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00:00Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Hearts Digest podcast with Edinburgh Evening

00:09News Hearts Correspondent Barry Anderson and I'm your host Martin Simpson.

00:13It's been another busy week at Tyne Castle, a dramatic, a dramatic nil-nil draw, that

00:19doesn't sound right saying but I suppose it was with the late penalty, a dramatic nil-nil

00:23draw at Pataudry for the Jambos at the weekend and of course also all the latest transfer

00:29news coming out of the club which as always we'll start with during the January transfer

00:34window our weekly Hearts transfer bulletin and I think probably the best place to start

00:42here Barry might be with Lawrence Shankland because we can do a quick bit of housekeeping

00:48here reports came out of Turkey that he'd been linked with a move there pretty quickly

00:54probably shot down by the club and also in the Scottish press

00:58Yeah, Neil Critchfield spoke about that after the match at Aberdeen, just said that they

01:05hadn't received any offer and no sort of approach from the Turkish side, Ahmed Spor who play

01:13in the Turkish first league, it's the second tier of the Turkish league system so I would

01:18be, I mean they'd have to throw, there may well be interest there from Ahmed Spor and

01:24Shankland but in terms of any approach to Hearts that hasn't happened and they'd have

01:27to throw I think quite a bit of money to tempt Shankland from the top flight in Scotland

01:32to the second tier of Turkey, they are ambitious and they want to try and get into the Turkish

01:36Super League but whilst they're a second tier side I think that move, that's a very ambitious

01:41move from their perspective.

01:43Just on Shankland since we're speaking about him, not necessarily transfer related but

01:47when will we see him back in a Hearts shirt do you think because he missed a game at Aberdeen

01:51again?

01:52Yeah, I think the calf issue is improving, not obviously ready to play yet, you would

01:57hope I think by the end of the month that he's back in a squad at some stage, if not

02:03then very early February, it's not a long term issue we're told but enough obviously

02:08to keep him out of action at the moment and you would have to say that Liam Boyce is obviously

02:15gone now, we'll touch on that in a minute but the way he came in and filled in for Shankland

02:19in that sort of deep line forward role was terrific and Hearts really benefited from

02:23that in the games against Ross County, Motherwell, Dundee United, those three games that he played

02:28in and his understanding with James Wilson, I think we spoke about that last week, was

02:33great to see just the old head and the young head together linking up and Boyce's intelligence,

02:38Wilson's movement, energy, I enjoyed watching that and I think a lot of Hearts fans did

02:43as well.

02:45I wonder if that might be a position that they look to recruit in January or if it's

02:50one that can wait till the summer, obviously they've got a new striker in Elton Kabangu

02:55and James Wilson is playing a lot more first team football and Shankland isn't going, well

03:01we don't expect him to leave in this window, so I do wonder if maybe now or in the summer

03:07is when we'll maybe see them look for, like you say, someone who can play as more of a

03:13deep lying forward like Hearts have, like Lawrence Shankland has done where he sort

03:18of drops into midfield and the play kind of goes through him rather than to him like you'll

03:24see with a more advanced forward like Wilson and obviously like Liam Boyce was providing

03:28that as well, not unlike you would have seen with Aberdeen at the weekend, like what Kevin

03:33Nisbet was doing for them before they changed that up and replaced him with Duke.

03:39Yeah, certainly there's a void there I think at Hearts now with Shankland injured and Boyce

03:45gone, so I don't think it's not a position for Kabangu, he's a proper centre forward,

03:52he can play out wide as well and I think if you asked him he could probably fill in that

03:56number 10 role if he absolutely had to, but he's, to all intents and purposes, a number

04:00nine, so I'd like to see Jan Danda get a little run in there, I still think there's something

04:07there with Danda that we've not quite seen yet, Blaise Patil can play in that role as

04:12well, so Hearts have got a few options there. Further forward, if you're talking transfer

04:18wise, I would think that they would look to bring in another creative midfielder stroke

04:24forward type of player before the month is out, I think they are creating more and have

04:29created more in the last few games but I still think it's an area they can improve, so maybe

04:34before the end of the month that might be something they look at.

04:38Kyle Rowles has been on his way out of the club for a while now, but based on what Neil

04:43Critchley said at the weekend, that deal is progressing, when we record next week's podcast

04:48we don't expect Kyle Rowles to still be a Hearts player.

04:52No, I wouldn't have thought so, this deal has been in the pipeline for a while now,

04:57it's a good move for Rowles, he will get a chance to go and play in a league where I

05:04think maybe the tempo will suit him a bit more, the Scottish league is obviously quite

05:08frantic and can be described as 100 miles an hour, whether that's accurate or not,

05:15fair or not is up to other people to judge, but sometimes I think Rowles needed a little

05:21bit more time on the ball to thrive and he'll obviously get that in the MLS.

05:27It's a good opportunity for him, it's a decent fee for Hearts,

05:30for a player who costs a lot less than what they're getting back, so one of those situations.

05:37I think this is where you're beginning to see the Jamestown analytics set up working,

05:44where they will look at trying to move players on for a maximum fee when they think they've

05:54approaching their peak value at Hearts, try and get them moved out and get replacements in.

05:58You've seen Jamie McArthur's already there at Hearts, it cost a minimal amount of money from

06:03Rotherham, so I think that's the kind of model that Jamestown tend to follow by and large.

06:11In terms of other potential exits, we're expecting Macaulay Tate to leave the club on loan?

06:17There's a chance of that in the next few weeks, lots of interest in him,

06:22rightly so, a good young player, I think he needs games to try and progress and just get used to the

06:29proper senior football and there's a chance that he could go to championship

06:34level over the next few weeks. I don't think it necessarily needs to be before

06:38the window closes because you can still do loans to lower league teams after

06:42transfer window shuts, so we'll keep an eye on that as things progress.

06:48Well, that's players out. In terms of players in, unfortunately we don't have a whole lot of

06:54exciting things to throw at you. We have had plenty of names mentioned, some more

07:03serious than others, but without proper corroboration it wouldn't be right to

07:07mention those at this time. But certainly what we can say is that Hearts are far from done,

07:14far from done that they would like to be in the January transfer window at the moment.

07:24Yeah, I don't expect Jamie McArthur was the second one in, I don't expect him to be the

07:29last. I think both in different areas of the pitch, defensively and offensively,

07:34they'll look to try and get players in to strengthen the squad, reshape the squad.

07:40I think the squad's needed freshened up, you've seen that from the performances and results in

07:44the first half of the season, they haven't been good enough and they're still 11th in the table

07:48as we speak, so they need to get out of that position by hook or by crook. So if that means

07:55spending more money than they perhaps would like to or perhaps previously planned to in January,

08:00then I think that is the only option, just to try and make sure they force their way out of

08:04the relegation zone and to safety, that is the absolute priority, we've said that before.

08:10I would say that the last few games have offered quite a bit of hope in that regard,

08:15after the PetroCup, they went out Europe against PetroCup, lost against Tenman,

08:21Kulmarnock at Rugby Park and then lost to Edinburgh's Derby. On Boxing Day, they have picked up

08:26good performance at Ross County, should have won that game as we've already mentioned,

08:30beat Motherwell, beat Dundee United, both 1-0 and then Aberdeen was a decent discipline display,

08:36should have won it at the end with a penalty, George Grant's penalty saved by Ross Duhan, so

08:40there has been an upturn in performances and you'd have to say results as well in the last

08:44few games, so the signs are that 2025 should be a more prosperous year for them than 2024 ended,

08:53but as I say, at the moment in the table they're still second bottom and they have to get out of

08:57that. Positionally, we can't say definitely, but in terms of what Hearts want, what we're

09:08expecting, probably another centre back and a creative forward player as we've mentioned,

09:14whether it's a wide player or a, surely not another number 10 when they've got Danda and

09:20Spittle as we've mentioned, probably a more wide attacking forwards. Yeah, they do have

09:26wingers there, if you look at Vargas, Yutaro Oda is not in the squad at the moment, Alan Forrest,

09:32all these guys play a wide, Moussa Drama as well has played wide on the right the last few games,

09:36so they do have options in that department. Player Spittle is very good wide on the left

09:42because of his relationship with James Penrice, a left back, so I don't think they would want to

09:47disrupt that too much, but they do need more options. I think the players that we mentioned

09:51there other than Spittle are quite hit and miss, they can be very good, they can also be quite

09:57anonymous at times and I think that Hearts will want more consistency going forward, more creativity

10:01in that final third and creating more chances, more opportunities for people like James Wilson

10:08and Kabangu to put in the net. I think Kabangu, I watched a little bit of Kabangu before he

10:15arrived when I heard that Hearts were trying to get him. I think his movement's very good,

10:20he's got an instinctive awareness of where to be in the penalty area when crosses arrive,

10:25I think you saw that at Pataudry there, not long after he came on George Grant whips a

10:29cross in from the right and he's bulleted a really powerful header at the goalkeeper,

10:33who's then pushed over far. So I think we'll see more of that from him,

10:36he will be a danger and a good signing for Hearts for the next few months.

10:42But they need supply, they need supply coming in the penalty area for these guys and

10:46that's an area I think they'll look at.

Hearts Transfer Update | Hearts Digest Podcast

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