Hearts boss has Giorgi on his mind

HEARTS head coach Valdas Ivanauskas has revealed he is ready to offer Georgian international full-back Giorgi Popkhadze a permanent deal at Tynecastle.

The 19-year-old, who is equally comfortable on the left side of defence or midfield, has been on trial with Hearts at their pre- season training camp in Austria for the last seven days.
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He impressed during Saturday's 3-1 defeat of Spartak Trnava in Windischgarsten but sat out last night's 1-1 draw with the Romanian side FC Cluj in Stainach.

Ivanauskas wants the five-cap Georgian to become his first signing since being appointed as permanent head coach, but admits he is less than enamoured by other trialists Tiago Costa and Ales Urbanek.

The Lithuanian said: "One trialist did okay for us, but the others are not ready to play for Hearts.

"Popkhadze did well. He has a future, a big future, if he keeps working hard. Tiago played for ten minutes last night but I need more.

"We will wait because we have time. Maybe we will get a look at Tiago and Urbanek in further training sessions and the next games. They could come back to Scotland with us.

"We need to choose the players that will be able to play for us in the first Champions League qualifier and in the opening league games."

Ivanauskas went on to bemoan a hamstring injury sustained by his compatriot Nerijus Barasa last night.

Five minutes after replacing Julien Brellier against Cluj, Barasa had to be withdrawn and will now miss the start of the season.

"It's very unlucky for Nerijus because this was going to be a big season for him after coming to Hearts, yet in a second his hamstring has gone," said Ivanauskas. "It's awful for him and I think he will miss the start of the season.

"Maybe it was because of the hard training sessions we have had but this is normal in pre-season, and Nerijus knows how serious pre-season is. He encountered the same thing in Russia. Now we need to wait and see how he is. For him it will be difficult, especially psychologically but we will talk to him.

"It was a very good test for us against Cluj. Romanian football is very interesting and technically it's very strong. For us the 1-1 result was okay in our third game but we lost a goal in the last minute and I am very angry about that.

"We have such an experienced team and this shouldn't be possible.

"It wasn't a mistake, we were just playing our own way and we will keep doing that. Now we have more tests coming against Preston and Osasuna.

"The guys are working hard. I was not happy with the performance but I can't argue with how hard they have been working."

Hearts are likely to face Siroki Brijeg in their Champions League qualifier later this month after the Bosnian champions won 1-0 against Shakhtyor Soligorsk in Belarus last night in the first leg of the qualifying first round.

The solitary goal came courtesy of striker Ivan Bubalo on 28 minutes and the second leg takes place in Bosnia next Wednesday.

Meanwhile, unsettled Czech midfielder Rudi Skacel is close to negotiating a transfer from Tynecastle and could join former manager George Burley at Southampton by next week.