Hearts reveal plan for Harry Cochrane after talks with teenager

Harry Cochrane is still part of Hearts manager Daniel Stendel's plans.

Hearts have held talks with teenage midfielder Harry Cochrane to help revitalise his Tynecastle career. Manager Daniel Stendel wants the player involved at first-team level and considers him one of the club’s most talented academy graduates.

After returning in January from a loan spell at Dunfermline, Cochrane did not feature for Hearts prior to the coronavirus-enforced shutdown. He was given time to improve and discussed his situation with management a few weeks ago.

He was close to a place in Stendel’s matchday squad just as Scottish football was suspended last month. Having made a senior debut at 16, Cochrane soon turns 19 and Stendel told the Evening News he remains very much part of the future plans.

“Harry is a big talent and he played in the first team at such a young age. He has had ups and downs but he is one of the players we want to improve. We want him to get to a new level, higher than his best level,” said the German.

“He did not play when he came back from his loan because he was not ready. Before the break, we had some talks with him about what we can do to improve him and put him in a good position in the squad.

“He was very close to the matchday squad before the games stopped. His performance in the last couple of weeks before the break was a little bit higher every week. That was a good sign for me and for him. He is one of our best young players and we want to keep him.”

Hearts supporters are keen to see the midfielder back in a maroon shirt when matches resume. Stendel explained why Cochrane was not ready for action after the four-month Dunfermline loan.

“There were a lot of things. We talked about this,” said the manager. “When we have players with the quality to play in the first team, we want to keep players for the future training at a high level and fighting for a place in the squad every week.

“This is what I want, that I can see the players every week thinking: 'Okay, what do I have to do to play?' We want to have a coherent situation with every player pushing to a higher level.

“With Harry, we can see every week he is a little bit better and this is what I expect from him. We have started some extra training sessions with the young guys to improve them to another level.”

Stendel stated in Friday’s Evening News that he intends to use more young players in his team. Cochrane is in the frame alongside another two – 19-year-old forward Anthony McDonald and 17-year-old goalkeeper Harry Stone.

“It’s not so easy to do it all the time. I had this experience in Barnsley when we played with a lot of young players in the Championship. You need a good mix but we want to play with more young players,” stated the German.

“We want more players who identify with Hearts, the best ones from the youth academy, to play in the first team every week. This is the goal, but we also need a little bit of time.

“We will try to help young guys like Harry Cochrane, Anthony McDonald and Harry Stone. We are bringing some players closer to the first team. In the end, we want the young guys to play at Tynecastle but they need to be better than the other players in training and games.

“When they take this fight to win, then this is what we want more from everybody.”

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