Hearts are continuing to work to land players this summer, and Football Scotland has revealed that the club have a centre-back as their top priority in the transfer market at present.
Have Hearts signed any players this summer?
The Scottish Premiership side have yet to make a single signing as of yet this summer, with the club instead seeing plenty of their own players head out the exit door. Josh Ginnelly, who featured 30 times for them in the league last season, has been allowed to leave and join Swansea for nothing for starters, which will be a blow to the club.
He bagged 12 SPL goals last time around and also had four assists – career-best totals for the winger. However, he opted not to stay on with the side and has now left for the Championship again,
Further to that, the Jam Tarts have also lost youngster Scott McGill to Raith Rovers. He only ever featured in one league outing for the side mind, and will now play his football elsewhere. Euan Henderson has left to join Hamilton, having spent four seasons in Edinburgh. He struggled to get going with Hearts though, scoring only three times in the league for them, and spent the 2022/23 season with Queen's Park. Five more players have also been let go.
Who has been linked with a Hearts transfer?
It means there is certainly room for more bodies and improvements in the squad as things stand. Hearts had been eager to wrap up a deal for Riku Handa, but that deal collapsed. The defender has featured heavily in Japan in the J1 and J2 Leagues for Gamba Osaka and Montedio, and it looked like a switch to Scotland could be on, but Steven Naismith and Co will have to move on to other targets.
According to a report from Football Scotland's reliable Mark Hendry, the Jambos have identified what area they would most like to strengthen this summer. Naismith, who is currently their technical director, has been working hard to find potential incomings and a central defender is seen as the main area for improvement this transfer window. It looks likely then that any linked names in the coming days and weeks will fall into that category.
Henry also adds that a right-back is also quite high up on the shopping list – so it appears that most of their focus, at least for now, will be on improving their backline in front of Zander Clark.
With Hearts finishing in an impressive fourth in the Scottish Premiership last season, they will not want to let their standards slip ahead of the new campaign. With Ginnelly having left, it will be hard to replace his goals and creativity. However, the Jam Tarts staff worked hard to take their team into the top four last time around and have proven their ability to do so. Supporters will have to trust that they can now get the job done again and bring in the right players this transfer window.
