Burley has heart set on Sobolewski

Paul Kiddie

HEARTS boss George Burley is set to launch a fresh raid to land Polish midfield star Radoslaw Sobolewski.

The 28-year-old appeared poised to move to Tynecastle in the summer but saw a proposed £400,000 switch from Wisla Krakow fall through at the last minute as the August transfer window slammed shut.

Burley remains a huge fan of the Polish internationalist and is believed to have installed him as one of his prime targets when the January window opens.

The Gorgie chief has already drawn up a New Year shopping list for Vladimir Romanov and it's understood Sobolewski figures prominently among the targets Burley wants to see clad in maroon for the second half of the season. While refusing to be drawn on identities of individuals he may be keen to bring to Gorgie, the Hearts boss indicated he has gone back to Romanov with the names of certain players he didn't get six weeks ago.

"We missed out on certain players during the last transfer window, which was disappointing," said Burley, who has returned from a top-secret spying mission at the weekend.

"We are trying to strengthen the squad as much as possible. There are a number we are still looking at for January and we will have to wait and see how things develop but I am hoping to improve things as we still have a wee bit to go."

One player not coming to Tynecastle is former Fulham star Martin Djetou. A free agent after being released by Nice in the summer, the 31-year-old was reported to have been offered terms by the Jambos and Capital rivals Hibs.

Gorgie chief executive Phil Anderton, however, today dismissed claims linking his club with a move for the player who cost Parma £6.5 million when signed to replace Lilian Thuram in 2001.

"We did not offer the player terms to sign and were not in for him," he said.

"Vladimir Romanov has his network of people and George Burley has his own network and while there might have been a call at some stage from someone, as a club we have not held any discussions with the player."

The Ivory Coast-born defender, who operates in central midfield or in the centre of defence, looks set to put pen to paper with Bolton after revealing he has had a medical following a trial with Sam Allardyce's side.

Former Hearts star David Weir, meanwhile, has insisted that Andy Webster has every right to feel harshly treated after missing out on Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Belarus. As we revealed on Friday, the centre-half was dropped by boss Walter Smith for the Hampden Park clash as Weir and Steven Pressley formed the central defensive partnership.

Webster was an unused substitute in his country's disappointing 1-0 defeat and Weir said afterwards: "I am sure Andy was disappointed as he had not done anything wrong.

"But it is the manager's decision and the way he wanted us to play against Belarus meant that he could pick two from three. Whoever was left out was going to feel hard done by and I am sure Andy did. But he will respond in the correct manner. I have no doubt about that."

Elsewhere in the weekend's World Cup qualifiers, there was further disappointment for a string of Jambos.

Ibrahim Tall, who has failed to feature for George Burley since signing for Hearts in the summer, found himself rooted to the bench as Senegal defeated Mali 3-0 in their qualifier.

In Vilnius, Edgar Jankauskas, Saulius Mikoliunas and David Cesnauskis all started for Lithuania against Serbia and Montenegro but the trio failed to prevent the visitors emerging 2-0 victors.

Midfielder Rudi Skacel was not involved for the Czech Republic as they fell 2-0 to the Netherlands in Prague, while the injured Takis Fyssas had to sit out Greece's 1-0 loss away to Denmark.

Taken from the Scotsman