Hearts' Stuart Findlay reveals his contact for secret info on Celtic

Stuart Findlay is using contacts in America for secret information on new Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy. The Hearts defender played with Hungarian midfielder Daniel Gazdag at Philadelphia Union, and Gazdag was one of Nancy’s Columbus Crew players until the French coach departed for Glasgow earlier this week. Nancy’s first game in charge of his new team is against Premiership leaders Hearts on Sunday.

Findlay revealed that he has tapped into Gazdag’s knowledge for some detail on how Nancy wants to play, and what Hearts might expect from his preferred style. “He is a Celtic manager and they like to dominate the ball. They like to be a possession-based team. His teams were good, even his Columbus team,” explained Findlay. “One of my best friends plays at Columbus with him just now and he speaks very highly of the way that he wants to play football.

“Celtic aren't going to hire somebody that isn't going to do that, so we're under no illusions that he's going to come in and make the Celtic team a very good side. We just have to make sure we're on it on Sunday and make sure he starts in a negative way, hopefully. I played with Daniel Gazdag at Philadelphia and he moved to Columbus with him, so I spoke to him a little bit about it. Coming to Celtic it's a different sort of environment for him so we have to just make sure he gets as hard a start as possible, and that's on Sunday when we turn up there.”

Derek McInnes, the Hearts head coach, has not yet been made aware of Findlay’s information. “No, I mean, I don't think he's given me enough that I can go off the way that Celtic are going to play,” said Findlay coyly. “As I said, Celtic are going to be Celtic at the end of the day. It doesn't matter who's in the dugout. We know it's going to be the toughest game that you can get but we know that if we perform the way that we can there's no reason why we can't turn this around and get a really positive result to go off the back of.”

Extra spotlight will be on the game because it is Nancy’s unveiling in the Parkhead dugout. Hearts have only one win in their last six games and need a reaction after losing an 89th-minute equaliser in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw against Kilmarnock. “We're not going to make it easy for Celtic,” stressed Findlay. “Celtic are going to be in for a very tough game as well. That I'm absolutely sure of and all we can do is make sure we go in and make the game an occasion, play the best that we can and trust what we've got enough to get a positive result.

“Wednesday is gone. I mean, when you look at the grand scheme of things, the league position after this many games, if you'd said that at the start of the season, I think a lot of people would have taken the position that we're in. Maybe the way that we've let that lead slip in the last five or six games - people have a bit of cause for concern, but we know what we've got within the group. We know we're capable of what we've done at the start of the season and the quicker we get back to that, the better. But yeah, it is a frustrating time. I still think we can build on where we are and starting on Sunday hopefully we can get a really good result.”