Klim can be a hit at Hearts

BARRY ANDERSON
THE president of the Lithuanian Football Federation, Liutauras Varanavicius, today endorsed Hearts trialist Arunas Klimavicius as a player ideally suited to Scottish football.
Klimavicius began a week-long trial at Riccarton yesterday with Hearts seeking a replacement for the recently departed Christophe Berra. Former Falkirk striker Graham Barrett is also training with the club and hoping to impress manager Csaba Laszlo.

Klimavicius, a 19-cap Lithuanian internationalist, recently trained with Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem after leaving Dinamo Moscow in Russia. As a free agent he is not bound by transfer window regulations

Varanavicius, a former Tynecastle director, believes the defender would enhance his career prospects by moving to Edinburgh and could easily adapt to the Scottish league.

"Arunas is a prosperous player within our national team and, if he keeps gaining in experience, he will be one of our most established players," he said.

"He has been a regular in the national team for the last two years. Definitely, he has developed well in Moscow. Russian football is quite similar to Scottish football and I think, with this experience, he can really do a lot to develop his career.

"From the national team's point of view, it is most important that he is developing.

"He was without a contract and I think that any deal to help him develop is a good idea. Hearts is a good place to develop. It's good for the player and it's good for us."

Klimavicius began his career with FK Ekranas in Lithuania and joined Dinamo Moscow in 2007. Varanavicius cited the 26-year-old's versatility as one of his strongest assets.

"He can play central defence, left-back or right-back. He is what we call a universal player," he added. "We have tried him in all positions but with the national team he mostly plays on the right or on the left.

"He is quite good in the air and has scored a couple of goals for Lithuania. Our national coach (Jose Couceiro] values the player very much."

Laszlo said the player will be given every chance to prove himself worthy of a contract at Hearts. "We're bringing Arunas across to Edinburgh so we can look at him more closely with the first-team," he explained.

"After that, we will decide together whether or not he might be a candidate to join us."

Hearts have agreed compensation with Stenhousemuir after signing two of the Third Division club's most promising youth players. Brothers Colin and Jack Hamilton, 16 and 14 respectively, have followed in the footsteps of former Stenhousemuir forward David Templeton by joining the youth academy at Riccarton.

Stenhousemuir's head of youth development, Campbell Money, said: "The deal has been completed with the two lads moving to Hearts and we wish them all the best for the future.

"Both of them have been with us since they were about 12 or 13 and we are delighted to see them move on."

Taken from the Scotsman