Outgoing Hearts trio forced to bid farewell

STUART BATHGATE

TIME has finally run out at Hearts for Scott Severin, Steven Boyack and Andy Kirk. The three out-of-contract players will be in the squad to take on Motherwell tomorrow - Kirk, who has a groin injury, may start on the bench - and then bid their farewells to the Tynecastle support.

On Thursday, Hearts chairman George Foulkes said the playing budget for next season would not be finalised until an imminent meeting with the club’s bankers. Yesterday, though, Craig Levein made it clear that keeping Severin, Boyack and Kirk was no longer an option, and that the only remaining uncertainty was how many new players he would be able to bring in during the close season - one, two or none.

"You always look to try and squeeze a bit more money out of the board, but it doesn’t look likely in the short term," Levein said. "I’ll try to squeeze more out of them in the summer.

"I’m disappointed I couldn’t keep the three guys. I think they’ll all get new clubs very quickly, because they’re smashing boys.

"I didn’t get vibes that I couldn’t bring anybody in. It might be possible I can bring somebody in - or maybe two players."

Finding a left-back remains the priority, and, while Levein again refused to name individuals, Jamie McAllister of Livingston is the likeliest solution to that problem position. In the main, though, the depleted Hearts squad will have to be reinforced from within, with graduates from its own youth teams, and there was good news in that respect yesterday when Joe Hamill, Robert Sloan and Neil Janczyk signed new one-year deals.

Crucially, the core of battle-hardened players remains: Steven Pressley, Alan Maybury and Mark de Vries are still there, while youngsters such as Craig Gordon and Andy Webster are already playing with a maturity beyond their years.

Maybury and De Vries will be omitted today to avoid incurring suspension, while Pressley will probably sit out the visit of Terry Butcher’s side to give his head wound more time to recover.

Phil Stamp misses out because of a heel injury. A section of the Hearts support have made it clear that they would like the Englishman to be discarded in order to fund a new deal for Severin, but the fact is that, with Stamp still under contract, the club must simply hope they get more out of him next season.

Levein has brought two teenagers into the squad - Andrew Driver, a 16-year-old winger, and Gary Tierney, an 18-year-old defender. The coach also confirmed that Hearts will visit Vancouver, Canada for ten days from 9 July and probably play three games - two against FA Cup finalists Millwall and the other against a Canadian select.


Taken from the Scotsman