Gary Locke wants fresh faces at Hearts

By BARRY ANDERSON
Published on 13/05/2013 12:00

HEARTS manager Gary Locke will welcome more trialists to Riccarton this week and 
explained that he wants to add “a freshness” to his squad as soon as possible.

Following yesterday’s Edinburgh derby defeat, Locke will intensify attempts to recruit new players for next season.

Leigh Griffiths and Ross Caldwell scored the goals as Hibs won at Tynecastle for the first time in four years. At the end of a campaign in which Hearts have failed to beat their Edinburgh rivals in five attempts, the manager is now looking to increase competition for places.

Fulham defender James Musa and Arsenal midfielder Josh Rees trained with Hearts last week and have now returned to their respective clubs. Locke revealed today that he intends to bring more players in on trial after spending several weeks scouting heavily in England.

“There might be another one or possibly two trialists arriving this week,” he told the Evening News. “I’d rather not discuss names at the moment. We’re looking all over the place at the minute because we want to bring a bit of freshness to the club. That would stand us in good stead for next season.”

On Musa and Rees, he continued: “They trained for a week and now they’ve gone home. I think it’s important at this stage of the season to have 
trialists coming in and get a wee look at players. A lot of clubs are in the same position as 
ourselves. We’re working very hard behind the scenes so 
hopefully we can get one or two new faces in.”

Locke admitted he was left deflated by Hearts’ performance yesterday. “The way we performed was the disappointing thing,” he complained. “We never really got going and to lose right at the end is a sore one.”

Taken from the Scotsman