Laszlo tells Basso he has no future at Tynecastle

Laszlo will continue with the veteran Steve Banks as first-choice goalkeeper, backed up by Jamie MacDonald, and has informed Basso that he must seek pastures new with a year remaining on his Hearts contract.

The goalkeeper was left in Edinburgh during the club's ten-day tour of Germany last month after breaking club discipline in an altercation with a reserve player. That appeared to seal his fate less than two weeks into Laszlo's reign.

The manager said today. "I hope as soon as possible Anthony Basso will find another club. I am not involved in which club he will go to but I wish him all the best and I hope he can get back playing football again. This is between the player, the club and his agent."

Basso's representative is Tomasso Angelini, a Livingston director, who is currently trying to persuade Hearts to accept a loan deal for the 29-year-old.

Although willing to place his faith in Banks, Laszlo is not keen for his first-choice goalkeeper to continue his dual role as goalkeeping coach.

"Steve at the moment is number one, Jamie MacDonald is number two and I have given them the responsibility.

"I am not happy and I want to change the goalkeeper situation very quickly. I want to have a goalkeeper or a goalkeeper coach," said the Hungarian.

One goalkeeper not likely to be re-appearing in Edinburgh is Antti Niemi, whose agent has dismissed suggestions of the Finn's return to Hearts.

"We wouldn't rule anything out but we haven't heard anything from Hearts nor have we approached them," said Richard Cody.

"Antti is likely to leave Fulham but he is injured at the moment. He could return to Scotland but he has lots of options and there has been no contact with Hearts."

Goals from Michael Stewart, Audrius Ksanavicius and Saulius Mikoliunas featured in Hearts' 3-2 victory over Motherwell on Saturday. David Clarkson replied twice for the visitors but Laszlo was delighted to open the SPL campaign with a rousing victory.

Laszlo revealed that intense preparations had taken place before the match to ensure Hearts were able to match Mark McGhee's UEFA Cup qualifiers.

"On Friday I was working from 8am until 9pm at the academy. My coaching staff were there, we watched videos of Motherwell," he explained. "I don't go to sleep, if you go to sleep you lose a lot of possibilities. If I have a holiday maybe I can sleep, but if you sleep now you cannot have a job and I would like to keep my job. If I lose the job I have time to sleep."

Taken from the Scotsman