Duo sign up

BARRY ANDERSON

MICHAL POSPISIL and Julien Brellier have agreed terms with Hearts and will be formally unveiled at Tynecastle as soon as the club can obtain the necessary international clearance.

The Czech striker and French midfielder were locked in contract negotiations with Hearts' chief executive Phil Anderton throughout yesterday, and with those now concluded George Burley's tally of new signings has reached five.

Pospisil's capture was widely reported after he completed a medical in Lithuania on Thursday, however the arrival of 23-year-old Brellier will signal the end of any prospective deal for the West Ham United captain, Steve Lomas. Formerly of Italian sides Venezia and Salernitana, Brellier represents a more youthful option than the 31-year-old Lomas to complement Paul Hartley, Rudi Skacel and Neil MacFarlane in midfield.

It is now expected that Lomas will remain in London and side with his former Upton Park team-mate Iain Dowie at Crystal Palace, where he is understood to have been offered a three-year deal. Anderton said: "I wouldn't say our interest in Lomas is quite dead yet but in terms of the players we are near to unveiling, he is not one of them.

"We have other options.

"We are in discussions with other players and are still in the process of getting international clearance. We want to make sure we have all the relevant paperwork. Details of our negotiations will come out in the next few days.

"George is obviously assessing the team at the minute in regards to the type of players and the number that he still needs." Pospisil and Brellier could even be joined at a multi-player parade in Gorgie next week by two new defenders, with the flat-out Anderton having juggled his talks with the Czech and the Frenchman and the on-going negotiations with Ibrahim Tall and Michael Lamey.

Although the club are not yet ready to sanction medical assessments for either Tall or Lamey, it seems likely that at least one will put pen to paper inside the next seven days with Burley having one eye on next week's Edinburgh derby at Tynecastle.

"We are still in discussions over contracts with them, and as everyone knows defence is an area of the team which we would like to add to," added Anderton. "We are also looking at the left-back position to see if there are any opportunities for us there."

Sebastien Schemmel, the former Portsmouth defender, has already started two matches during Hearts' pre-season preparations and is also under strong consideration as an option to rival Robbie Neilson at right-back.

Schemmel played considerable amounts of Hearts' friendly encounters with Middlesbrough and Hull City, and is another player over whom Anderton and Burley must reach a decision.

Anderton said: "He is another one with whom we are in contract negotiations and we are interested in signing him. It is a case of him versus other players because we simply can't sign everybody.

"We now have to make valued judgments over who is right for the long-term future of the club."

Taken from the Scotsman