CRAIG Levein insists Hearts will only get stronger as he looks to reinvest Kyle Lafferty's transfer fee in his squad.
Last season's top scorer has been allowed to return to Rangers for an undisclosed fee but Jambos boss Levein insists he is happy with the deal struck by chairwoman Ann Budge.
He is now set to step up his efforts to speed through Teplice striker David Vanecek's Tynecastle move but admits the Czech outfit are playing hardball over the 27-year-old, who is due in Edinburgh in January after signing a pre-contract with Hearts.
Levein has other targets if Vanecek is not allowed to make an early switch and is keeping his fingers crossed that up to three new faces, including cover for injured skipper Christophe Berra, could arrive in Gorgie before the August 31 transfer deadline.
"Everybody has got a price and I felt the price we got for Kyle was good, so it's a normal situation really," said Levein, who also admitted there could be at least another couple of departures before next Friday.
"I don't think it's any secret that Kyle wanted to go back to Rangers so for us it was just about getting the right price. It's not the first time I've been in this rodeo, so it's just normal.
"Rangers' interest hasn't come as a surprise so we've had time long enough to consider other options.
"We have signed David Vanecek on a pre-contract from Teplice in the Czech Republic and even before Kyle left I've been trying to hurry that process up.
"But it doesn't seem like they are willing to let him go at this moment in time, so I have other things in mind to bring someone else in until David gets here in January.
"I don't want to go into too many details in this moment in time but I'm pretty sure within the next day or two if David is not coming, we'll have someone else.
"There are a couple of other things I'm also looking at and I'm confident when the window closes we'll be stronger than we are right at this minute in time."
Hearts will visit Kilmarnock on Saturday but Levein was in no mood to add his voice to the recent wave of criticism aimed at Rugby Park's plastic pitch after Rangers winger Jamie Murphy was ruled out for the season after damaging his knee on the synthetic surface.
He said: "I'm not a huge fan of these plastic pitches and I was really disappointed for Jamie - but I don't want to criticise other people's pitches.
"Our pitch wasn't great last season so I find it difficult to start pointing fingers at other people's pitches. You just have to deal with what's in front of you.
"The interesting thing for me is that Kilmarnock play on it more than anyone and I don't think they have that many injuries from it. Maybe if they did then there would be something to look at."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel