Hearts On Verge Of A Major Clear-out?

Hearts could be set for a serious clear-out in the summer as several of their first team playing squad approach the end of their current contracts.

Although much of today’s article in the Evening News on this subject is devoid of direct quotes to back up several of the suggestions it includes, you cannot deny that our club are ripe for this sort
of treatment in the near future given the overall contract situation right now. First team squad members, Bruno Aguiar, Jamie MacDonald, Anthony Basso, Robbie Neilson and Hristos Karipidis all have less than six months left to go on their current deals, and although there’s every chance that Csaba will want to keep some of these guys on beyond that (Aguiar is currently believed to be re-negotiating an extension for example), there has to be a chance that all of these guys could end up leaving, particularly if younger and cheaper alternatives are identified by the manager.

Also, several of the loan agreements with FBK Kaunas are also coming to an end in the summer, and that affects Saulius Mikoliunas, Deividas Cesnauskis, Marius Zaliukas, Marian Kello and Adrian Mrowiec. Also affected is Mike Tullberg, whose loan from Reggina is also up in May. Although some might say that these guys are almost certain to leave the club in the summer though, it could be that they’ll be more likely than those on permanent contracts to remain at the club, as the likes of the Lithuanian players are rumoured to be on particularly low wages in comparison to the rest of the squad. I guess a lot will depend on a) how much Csaba wants to retain their services and b) which clubs, if any, are interested in signing them outright.

It is a situation that Csaba Laszlo was aware of as soon as he took the Hearts managers’ job last summer, and subsequently anything that he’s done in terms of moving players around has been done with this at the forefront of his mind. One case in point would be the introduction of Janos Balogh to the squad, a player that Csaba viewed as a ‘young and talented’ alternative to the likes of Steve Banks at the time he was brought in. The manager said:

‘This is an interesting situation. I think in the summer Mr Romanov will run a lot of contracts out.

‘Then we must have new construction and new plans, maybe it will be a completely new team. This is interesting for the players. The ones we have must show good performances to stay with us. We are trying to build a team for the summer and next season which has a good mixture of youth and experience. Janos Balogh was the first step because we would like to keep our young talented players. We must also keep some experience because you must have leaders on the field.

‘I don’t know if we will lose players before the transfer window closes but I know that in May, if our players continue their performances, some of them will be very interesting for big clubs. The summer is really the big shopping opportunity. There will be very interesting movement in all clubs, and especially in my club.’

‘The young players have done so well for my team. I also try to give the chance for Gary Glen and we have Calum Elliot back now. Until we sell we cannot buy players. At the moment we must work with the players we have.

‘If you need a player in January he must be able to play in your team immediately. You don’t have enough time to bring somebody in the team who will guarantee 100 per cent performance. The biggest changes will be in summer.’

So, a fair bit of pressure will be on the players then if any of them have aspirations of staying at the club. I suppose in a way that can only be a good thing – we know what can happen when players get themselves on a lucrative five-year deal, particularly those who don’t have any particular affiliation with Hearts. I’m talking of course about complacency, which can present itself in the extreme in some cases, although with a manager as emotional as Csaba it’s perhaps less of a concern that this will happen at the club these days, but you never know.

Definitely some interesting times ahead….