Hearts transfer update as club look 'very closely' at one target with summer overhaul a possibility

Hearts CEO Andrew McKinlay says the club have identified one particular transfer target ahead of the winter window.

It will be the first chance for new head coach Neil Critchley to add to his squad outside of free agents. He has started his reign at Tynecastle with two wins, a draw and a loss, the latter of which came midweek at home to Kilmarnock. His team face St Johnstone in the Premiership this weekend.

Asked to preview the winter window in his quarterly update, McKinlay said the club are looking to do some January work and Critchley wants to work with a reduced squad size. There will be a view though to strengthening the Hearts team.

He told Hearts TV: “We’re hoping to do some business in January. What I would say is we have a big squad. I’m not saying people have to go for others to come in but it puts demands on the manager to manage such a big squad.

“Neil is certainly of the view that he wants a smaller squad. We might not manage that in January, January is a difficult time. But we’ve already identified one person we’re looking very closely at.

“Will we get them? Who knows but we will look to strengthen. We’re already looking at the summer, in particular with analytics looking at positions we think we’ll need.”

With players out of contract next summer, McKinlay admits there could be an overhaul of the playing squad heading into the 25/26 season. He added: “We’re almost there with finalising a deal in relation to the analytics. But we’ve been using it, as everyone knows, for the manager appointment.

“And we’ll also be using it, and already are, for player identification both in January but probably more fundamentally come the summer.

“Everyone can see who is out of contract so there might a fairly big overhaul come the summer. We’re already using it, we’re enjoying using it and I think it’s going to be a great success.”