Hearts’ new signing Fernando Screpis could be some weeks away from first team action, according to caretaker manager Stevie Frail
The Argentinian midfielder, our owning new signing in the January transfer window, played in a reserve match against Motherwell at Forthbank in Stirling yesterday. However although he reportedly did pretty well for the hour or so he was on the field, his match sharpness has some way to go before he’ll be considered for first team action.
Frail told the Scotsman:
‘It will take him a while to get used to the pace of Scottish football and the way that we want him to play.
‘Everyone can see that he has got a good touch, good feet and good ability but we need him to be a bit more dynamic. That will come with time and games though, and this is what these reserve games are all about for him right now.
‘He is very aware of things around about him but he will have to realise that when you are in Scottish football you don’t get the time that you maybe would in other countries and there are always people in there nipping at your feet.
‘But he will adapt to that, it’s all a learning curve for him as well and I’m sure it won’t take him long to get used to it.
‘He’s certainly keen to be involved.
‘We have run some tests on him and he has a wee bit to find in terms of fitness, but hopefully with hard work in training he will not be too far away.
‘We’re probably looking at a couple of weeks before we can say that he’s fully up to speed.’
Not knowing an awful lot about Screpis, it’s hard to tell whether or not he will be a positive signing for the club. Given what’s gone before it’s very easy to be a little bit pessimistic, and that way of thinking wasn’t aided by the less-than-complimentary comment about the player made on this site a few weeks ago by a Kaunas fan regarding his abilities! However until we see him for ourselves we can’t make any judgements.
One worrying thing though, is that it sounds from another of Frail’s quotes that Screpis could essentially be a clone of Ruben Palazuelos, who has done a reasonably capable job in the Hearts midfield at times, but really no more than that. This is the comment I’m referring to:
Frail: ‘The good thing about bringing him in is that is increases the competition for places again. We’ve all seen how well Ruben has done over the last few months and they are both in the same position. So Fernando knows that he will have to do even better if he wants to get a regular place in the first team.’
I appreciate that some Hearts fans like Ruben, but to me he’s a flatterer very much in the Thomas Flogel mould from what I’ve seen i.e. a couple of tricks and nice turns during the 90 minutes make people think that he’s had a good game, despite doing very little else. I sincerely hope that Screpis brings a bit more to the table……….
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We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we. Like Ruben though, I expect it will take him a bit of time (probably until next season) before he really finds his feet and we know what he’s capable of. Unlike you though MrH, I’ve been impressed by Ruben this season… think he’s a player. His off-the-ball work is as good as anyone in a Hearts jersey in recent years.
I’d disagree on the evidence I’ve seen so far – I think his tracking back leaves a lot to be desired and is one of the main reasons why we’ve lost goals from the midfield area. Very weak in the tackle too…in my opinion!
Football is a game of opinions mate! And opinions are like a**eholes… everyone’s got one! 🙂
Indeed….as a matter of interest did you rate Thomas Flogel?
I did when he first arrived, but then he kind of went off the boil a bit. Still part of the 1998 cup winning team though, so forever a legend.
I’m starting to wonder if Frail’s regular claim about players not being fit enough are his version of “Vlad-flu”. Could this be a smokescreen to cover the fact that a player isn’t good enough – or perhaps isn’t responding to his coaching ? He’s made these claims for Nade, Zaliukas, Elliot, Beniusis and Makela in recent months as well.
As for Ruben – I see both points of view being debated here. But given that he’s a young lad who has definitely improved over the last 3 months, I would certainly rate him as 1st team material.
As for Flogel – he was a very skilful player – composed on the ball, good tackler, good passer. But often his performance fell below what he was capable of. I liked him though – he played at a time when quality oozed from almost every position. Changed days, eh ?
Certainly so. Flogel was bought to play in Cameron’s position but there really was no comparison there. So Tam had to be content with being asked to play wherever a position became available, so perhaps that’s why he ultimately disappointed more often than not. No question he had skill, but he wasn’t as effective as the technically inferior Cameron.