Hearts face striker crisis

HEARTS are facing a striking crisis with the possibility of Graham Weir and Dennis Wyness being the club’s only recognised front men for the new season.

Livingston’s attempt to take Mark Burchill to Almondvale has arrived on the back of Lee Miller’s defection to Tannadice as Hearts’ first-choice strike partnership from last season looks like dissipating completely.

At the moment, with a new head coach yet to be appointed, that would leave Weir and Wyness, who managed just eight goals between them last year, to carry the striking burden of the Gorgie side into the new campaign.

It is a prospect which will cause serious consternation amongst Tynecastle supporters already shifting uneasily in their seats awaiting the announcement of a new manager.

Weir, 20, accepted his one-year contract to stay in Gorgie earlier this month, although his record of just six goals in four years, and only one last season, can hardly be described as prolific.

Marginally better is Wyness, with seven strikes throughout last term and 14 in all in maroon since arriving from Inverness under Craig Levein two years ago.

Burchill has thus far repelled the offer of a one-year contract to remain with Hearts and the two-year deal said to have been tabled by Livingston could see the former Celtic striker join Paul Lambert in West Lothian.

The 24-year-old started only seven matches for Hearts but scored four goals after John Robertson brought him to Edinburgh in January to end a miserable time down south for the striker.

It is that potency that has attracted the attention of new Livingston manager Lambert and could see Hearts lose yet another coveted member of their first-team squad.

It is clear that whoever assumes the role of head coach at Tynecastle must undertake an extensive recruitment drive to ensure Hearts’ squad is sufficiently supplemented for the rigours of domestic football in the season ahead.

Chairman George Foulkes admits that he and his fellow directors are getting nearer and nearer a decision on their ideal candidate, and a meeting is planned with former Derby County manager George Burley within the next 48 hours.

"We should know the identity of our new head coach in the next day or two," said Foulkes. "Phil Anderton has been making the approaches and dealing with this issue but we are getting closer."

Italian Nevio Scala is also on Hearts’ shortlist but last week he admitted to the Evening News that he could not reach an agreement with Anderton over the terms that would make him the new head coach.

Burley’s representative has conducted discussions in the Scot’s absence but he will now meet Anderton in person.

Taken from the Scotsman