Aguiar urged to stay and use Europe as shop window

STUART BATHGATE
BRUNO Aguiar should agree a new deal with Hearts and use European football as a shop window, according to Csaba Laszlo.
The Portuguese midfielder is out of contract at the end of the season, and his agent has claimed that other clubs are interested in him. Laszlo, however, suggested that the best way to attract offers from big clubs was first to help Hearts qualify for next season's inaugural Europa League, and then to use that competition as a showcase.

"To be honest, the decision must come from Bruno," the Hearts manager said yesterday about the player, who made his comeback from long-term injury earlier this season. "Definitely we would like to keep him, and we give an offer to the player. He's a very good player.

"Bruno must specially think about his future. For 18 months he didn't play football and he got the chance from the club, from the manager, to come back.

"I think for Bruno at the moment it's very important for his confidence to grow. He's not an old player. He can maybe have next season a better club.

"I talk to the player and I say to him always: 'My friend, if you like to get more money, if you would like to get a better club, go to the Europa League group stages with Hearts, and after nobody stop you. Nobody can stop you, so many offers you have'. This is the same for (everyone].

"No-one is interested in you if you only play in the domestic league. If you play in European competition everyone is interested.

"Look at Nemanja Vidic. Three years ago he was offered to a small Hungarian club and they (dismissed the idea]. He play two or three good European games, and now he can buy from his own pocket three Hungarian clubs."

Four points clear in third place, Hearts remain firm favourites to claim one of Scotland's two places in the Europa League, which will replace the Uefa Cup and Inter-Toto Cup from next season. With six games to go – tomorrow's match at Falkirk and then the five post-split fixtures – Laszlo has calculated that a 50 per cent success rate will be enough.

"If we can win three out of the six remaining games I think we can qualify for Europe. I am indifferent if it is Falkirk or which matches."

With the teams which finish third and fourth in the SPL going into the Europa League, Laszlo's calculations are that Dundee United and Aberdeen, currently equal on points behind Hearts, will not both win more than four games. As they play each other after the split, it is impossible for both to emerge with maximum points from their last six games, and it is a reasonable bet that each will also lose another game somewhere along the way.

In his public utterances, Laszlo refused to look beyond qualifying for the top six until that target was attained. Now, though, he has started to look forward to the opening of the transfer window, and to what he would like to do during the summer in order to prepare for season 2009-10, when he hopes the club will be in European competition once more. "My wish is definitely about five or six players," he said when asked to what extent he wanted to add to his current squad. "We must look to see if it is possible. At the moment we don't have too many players.

"I'm discussing it with our director of football, Anatoly Korobochka. We have a meeting today after training – we have some names on our list which we will give to the board. I read Andy Driver said if we can keep the team together and get two or three new players we have a better team. It's a very important signal from a young player, and an important signal for the board. Driver, Lee Wallace, Michael Stewart have all talked positively about next season.

"At the moment we don't have so many players. We have Mike Tullberg, but I don't know if Reggina want him back. We have Gary Glen, we would like to give him more chances but he needs an experienced player with him. His body is always injured, the pressure is too high.

"Before we got Calum Elliot back, we only had Christian Nade up front.

"In the middle third we will have Black from Inverness. We must have another player on the left to cover Lee Wallace. We lost Berra and we only have two central defenders."

Taken from the Scotsman