HEARTS boss George Burley is set to snap up former Porto striker Edgaras Jankauskas, the Evening News can reveal.

Talks at securing the signature of the Lithuanian internationalist are understood to be at an advanced stage and the 30-year-old is poised to become Burley's latest acquisition after tonight's glamour friendly against Middlesbrough at Tynecastle. Czech Republic internationalist Rudi Skacel clinched a one-year loan deal after passing a medical yesterday and Jankauskas is now set to follow him to Gorgie.

Burley is to use tonight's clash to run the rule over a number of trialists, with Czech strikers Michal Pospisil and Roman Bednar to be given a run out in addition to the Lithuanian, who has impressed in training this week.

"Edgaras will take part in tonight's game," said the Hearts boss. "We have already seen him in training and there is no doubt he has a bit of quality.

"He is a player we are keen to get on a permanent deal and I think we are fairly close to doing something."

With Dennis Wyness the only recognised fit first-team forward currently available, Burley's priority is signing strikers before the start of the SPL season.

The former Ipswich Town and Derby County boss is also keen to snare the experienced Steve Lomas, the former Manchester City star having trained with Hearts this week.

The Northern Ireland internationalist - he has over 40 caps for his country - was thought to be on his way to Crystal Palace but Burley is continuing to make progress in his bid to lure him north after he was freed by West Ham. "We are taking the chance to look at Steve and a balance of youth and experience is important," he said.

Lomas is not expected to feature against Middlesbrough, although Burley will run the rule over French midfielder Julien Brellier and Sebastien Schemmel, the former West Ham star who was recently linked with Celtic.

Chief executive Phil Anderton, meanwhile, has insisted new signing Skacel is not a replacement for Paul Hartley. Anderton said it will take a "ridiculous" offer to prise the Scotland star, who was the subject of a £300,000 bid from Celtic in January, away from Tynecastle.

"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 key areas.

"And I don't mean a good offer, I mean a ridiculous offer as we're not being 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 players.

"We are not about that, what we are about is developing a successful team and so why would you sell for a reasonable offer?"

He added: "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."

Captain Steven Pressley's contract situation will not be resolved until after the Middlesbrough game. He is a free agent after failing to agree with clauses inserted into all contracts for SPL players, one of which allows clubs to terminate a player's contract if he has been injured for six months. He held talks with Anderton yesterday but they will not be concluded until later in the week.

The Evening News can reveal that Julija Goncaruk, appointed as a non-executive director following Chris Robinson's departure from the club on Monday, is the niece of owner Vladimir Romanov. She has joined his son Roman on the Gorgie board.

Taken from the Scotsman