Hibs chase Jambo Hackett

HIBS want discarded Hearts winger Chris Hackett to cross Edinburgh's footballing divide and join up at Easter Road for next season.

The former Oxford United player is free to leave Tynecastle along with his fellow Englishman Lee Johnson after interim head coach Valdas Ivanauskas declared that neither player has a future at Hearts.

That has brought a number of propositions for Hackett in particular, with Hibs being rivalled by Motherwell, Kilmarnock and three English league clubs, for his signature.

Hackett has been informed that he is once more being pursued by Tony Mowbray after rejecting Hibs' advances just six months ago. The 23-year-old spoke with representatives from Easter Road back in January about a possible move from Oxford before eventually opting for a £20,000 transfer to Hearts.

"Some of the clubs that are interested in me now were in for me back in January," said Hackett today. "Hibs were interested in me before I signed for Hearts, along with a few other clubs. That was during the last transfer window and my agent has told me that there are a few club interested again.

"I've bought a house in Edinburgh, I really like the city and that's why I want to stay here.

"The people have been great to me and I've settled in really well because it's a lovely place."

Hackett would become the second Hearts player inside a year to accept overtures from Hibs after Michael Stewart's defection from Tynecastle last summer.

However, the Englishman fronts up at Hearts' Riccarton training base tomorrow morning willing to begin pre-season preparations with the rest of the squad, but mindful that his flirtation with Tynecastle may be involuntarily coming to a conclusion.

He added: "Valdas told your newspaper that I was free to go but I haven't actually managed to speak to him yet. My agent has been speaking to the club but I will go and speak to Valdas personally when I get in tomorrow.

"Obviously there have been other clubs interested in me but I'm still in the dark about whether I have a place at Hearts because the communication hasn't been that good. I have to find out what's going on."

Two unnamed Championship sides are also monitoring Hackett's situation in Edinburgh.

However, previous interest from League One in the shape of Carlisle United may have ended following the sudden departure of their manager Paul Simpson for Preston North End.

Simpson admitted earlier this month that he had strong intentions of luring Hackett south, and it remains to be seen if he continues his interest in his new position at Deepdale.

Rudi Skacel and Andy Webster are expected to return to Riccarton tomorrow. They will then fly out to the south of France at the end of the week, where they will spend seven days doing body-conditioning work.

The club's pre-season training camp will be in Austria from July 3-13, and will include three friendly matches, one against LASK Linz in the town of Windischgarsten on Wednesday, July 5. Linz are the former club of Hearts' teenage Bulgarian striker, Branimir Kostadinov.

Taken from the Scotsman