Ex-Hearts striker Pospisil would love return to Capital

BARRY ANDERSON
VIKTORIA ZIZKOV have welcomed former Hearts striker Michal Pospisil back with open arms.
Having procured him on loan from Belgian club Sint-Truiden, the official Zizkov website talks of him rescuing a side languishing second bottom of the Czech Gambrinus Liga.

For Pospisil, heading home is the means to an end. His short-term loan at Zizkov, a team he represented with distinction between 2000 and 2002, expires simultaneously with his Sint-Truiden contract in June, and thereafter he has another homecoming in mind – a return to Scotland.

Two-and-a-half years with Hearts saw Pospisil and his family fall in love with Edinburgh. Wife Gabriella and two-year-old son David decamped with the player to Belgium in January last year and, although happy with the subsequent return to Zizkov, the move is seen as strictly a temporary one.

Pospisil, 29, hopes an SPL club will see fit to gamble on what is likely to be one of the summer's more alluring free transfers. If he can help Zizkov avoid relegation, he may also facilitate his own promotion.

"I hoped I could move back to Scotland in January but for now I am back in the Czech Republic," he said. "This is good news for me just now because I played with Zizkov before. It's familiar to me and it's a family club with good players and a good coach. My family are back home so they are a little bit more settled too.

"Everything depends on how I play over the next few months. I must focus on my football just now. I will be a free player in the summer so, if everything is going well, I would like to look abroad again. Scotland would be one of the best possibilities for me. I heard about some interest in the last transfer window but I did not speak to anyone personally. There was nothing serious."

He jokes about the possibility of a Hearts return. "I heard they need a striker. They should have called me in January." His wage bill - 4000 euros a week - might be one reason why they didn't, but he would be unlikely to refuse the opportunity now even on reduced terms.

"I cannot imagine it because when I finished at Hearts they were quite happy to sell me. In football you never know," he continued. "There is a new manager now, I don't know who has the power to pick the team there but I would not say no. I really liked the supporters in Edinburgh.

"In England, the Championship is a great competition and I would also like to play there. Primarily, I like British football and in Scotland we found all the people to be very friendly. I know the football there and I have a lot of friends there. It would be fantastic to go back. We love it there and it would be no problem moving again.

"I have told my agent to speak with Scottish clubs but there are only 12 teams in the SPL. England has much more clubs so maybe there will be more options there during the summer."

Pospisil's Hearts career peaked in spring 2006 when he and compatriots like Roman Bednar and Rudi Skacel helped guide the club to Scottish Cup success and a Champions League qualifying place.

He left for Sint-Truiden after falling drastically out of favour, which the striker blames on Angel Chervenkov's refusal to play him regularly. He encountered the same frustration this season after Sint-Truiden suffered relegation to Belgium's second division and replaced head coach Dennis van Wijck, the man who brought him to the Limburg club.

"Last season I played all the games after I arrived and I was happy," said Pospisil.

"Then in the summer they sacked the coach and the team was relegated. Under the new coach I did not get enough opportunities to play so I wasn't happy. We had to find another solution.

"They were very open for me to move, they wanted to do it as much as me. It was quite simple in that way because we both had a desire to do this and that's why I came back to Zizkov."

A hero's welcome greeted Pospisil back in the Czech Republic. However, in football terms, home will always be where the heart is.

Taken from the Scotsman