Beniusis: Champs League, Then Hearts

Lithuanian striker Ricardas Beniusis will apparently become a Hearts player as soon as his current club, FBK Kaunas, are eliminated from next season’s Champions League.

The striker has been linked with a move to Hearts for a while now and is one of the few Lithuanian players that the fans have some genuinely high hopes for, with his record this season of 16
goals in 15 games speaking for itself. However, Romanov wants to make sure that Kaunas have the best possible opportunity to make progress in Europe’s premier club competition, and allowing Beniusis to play in it would appear to fit in with that policy.

Kaunas face Montenegro side FC Zeta in their first qualifier and should they manage to negotiate that tie, they will face the ‘might’ of Glasgow Rangers. Some have suggested that this is effectively a bye to the group stages, but perhaps that’s a tad harsh!

Of his impending move to Hearts, Beniusis said:

‘I spoke with Mr Romanov and I told him I need to know some details on my future. He said: ‘Don’t worry, everything will work out well. We want to try you in Scotland.’ He said the move will happen 100 per cent after Kaunas’ Champions League campaign is over.

‘Two years ago I was in Scotland for training and now it’s difficult for me to believe I could be a Hearts player.

‘I think it needs some time to sink in. I don’t know if it will happen in two weeks’ time or a month or whatever.

‘Mr Romanov said the move to Scotland would be very good for me but I try not to think about it too much until it happens. I need to prepare for the Champions League with Kaunas and I must help the club in the Lithuanian league because there are three teams fighting at the top of the table.’

Hearts do need to strengthen the striking department and this guy’s record does sound impressive, but it’s unclear to me how the standard of the league he’s in at the moment compares to the SPL. It’s very easy to assume that it’s not as high, but I don’t think we should be as ignorant as that. We’ll leave that sort of nonsense to the English at World Cup time!

The guy is evidently a goalscorer and is therefore worth taking a chance on. Sometimes these moves work, sometimes they don’t. Dennis Wyness is probably the last example I can think of when Hearts took a player who scored goals in another league who didn’t do the business in ours. But others have been able to maintain and even improve their standards after making the move, so let’s hope this boy falls into the latter category.