Burley bides his time over move for O'Brien

NEW Hearts manager George Burley has repeated his desire to see Livingston target Burton O'Brien play before offering him a deal with the Tynecastle club.

Burley was speaking ahead of Hearts' departure for Ireland this weekend where they are due to play St Patrick's and Bray Wanderers.

Polish trialist Maciej Murawski featured in a training ground game yesterday and he former Legia Warsaw midfielder will take part in another game today but will not travel with the Hearts squad tomorrow as trialists are not permitted to play. Such an in-house trial is likely to be O'Brien's fate if he is still keen to join up with Hearts, although Leicester City are also interested.

John Seasman, the player's agent has voiced his displeasure with Burley's stance, but the Hearts manager refuses to be rushed into a decision before seeing him in action. "It's a bit of a strange one," said Burley, who is aware the Tynecastle club was speaking to O'Brien before his arrival as manager last month. "Unfortunately I didn't go to any Livingston games last season. If I was the boy, I'd like the manager to have seen me play. I think that's best for both parties, but he has other options. At the end of the day he has to assess what's right for himself."

Meanwhile, Burley has pulled the plug on the pre-season games against Raith Rovers on 19 July and the trip to Hartlepool United on 25 July as he felt the club had arranged too many friendlies.

Taken from the Scotsman