‘Enthusiastic’ McGowan not fazed by Hearts contract talks says McGlynn

Published on Friday 28 September 2012 01:37

RYAN McGowan has shown no sign of being distracted despite prolonged negotiations with Hearts over a new contract, John McGlynn has said.

The Tynecastle manager was responding to claims by the player’s agent, Lou Sticca, that an initial offer of a new deal was “demeaning” and that there had been no movement by the club over the past month.

McGowan, 23, is in the last year of his current contract, and turned down an offer to move to Rangers on the last day of the transfer window.

“I don’t see Ryan McGowan being distracted by contract talks, because negotiations have been going on for a while now,” McGlynn said yesterday.

“Ryan’s a bubbly character. He’s enthusiastic, and a real good lad to work with and have on the training pitch and in the dressing room.

“He’s the type you like to work with, because he’s always up to something mischievous and that’s the type of boy he is. He doesn’t seem to be down about things. He’s got a bright future, he’s still young and he’s still developing.”

McGlynn is convinced that McGowan would be best advised to stay at Hearts beyond his current contract, even though the club are no longer able to offer the kind of lucrative deal which they agreed with many players in previous years.

“There’s absolutely no doubt that the best place for him to continue his development for the next two or three years is Tynecastle. It’s negotiations, we all know how it works. They want a bit more but Hearts are having to cut back and haven’t been paying what they paid previously. That’s why we are where we are, so if in certain situations players are looking for the money they were getting 18 months or a year ago then it’s probably not going to happen. We have to cut our cloth accordingly and get back to a situation where we break even. That might determine certain issues with certain players.”

Sticca, who also represents McGowan’s younger brother and team-mate Dylan, argued earlier this week that the right-back deserved to have his loyalty rewarded for refusing that move to Rangers. “Ryan loves the club and would like to stay,” he said. “The player turned down a very lucrative offer to go to Rangers.

“It would have set him up for life. The player showed his loyalty to the club but so far it’s not been reciprocated. Hearts made an initial offer which was not much better than he is on at the moment. You could describe it as demeaning to Ryan. I’m a bit concerned with the lack of progress on that front.

“From 1 January, Ryan can sign with another club. We’re not the typical agent that looks forward to 1 January to get players moves, but Hearts are putting us in a situation that we will have to 
start looking at other options.”

McGowan’s versatility and athleticism have made him a valuable member of a Hearts squad who tomorrow bid to make it three wins in eight days when they welcome Kilmarnock to Tynecastle. A 3-0 victory at Tannadice last Saturday ended a run of six games without a win, then a 3-1 result against Livingston on Tuesday took them into the last eight of the League Cup.

“The win over Dundee United shows what we can do, as not many teams go to Tannadice and win 3-0,” McGlynn said. “Kilmarnock turned their season around to an extent when they beat Dundee United on a day when nobody really expected them to do that. Kilmarnock have kicked on since then but, hopefully, the United result is our spark. It should be a cracking game. We want to try to get the points on the board, especially at home where there are big crowds and expectation levels and you want the fans to come back.”

Hearts’ next fixtures are against Celtic and Motherwell, and with the top two meeting at Fir Park tomorrow, McGlynn hopes for a good result against Kilmarnock to help his club close the gap on the leaders. “We’ve got a trip to Celtic after Saturday – maybe not as formidable as in the past but always difficult – and, after that, we’ve got Motherwell. They’re flying at the top of the table and they play Celtic this weekend. Something has to give at Fir Park on Saturday so, if we can win, it could be tight at the top of the table and we could be going to Parkhead for some kind of top-of-the-table clash and then play Motherwell after that. I don’t have a crystal ball, but it could be interesting. That’s the way we want it to be, for us to be competing at the top of the table.

“We’ve all got a duty to make it difficult for Celtic. I think people expected them to have been further clear even by now. I know they’ve got a game in hand but people had them winning the league by Christmas, but we’re nearly in October and it’s still very tight.

“The fact Celtic are playing in the Champions League up until Christmas is a good opportunity for the other teams to keep as close to them as we can or even get ahead of them because you’d imagine, depending on how well they do in Europe, they’ll get stronger once they go out. We need to take the advantage between now and Christmas.”

Taken from the Scotsman