PERRY KITCHEN has been appointed as the new Hearts captain in place of centre-back Alim Ozturk.
The USA international midfielder has taken the armband with Turkish defender Ozturk yet to make a Premiership appearance this season.
Kitchen only joined the Tynecastle club in March after leaving MLS outfit DC United but has become a key figure under manager Robbie Neilson, making 10 appearances last season and a further eight during the current campaign.
Speaking to heartsfc.co.uk, Neilson said: “I’ve been impressed by Perry’s attitude, desire and, of course, his performances from day one.
“He’s a natural and leads by example both on and off the park. He’s also a really good player and will inspire those around him to reach the highest standards.
“Ideally, we want 11 captains on the pitch every week. In recent times we’ve had Don Cowie lead the team out and Alim Ozturk skippered us to third place last season, so there’s that experience already there that will help us through games.
“I’d like to thank Alim for the huge part he played, and will continue to play, in helping the team to the top end of the league.
“It’s now Perry’s time to take over that responsibility and I’ve absolutely no doubt that he will flourish in the role of Hearts captain”
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