Hearts agree Skacel price with Marseille

STUART BATHGATE
CHIEF SPORTS WRITER

SOMETIMES choosing the Bank of Scotland Manager and Player of the Month is a delicate business which requires hours of deliberation over the claims of rival candidates. Sometimes, following a fallow period, it can be hard to identify worthy recipients of the two awards.

Sometimes wasn't August. Last month, surely, was one of the most clear-cut decisions on record. With five wins out of five, George Burley's new-look Hearts went straight to the top of the SPL; and, with a goal in each of those games, Rudi Skacel was the obvious stand-out figure.

The manager revealed yesterday that Hearts have agreed an undisclosed fee with Marseille to make the loan signing permanent, although any such move would depend on Skacel's wanting to extend his stay. "A fee was agreed when Rudi joined, but any long-term transfer has got to be right for both parties," Burley said. "I've already said to Mr Romanov that I'd like to keep Rudi, but it's early days yet."

It is early days, too, for the whole squad, but rarely has a team with so many new signings gelled so quickly. They won 4-2 at Rugby Park in their first match, beat Hibs 4-0 in their second game, then rounded off the opening tranche of fixtures with victories over Dundee United, Aberdeen and Motherwell.

While the first two matches in particular were won in style, in the last match Hearts showed they had quickly acquired a virtue which is a necessary attribute of all genuine contenders for honours - winning while not playing at their best.

In the end, they had Craig Gordon to thank for preserving their 100 per cent record, as the Scotland goalkeeper pulled off a magnificent save in the last minute to deny Motherwell a point. Gordon's international team-mates, Steven Pressley, Andy Webster and Paul Hartley, have remained key components of the team, but it is the advent of foreign signings such as Skacel which has really convinced the Hearts support that serious progress is being made by the board which was brought in by the club's principal shareholder, Vladimir Romanov.

Burley and his players have all rightly insisted they will not get carried away by their bright start. They know the squad's positive morale will be tested if they go through a bad patch, and they know a series of injuries could expose their lack of strength in depth compared to Rangers and Celtic.

Yet, while such caution is understandable, there is already more than enough evidence to dispute the claim by some detractors that this run of results is a bubble which is bound to burst. Of course, Hearts will not go through the season unbeaten, but nor, surely, will they slump back into the sort of mediocrity that they showed for much of last season. Bubbles arise when a team finds inspiration from somewhere and plays above itself for a while. The members of this Hearts team, however, have - albeit at different clubs - been playing at their present level for some time. They are not about to turn into journeymen.

With players such as Skacel only being on loan, there is a risk that the more Hearts thrive, the more likely their original clubs are to demand them back. For the moment, though, the Czech says he is happy to stay where he is.

"Everything is OK," the three-times-capped midfielder said yesterday. "I like Hearts and I like Edinburgh. After six months we'll see.

"In the Czech Republic everybody asks me about Scottish football, the Scottish weather and Scottish women. Now I only have the weather to worry about.

"Two months ago everybody at home only knew about Celtic and Rangers. Now they ask me about Hearts as well."

The advantage of having agreed a transfer fee for the player is obvious. Unlike in the case of Lee Miller, whose price went up with every goal he scored for Hearts while on loan from Bristol City, the cost of Skacel is fixed.

Given his goalscoring feats thus far, though, Marseille may already wish they had asked for more. And, by the end of tomorrow's match against Livingston, the French club may just be kicking themselves even harder.

If Skacel does score tomorrow to make it six SPL games in a row he will have emulated a feat achieved by Derek Riordan of Hibs and Henrik Larsson of Celtic. He will still have another four games to go, however, before equalling the SPL record, held by Larsson's former team-mate Mark Viduka, of scoring in ten consecutive league matches.

Viduka's double-figure run, however, began and ended in defeats - to Motherwell in November 1999 and to Hibs four months later. Skacel would happily fall short of that record as long as his contributions help Hearts keep winning.

Though now a left midfielder, Skacel was at left-back when Burley first saw him play. "I was aware Rudi could play anywhere on the left - and in central midfield as well - but I wouldn't dream of moving him to left-back at the moment," Burley said. "He's very much a team player, he's always smiling, and he's a joy to work with."

• Hearts' away game at Falkirk next month will be shown live on Setanta and has been put back to 2 October. Setanta announced its schedule of SPL matches for October yesterday.

Taken from the Scotsman