray, international scout John Harvey and assistant head coach Peter Houston in the process which brought De Vries to the Scottish capital earlier this summer. Signed on a pre-contract basis in February, the player had been a target for Hearts since late last year when his credentials prompted Murray to "flag him up" to Levein.

Harvey went to watch him in action for Dordrecht 90, and returned impressed. Houston travelled to take a look, and also came back clutching a glowing report. Finally, Levein was persuaded to fly to Holland. In such a bleak economic climate, the Hearts head coach was sorely aware he could ill afford to take any chances in his hunt for a much-needed striker, but knew almost immediately that De Vries was the one.

"What we do is sift through all the faxes that arrive, and there are often as many as 12 arriving each day from various contacts and agents," explained Levein yesterday. "John Murray flags up anyone he thinks is worth taking an interest in. As we were looking for a target man, height was an important consideration so John flagged up everybody over 6ft to us. He also looked at pedigree, and age, and Mark’s name kept coming up. John Harvey went over to take a first look at him, and then ‘Houstie’ and finally myself. Although he did not score I knew within the first ten minutes that he would be an asset to us, especially in terms of the way I was intending to play, with wide players."

Levein did not simply leave the match after these opening minutes confirmed he had found what he was looking for. He remained until the end, and then spoke to the soon to be out-of-contract player for more than an hour. "I asked him to come over to have a look at the club, and Peter Houston showed him around the city," recalled Levein. "We went out of our way to make the place seem attractive to him."

The Hearts coach knew he must act fast with clubs such as Borussia Munchengladbach also showing an interest in the player, and Millwall having already taken him on a trial. In February his signature was secured, and all Levein had to do was wait for the moment when he could unleash him. An injury in pre-season restricted his contribution on the opening day against Dundee to a 15 minute substitute’s appearance, but even then there was enough to suggest that four different opinions could not be wrong. Sunday confirmed this to be the case, and brought a prediction from De Vries’s old manager at Dordrecht 90 that the striker can only improve.

"He is a very good player who has continued to get better each year," said Olav Ouwerkerk. "When he first joined us, he wasn’t really an out-and-out goal-getter, he created more than he scored. He was a target man who also had some very good skills on the ground."

De Vries certainly made full use of his range of talents on Sunday. Not even the cramp that settled in both his aching calves could de-rail him. He was back at Tynecastle yesterday, where Levein said he remained in fine fettle.

"He is still feeling a bit sore, but he was in good spirits", said Levein. "He will have take a lot of confidence from that. I said after the game that I hoped he realises it was a one-off and I know he does. But he is a hungry boy and he is very keen to prove himself."

De Vries was not the only one of Levein’s new signings to excel. Jean-Louis Valois was as impressive on Sunday, even if De Vries’ goal-haul stole the headlines. Again he is someone Levein has been tracking for some time. "Again, after the first 15 minutes of a friendly with Falkirk, I knew he was what we were looking for," he said.

Levein stressed it is important for the fans not to get carried way, and these two players still have much to prove before they can be deemed unqualified successes. Indeed, he was reminded that not everything goes your way on the transfer market when forced to drop interest in the former Real Sociedad skipper Inigo Idiakez due to his wage demands.

Taken from the Scotsman