Fyssas hails big spend as Hearts' road into Europe

TAKIS FYSSAS today laid the foundations for a Champions League assault by Hearts next season, declaring Vladimir Romanov's January spending spree as essential to European success.

Romanov, the majority shareholder at Tynecastle, recruited a total of 11 new players last month in a statement of intent not only to the rest of Scottish football but Europe as a whole.

As his Lithuanian paymaster goes to all possible extremes to bring the SPL championship to Edinburgh, Fyssas was one of the few who did not raise an eyebrow as the Hearts first-team squad swelled to a massive 35 players.

As a top European competitor with his previous clubs, Panathinaikos and Benfica, the Greek left-back is conscious of the need for extensive squads to properly prepare for a possible Champions League campaign.

"In my opinion it can only be good that we have a lot of players. After this, people will be aware that we intend to become bigger," noted the defender. "If we want to be a big team we must have options.

"That is especially true next season if we want to be in the Champions League. I have experience of this and I know that, if a club is to do well in the domestic title and in Europe, then it needs a lot of players.

"We had 30-35 players every year at Panathinaikos and Benfica. We welcome all of the new guys and the training has already been better in quality. Nobody should be afraid of this because we all play for Hearts.

"Part of football is that some people can play and some won't play. Some players will have to wait and play later. In all my career I have been used to situations like that and I kept trying. That's why I have been playing all the time, because I have a good mentality that way. When I came here I saw that we had a new team. Now we have more younger players, so I think we will need time, not just two or three days or even two or three weeks.

"If we start this year and keep progressing next year Hearts will be a very big team in Scotland and in Europe. I honestly believe that in two or three years' time Hearts will be the best side in Scotland."

Head coach Graham Rix has the unenviable task of trying to maintain harmony whilst only being able to select 11 players at any one time. "There will be people unhappy because they are not playing," admitted Rix, "but they must be professional. In Europe you need a big squad of experienced players to be able to handle it, and I think we have that now."

Taken from the Scotsman