Hearts boss Csaba wants to bring pride back in Europe

COLLEEN PATERSON
CSABA LASZLO would love to win a place in Europe next season so that he can bring some pride back to Scottish football.
The Hearts manager is targeting a third-place finish in the SPL, which would earn his team a spot in the Europa League.

This season, Scotland's representatives failed to make any impression on European competition, Motherwell were knocked out of t he UEFA Cup at the first hurdle by Nancy while Rangers suffered the same fate in the Champions League against FBK Kaunas and Celtic finished bottom of Group E.

Queen of the South, meanwhile, lost to Danish outfit Nordsjaelland in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup.

While there are still six games of the season to go, Hearts are five points ahead of nearest rivals Dundee United and Aberdeen and a victory over Falkirk at the weekend would edge them closer to a third-place finish.

Laszlo insists he needs to add to his squad in the summer and says that it is even more important if they want to make an impression on Europe.

He said: "It is no big secret that we need maybe four or maybe five new players in the summer and we must sit together with the board to make a decision on who we bring in.

"If we are to finish in a European place then we must have a team which can present Scottish football in a good light.

"I don't like to have the same situation as this season, Motherwell flew out in the first game of their UEFA Cup campaign, Rangers were knocked out of the Champions League and UEFA Cup and then Celtic were knocked directly out of the groups.

"Altogether Scottish clubs in European football must play better and we must bring a little bit of pride back.

"I would also like to have a little bit stronger team with some new players. We also have some players who are going to be out of contract in the summer and we must sit around the table with them to talk about their future and the club's future and at the moment we know that we have got a lot of work to do."

The striking department is the one area which Laszlo is particularly keen to strengthen, although the re-emergence of Calum Elliot has eased his worries in that department in recent weeks.

The hitman scored twice in the win over Kilmarnock and has played an increasingly prominent role in Laszlo's line-up of late and the Hearts boss is hoping that the overall increase in competition for places will help to further improve his side's goalscoring chances. He continued: "Calum has given us a lot more competition for Christian Nade and now also for Mike Tullberg, who is involved and in full training again. I think at the moment we have got more possibilities in the strikers position than we have had in a long time.

"And they are all playing better because of that, Calum played well against Celtic, as did Christian and I thought that Mike did well when he came on as a substitute.

"This is what I need and what the team needs. We need a front player who can score goals and if everyone is pushing the other players it can only be good for us."

Taken from the Scotsman