Miko fears a break of Hearts

SAULIUS MIKOLIUNAS fears he will be on his way out of Tynecastle in a matter of weeks, with his loan deal at Hearts due to expire on January 31.

The winger is concerned he'll be shipped back to Lithuania at the end of the month with the Bosnian Mirsad Beslija arriving in Edinburgh last night.

Beslija is expected to be unveiled as an £850,000 signing at Tynecastle today or tomorrow and will go into direct competition with Mikoliunas for a place in the Hearts midfield.

Mikoliunas arrived in Edinburgh last January on a year's loan from FBK Kaunas in his homeland and, having watched Hearts' majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov sanction a substantial investment in Beslija, the Lithuanian suspects his days at Tynecastle could be numbered.

He said today: "I have a contract until January 31 but I don't know after that. Maybe I will need to leave. My loan has not been renewed. All I can do is the best I can when I get a chance in the team.

"In my position, we also have Deividas Cesnauskis and the new guy from Genk, Beslija, who is very big in Bosnia, so we will see.

"I need just to play well now. If I am playing only average I think I will be leaving because there will be three players able to play in my area of the field.

"I played with Kaunas before I came here and if need be I will go back there, but obviously I would rather stay here because it is a bigger league than back home.

"If I need to leave there is nothing I can do."

Midfielder Lee Johnson trained for the first time with his new Hearts team-mates yesterday and was officially paraded this afternoon after signing for £60,000 from Yeovil Town, where his contract was due to expire in six months' time.

However, the signing of Lithuanian trialist Nerijus Barasa was not completed as of this morning despite reports to the contrary. Hearts are due to hold further talks with the player and his representatives today.

"There is still a long way to go on that one," said youth academy director John Murray. "But we are hopeful it could be tied up in the next 24 hours."

Hearts have been granted permission by Liverpool to discuss contract terms with striker Neil Mellor and have also been linked with moves for Benfica midfielder Bruno Aguiar as well as 16-year-old Bulgarian Branimar Kostadinov.

Murray added: "Kostadinov is here with a view to signing, hopefully later this week. He is a young lad with real potential who we want to tie up and we will sort out education and accommodation for him in Edinburgh."

Striker Roman Bednar continues to cause the club's medical staff concern having failed to train in the early part of this week due to a persistent knee injury, rendering him a serious doubt for Saturday's SPL trip to Dunfermline.

Meanwhile, Hearts reserves suffered a 3-0 defeat to Kilmarnock at Rugby Park last night.

Taken from the Scotsman