SPFL allow Hearts to extend Wilson deal

Graeme Macpherson
Football Writer
Monday 1 July 2013

HEARTS were yesterday informed that Danny Wilson will be permitted to remain with the club next season.

The defender's loan agreement from Liverpool expired at midnight last night and, with Hearts under a transfer embargo as a result of going into administration, it was thought Wilson would not be able to finalise the three-year contract he agreed with the Tynecastle club earlier in the month.

The Scottish Professional Football League, however, have decreed the deal constituted a contract extension, rather than a registration, and therefore did not break the terms of the embargo. The 21-year-old has taken a pay cut – thought to be in the region of 50%, as several other members of the Hearts squad have already done – to remain at the club.

With Hearts' administrators BDO having made redundant 14 non- playing staff, as well as striker John Sutton who elected not to take a pay cut, the recruitment of Wilson may generate some controversy but Gary Locke, the Hearts manager, felt it was the right move for the club and the player. "The administration has made no difference to his status," Locke said of a player who also spent time on loan at Blackpool and Bristol City before arriving at Tynecastle in January.

"I appreciate there have been some difficult decisions made regarding player redundancies. But given that Danny has agreed to a wage cut and is happy to be playing for Hearts, this gives us an opportunity to improve the team, so why wouldn't we jump at the chance to have him in our side?"

A statement from the SPFL, the governing body created by the merger of the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League, read: "The SPFL player registration of Hearts player Danny Wilson would, had he not agreed a contract extension, have terminated on 30 June. The SPFL has now received documents extending the contract of the player.

"As a result, the player's existing SPFL registration is automatically extended and is not affected by the embargo on new SPFL player registrations currently in place on Heart of Midlothian FC as a result of Heart of Midlothian plc (in administration) being in administration."

Taken from the Herald