Hearts board reassure fans: 'We are not liable to Barnsley for Daniel Stendel'
Hearts have moved to reassure supporters that they are not due Barnsley money in compensation for new manager Daniel Stendel.
The Edinburgh club released a statement on behalf of their board of directors stating that Stendel was no longer a Barnsley employee when they opened talks with him.
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Hide AdHe is due to begin work at Riccarton on Tuesday morning and will be unveiled to the Scottish media in the afternoon having signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with Hearts.
That has prompted Barnsley to take legal action hoping to claim compensation for Stendel. They sacked him in October but he did not receive a financial pay-off and the English Championship club have released a strongly-worded statement claiming his contract is still valid until the end of the season.
Hearts have consulted lawyers extensively on the matter and are confident they do not owe Barnsley a penny.
They issued the following response to Barnsley's claim: "We are aware of the statement released by Barnsley Football Club earlier today in relation to our appointment of Daniel Stendel to the post of first-team manager.
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Hide Ad"On behalf of the board of directors of Heart of Midlothian Football Club, we would like to reassure our supporters that we have followed all proper procedures in appointing Daniel Stendel. He was not an employee of Barnsley Football Club when we first consulted him and there is no basis on which Heart of Midlothian Football Club is liable to Barnsley Football Club.
"Misleading reports and statements to the contrary elsewhere are entirely false. Should any claim be commenced against Heart of Midlothian Football Club, it will be defended in the strongest possible terms.
"We are looking forward to supporting Daniel in what we hope will be a long and successful tenure at Heart of Midlothian. Given that we consider any threatened claim to be entirely without merit, we do not propose to comment further on this matter."