CALUM ELLIOT has accepted that it is just a matter of time until he quits Hearts – he just wishes the Tynecastle club would hurry up and give him the green light to go.
The 21-year-old striker has fallen out of favour at Tynecastle in recent months and hasn't played a competitive match for the Jam Tarts since the beginning of May. Elliot made 24 appearances for Hearts in total in the last campaign, ten of those coming off the bench, but he only featured in one friendly game this summer – Csaba Laszlo's first match in charge against Glentoran – and was left at home as the rest of the squad headed to Germany for their pre-season training camp.

It's clear that he isn't part of Laszlo's plans for this season and Dunfermline, Livingston, Inverness and MK Dons have all been credited with an interest in taking the player themselves.

But, with less than a fortnight to go until the transfer window closes, Elliot knows that time is running out for him to secure a move elsewhere – particularly as some of the clubs linked with him have been forced to look elsewhere because of the length of time they've been forced to wait.

Elliot, whose last goals for the club came in the 3-0 win away to Inverness, the youngster hitting a brace in that game back in March, conceded: "I will be leaving, it is just a matter of Hearts letting me go.

"I feel like I'm being messed about now, I just need to get away and hopefully they will realise that soon and something will be sorted as quickly as possible because I just want to be back playing football.

"Every player is the same, all you want to do is be out there on the pitch every week.

"It has been even more frustrating for me because I know that there has been interest shown in me but because clubs have had to wait so long, they've had to look elsewhere because the transfer window will be closing soon.

"It puts you in a dodgy situation, you start to wonder if something is going to happen now.

"But I hope that something can be sorted out in the next week or so because I can't keep training and playing with the reserves for the rest of the season. I think I might go off my head if that happens."

At the moment, Elliot is training and playing with the reserve side and having been a first-team regular just a matter of a year ago, it is a situation which the striker admits he is finding difficult to accept.

While insisting that he would be happy to remain at Tynecastle if he thought that he had a chance of winning his place back in the side, he conceded that a fresh start somewhere else would be the best solution for all parties concerned: "It's difficult for me right now because I know that my future lies elsewhere. And it's hard to go into training all week and prepare, knowing that you don't even have a chance of being involved.

"But I think that there are a lot of boys in the same boat and it's time that someone came and told us what is happening. We've all been left in limbo.

"Someone needs to get it sorted out because a lot of people are being messed about. I need to be playing.

"If I had to, I would stay at Hearts if I thought that there was a chance of me being involved.

"But I think that everybody knows that I probably need a fresh start somewhere else.

"I just need to be playing football and I think that everyone at the club knows that and it would be good if someone could just get the ball rolling so that I can move on.

"I don't know why things are taking so long. I'm ready to play again. My fitness is there, I've been working hard in pre-season and doing everything that I can to make sure that my fitness levels are up where they should be.

"But I've not played any games so I don't have the match sharpness yet. Once I get a few games under my belt hopefully it won't take me too long to get that back."

Elliot, who was loaned out to Motherwell for three months last season, came through Hearts' youth system before signing professionally in July 2004. While the last few months of his Hearts career have been soured somewhat by his protracted departure and the reaction to his inclusion in the starting line-up by some Jambos supporters, he admits that it will still be a huge wrench to leave Edinburgh if he does indeed move for pastures new over the next ten days, although mainly for family reasons.

He continued: "It will be difficult for me to leave a lot of the people at the club because, having spent such a long time there, I've made a lot of good friends.

"It will be harder to leave Edinburgh though, because this is where my family and my girlfriend are.

"But it's part and parcel of football. It happens to players all over the country and you have just got to accept it is happening to you, although it is difficult.

"Hopefully what I've been through over the last season or so will help to make me a stronger character and mean that I am able to deal with what is thrown at me in the future.

"I certainly think that I am a stronger person already but the only way I can find out for sure is to get back to playing football.

"It's what I love doing."

Despite his lack of game time for Hearts in recent months, Elliot was still part of Billy Stark's 22-man squad for last night's vital UEFA Under-21 Championships qualifier against Lithuania.

The young hitman came on as a first-half substitute in Marijampole for the injured Aberdeen striker Charlie Mulgrew as the Scots eased to a 3-0 victory that keeps them in contention to qualify for the finals.

He looked dangerous throughout the 62 minutes he was on the pitch, coming close with a header that beat the keeper but bounced over the crossbar.

Elliot was just delighted to be involved with the national side, and said: "I've not really played a game this season so it was good to have some involvement with a competitive match.

"It was good to be involved in training and preparing for a big match.

" It is always good to come away and work with Billy and Jim and to see how other coaches and players work.

"I just love being involved and it's good to be involved with your national team, no matter what level it is at.

"And we have got a really strong squad now, there are a lot of good players involved at Under-21s now.

"It's a good break from your own club. It's a bit like a fresh start for me, it's good to do that and to prepare and concentrate on your national team and to focus on that for a change, particularly because there has been so much at stake for us recently with the qualifying campaign.

"I want to start every game for Scotland – as does every player I suppose.

"But, the position that I am in just now, to get any kind of game time right now would be good.

"But just being involved is great right now."

Taken from the Scotsman