Hearts target another five new signings

He is targeting a striker, plus two creative attackers, a central midfielder and another central defender. The Edinburgh club intend to be busy over the coming weeks in an effort to increase their squad for domestic and European commitments this season.

Winger Alan Forrest is already signed alongside defenders Lewis Neilson and Kye Rowles. Manager Robbie Neilson and sporting director Joe Savage are currently close to finalising the capture of left-back Alex Cochrane from Brighton, plus attacking midfielder Jorge Grant from Peterborough.

With Cochrane’s deal almost done, Neilson explained to the Evening News that he still needs a right-sided centre-back as well as four other new recruits further up the field. Grant would one of the No.10s and Lawrence Shankland could fill the striker slot if a deal can be agreed with Belgian club Beerschot.

“We are still looking to get another defender in for the right-hand side,” said the manager. “We brought Lewis Neilson in, he will get game time and he is a player we want to develop. We are still looking to recruit in that area as well.

“We still have a couple of areas we want to strengthen in. We are looking for a striker, a couple of guys who can play the No.10 role, plus a central midfielder. There are quite a few areas.

“The aim is to increase the squad size. We ran with a first-team group of 21 last year so we want to get that number of to 23. That would then allow us to bring in a few younger players who will predominantly be in the B team but will train with us during the day.”