Hearts project luring a better class of player

SOMETHING was gained in translation during Hearts' sign-a-thon this week. While struggling for the precise phrase, an interpreter for one of the five new recruits paraded at Tynecastle on Tuesday said his player had been sold on "the project".

The term succinctly encompasses the bold, grand and suspicion-raising designs contained within Vladimir Romanov's sanctioning of eight arrivals last week; moves that swelled the first-team squad by a total of 11 players in the latest window.

That the Lithuanian businessman, directly or indirectly, was willing to pick -up a tab of around £2m over January to enhance Hearts in the short and long term demonstrates he is deadly serious about making them Scotland's leading force. At least on spending power, that claim can be made for the Gorgie side after a record £850,000 was paid to Racing Genk for 39-times capped Bosnian winger Mirsad Beslija and £500,000 lavished on striker Juho Makela to prise the 22-year-old Finn from HJK Helsinki.

These two will stake immediate claims for first-team involvement. While £20,000 capture from Oxford United Chris Hackett and teenage keeper Rais M'Bolhi are likely to be little-seen initially, also pitching for starting berths will be Portuguese midfielder Bruno Aguiar, recently freed by Benfica, and his young countryman Jose Goncalves. The 21-year-old defender signed a three-and-a-half year loan deal with Hearts straight after moving to glorified feeder club FBK Kaunas in a £700,000 deal from Swiss Champions League participants FC Thun.

Goncalves is now one of nine players at Hearts whose first club is ostensibly the Romanov-sponsored - not owned, mind - Lithuanian side, from where short-term signings Martin Petras, a 26-year-old defender, and 25-year-old striker Ludek Straceny were also lately acquired. The practice is not troubling FIFA, for the moment, but the huge influx of personnel has troubled some among the club's faithful. They believe squad unity and harmony, as well as continuity, could be destabilised in the drive to overhaul Celtic's eight-point Premierleague lead or, at least, prevent Rangers over-hauling their team for the other Champions League place.

Yet it was always head coach Graham Rix's intention to bring greater flair and fleet-footedness to a "thin" squad. In Beslija, Romanov has delivered him exactly such a type. Claimed to be one of the quickest players in Europe, his pace has not always proved a precious asset, though. In his first Champions League outing with Genk in 2000-03, he was hauled off as his team were on the receiving end of a record-equalling 6-0 hammering away to Real Madrid.

Beslija recovered from that to perform well in further section games against AS Roma and AEK Athens.

Summer league schedules and the odd injury problem mean few of the recent additions are match fit. That could delay, by a week or two, when such as Gonclaves will put pressure on Takis Fysass at left-back and Makela will vie with Calum Elliot and Michal Pospisil to be a frontline foil to Edgaras Jankauskas.

With fears that Roman Bednar might not return this season and Hearts over-reliant on midfielders Rudi Skacel and Paul Hartley for goals, attracting Makela - a youngster with 33 goals in 41 league games - surely represents sound business.

Still basking in the 4-1 derby win days earlier, Rix rejected the notion that recruiting a natural finisher was a necessity, however.

"It is great to have a 30-goal-a-year man in the team but look at our results," he said. "We scored five against Falkirk, four against Hibs and four against Dunfermline so we have been scoring goals."

The towering, sturdy Makela, who attributes his speed to an aptitude for hurdling as a youthful athlete, is convinced his input can tip the goalscoring balance towards the Hearts forward line.

"I can play both on the ground and in the air," he said. "I have always been at my best when I have a target player who takes the first ball and I take the second. But last season, when I was top scorer, I was lone striker and also took the first ball. I am very tall."

The desire to walk tall, and in the process belittle rivals, was probably behind several Kaunas-borrowed squad additions to Hearts last week.

But the pedigree of several fat-fee acquisitions could yet make Romanov's grandstanding come good.

Taken from the Scotsman