DURING a productive afternoon at Tynecastle, George Burley yesterday signed his first player as Hearts manager and homed in on three more.

Rudi Skacel, a left-sided midfielder who has one cap for the Czech Republic, agreed a year-long loan deal and is expected to make his debut in tonight's friendly against Middlesbrough.

His arrival is likely to be augmented by several others as Burley seeks to bring in the half-dozen new players he believes are necessary to have Hearts punching their weight by the time the new season kicks off a week on Saturday.

Steve Lomas, the former Northern Ireland captain and a player Burley has long admired, is training with the club and will be monitored over the next couple of days. Lomas, 33, is a free agent after being released by West Ham United.

The new manager is also keen to do a deal with Edgaras Jankauskas, a powerful and experienced Lithuanian striker who has seen service with Benfica, Real Sociedad and CSKA Moscow. Jankauskas, 30, is also training at Tynecastle, as is the Frenchman Julien Brellier, 23, who was once on the books of Inter Milan.

"We're trying to squeeze everything into a short period of time," explained Burley. "It's not ideal but that's the reality of it. It would be nice to have longer to build the squad but things are moving now. Before we started we were looking for six or seven new faces and we won't be far off that for the start."

If a manager's first signing is a statement of intent then Burley's is a strong one. Skacel, 26, arrives from Marseille with an impressive pedigree having spent last season on loan in Athens where he helped Panathinaikos finish second in the Greek championship and played in the Champions League.

Panathinaikos declined the chance to buy the player for £1million and Burley made his move. "We're pleased to sign Rudi. He's a versatile and strong lad with a good left foot, he's in his prime and he wants to play for us," said the Tynecastle manager. "People ask if international class players want to come to Scotland or want to come to Hearts so I think it shows that we have ambition in the type of players that we're looking to bring in."

Skacel, who scored in his sole international appearance against Canada in 2003, is part of the Czech Republic's so-called golden generation, a crop of prodigiously gifted players which includes Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech and Liverpool striker Milan Baros. Together, they won the European Under-21 Championship in 2002 when they defeated France in the final, with Skacel playing a key role.

The player's versatility was a major factor for Burley, and although Skacel believes the left side of midfield is his best position he is also comfortable playing in the centre or at left-back. He began his career in the Czech second division with SK Hradec Kralove before moving to Slavia Prague. Several clubs in Europe were alerted to his talents and Marseille took him to France.

After a promising first season, a change of coach left his future uncertain and he was loaned out to Panathinaikos for a year.

His deal with Hearts is of a similar nature, but he refused to rule out remaining in Edinburgh for a further season.

"I enjoyed playing in the Champions League last season and perhaps I could that with Hearts," he said.

Skacel's arrival has led to speculation that he is here to replace Paul Hartley. Celtic had a £300,000 bid for the Scotland midfielder rejected earlier this month and Hearts chief executive Phil Anderton is adamant it would take an offer in excess of £1million to persuade the club to part with the player.

"We are not a selling club. Paul is an important part of the squad and we want to offer him extended terms," Anderton said. "Now, any player has their price and if any club came in with a ridiculous offer then that's something that you've got to consider. But at this stage of the rebuilding of the club there are many positions that we want to fill so it would be naïve of us to sell players in the key positions.

"And I don't mean a good offer, I mean a ridiculous offer because we're not been driven by financial criteria and that's the big difference between us and the Hearts of old where they, frankly, had to look at reasonable offers to sell their players.

"I don't want to get caught up in numbers, but yes if someone came in with over £1million for a player who has a year left on their contract then that's something we would have to look at."

Anderton and Burley were also at pains to point out that they had no desire to sell Andy Webster, who was the subject of an inquiry from Rangers. The defender, who has two years remaining on his contract, pulled out of the recent tour of Ireland, but Burley insists Webster is now looking forward to the new season with Hearts.

His central defensive partner, Steven Pressley, held talks with Anderton yesterday over the contractual problem which nullified the new deal he signed with Hearts last season. The captain is refusing to agree to a clause which allows the club to terminate the contract if he has been injured for six months. More discussions are planned for later in the week.

Meanwhile, all free tickets for tonight's match with Middlesbrough have been snapped up and Hearts are warning supporters not to turn up without a brief. Season tickets will not be accepted.

Taken from the Scotsman