There have been a few doubts over the past few days as to whether or not Andrius Velicka’s move to Viking Stavanger was indeed set to go ahead, but he has now apparently completed his move to the Norwegian club.
Local reports this afternoon are indicating that the deal is indeed worth £1 million overall, with £600K going to UBIG (Mr Romanov’s company) initially and the rest coming after Velicka makes his 50th appearance for Viking. I suppose in that case they’d better hope he doesn’t get a serious injury early in his career over there!
I think the timing of this move is a shame from the point of view that Velicka could have gone onto become a star for Hearts. At the time of writing I would still say that, despite his impressive goalscoring ratio, the jury was still out on him as a player at Tynecastle to a certain extent. But he was certainly well on his way to proving that he had the capabilities of being one of the better frontmen that Hearts have had in recent times, so therefore it’s a shame that he wasn’t given more time here, perhaps until a proper management team is installed (if that ever happens), to see what he could truly do.
Sadly we won’t get that opportunity now, and along with a series of other players like Roman Bednar, Rudi Skacel and Julien Brellier, we are witnessing a potentially great Hearts player being sold on before we really had the chance to see him fulfilling his true potential.
Still, this does now create opportunities for the other forwards at Hearts. The question is, are any of them up to the challenge?
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Elliot & Mole up front tomorrow night – Rangers must be jobbying themselves!!! I’ve said this umpteen times before but why not give Makela the proverbial kick at the baw?? We’ve paid money for him so why the hell not use him? Direct quote from the HMFC website says “he has enormous potential ……”
It will be interesting to follow his progress in Norway (a 4 year contract ?). Will he manage to become a regular scorer there ? As I’ve said a few time on here, we desparately need some expert coaching for the strikers – surely Nade, Elliott and Mole would benefit, as well as the U-19 lads. Without that, I can’t see any of them progressing. Anyway, lets hope Davie Weir slices a couple of tame daisy-cutter shots past McGregor tomorrow night to keep our goals “for” column on the move.
I think Nade certainly has to start, but who’s to bet Frail will play one up front with no29 behind?
Oh well. I reckon I would start Nade and “Anne Other” I believe Makela should be given a chance too. Surely he has to be an improvement on Elliott.
I also think its safe to say Kingston will go in the summer. Which I suppose I always knew would happen but like the times of Alan McLaren and big Davie I always hoped they didn’t. By the time McCann went I realised we could never keep true talent at the club.
Dalien – a big irony of our situation now is that we DO have the resources to keep talented players at Hearts for longer than we used to. We probably got a couple of extra years from Hartley and Gordon. But now the well has run dry (apart from Kingston), Maybe the regime will be expecting Frail to persevere with Benni-useless until he scores a goal, so they can showcase him for year or 2 and flog him. Actually it will probaby take a year or 2 for him to score one goal.
Quote from the BBC, attributed to Stevie Frail: “We also have one of the top young prospects in Scotland with Calum Elliot.”. There are times when words just fail me. This is one of those times. 🙁
Just get tore into the ****s tonight please. They’ve been riding their luck long enough now.
TDBhoy – happy to oblige (hopefully). However, for “riding their luck” please see your own result last weekend!
HAHA GOT TO LAUGH AT TDBHOYS COMMENT, CLOSE GAME TONIGHT BUT I FEEL ITS A RANGERS WIN, 1-0 🙂
Admittedly we were very lucky, but that was one game. I’m talking about the entire season (and having McCurry ref the Old Firm game!). I can feel a dubious penalty award for Rangers…a red card for a Hearts player…and a goal for the home team chalked off…would I be wrong for feeling this way?
GERS.72 – caps lock laddie! Stop shouting.
TDBhoy – ah, so you’ve watched Hearts vs O.F. games before then? (and no, it’s not just Rangers either, sadly…)
Every aspect of this deal makes no sense what so ever! Wy not keep our top goal scorer til the end of the season where he can help Hearts with a real lack of fire power. If kept to the end of the season he would also be opened up to alot more markets therefore increasing the competition for the player and hopefully raising the selling on price for Kaunus to pocket (?). Another stupid decision clearly made by some ars*hole sitting on a couch. Thanks.