Hearts chief scout John Murray retires after 25 years as club look for new head of recruitment

Hearts chief scout John Murray has decided to retire after 25 years at Tynecastle Park, the Evening News can reveal.

John Murray's 25-year association with Hearts has ended.

His time in Gorgie has come to an end and the club intend to appoint a replacement head of recruitment in the near future.

Murray worked for Hearts in a number of different roles over the last quarter of a century, including chief scout, youth academy director and director of football.

He spent most of his time assessing and helping recruit players at youth and senior level having first started scouting on a part-time basis under Jim Jefferies in 1996.

He operated under 17 different managers and helped academy graduates like Callum Paterson, Craig Gordon, Christophe Berra, Lee Wallace and Andy Driver establish careers in football.

The Northern Irishman has now moved on and a new man will be brought in to help identify potential signing targets for the Edinburgh club.

Joe Savage’s arrival as sporting director earlier this year was intended to improve recruitment practices as Hearts prepare to rejoin the Scottish Premiership.

He and manager Robbie Neilson are working on more signing targets after securing goalkeeper Ross Stewart and winger Josh Ginnelly on permanent contracts, plus the Brighton defender Alex Cochrane on loan.

They hope to bring in a creative midfielder to add more energy and guile to the side but won’t be rushed into any deals with two months of the summer transfer window still to run.

Cochrane enjoyed a goalscoring debut in Tuesday night’s friendly win at Spartans, whilst Ginnelly also impressed against Linlithgow Rose and Civil Service Strollers.

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