Former Hearts goalkeeper Henry Smith insists recruiting Scotland international goalkeeper Allan McGregor would be good for both the club and Jack Hamilton.
The Tynecastle outfit have been linked with a move for the Hull City keeper as head coach Ian Cathro searches for a new number one.
Shot-stopper Hamilton made 40 first team appearances last season before the 23-year-old made way for Viktor Noring for the final three games of the campaign.
And Smith, who played for the club between 1981 and 1996, reckons the signing of the 35-year-old McGregor would benefit the team, whilst helping Hamilton’s development at the same time.
He said: “I can understand where Ian Cathro is coming from in terms of looking for a new goalkeeper because at the back end of last season I thought Jack needed a rest a long time before he did.
“His form did tail off and obviously Noring got a chance.
“I heard he has been looking for a new goalkeeper, since February, March.
“Allan McGregor is Scotland internationalist and been around down in England and if they can get him in it would be great for Jack and Hearts.
“Jack has been learning from him in the Scotland squad already, he’ll know him and that could be useful.
“It’s a challenge for Jack but maybe that is what’s needed. It takes time to learn to be a proper goalkeeper, a few years but I’m sure he is taking on board everything that the goalkeeping coach is telling him.”
Hearts have already held signing talks with Northern Ireland striker Kyle Lafferty and Smith admits he is encouraged by the calibre of player that his former club is targeting.
He added: “Along with McGregor, they’re also looking at Kyle Lafferty and that just shows you the type they’re looking at.
“They’re both decent pros. It’s promising that that’s who they’re looking at. They’re both a good calibre of player with good ability and it shows the level of the club’s ambition.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here