Neil Critchley reveals when Hearts will start looking at summer recruitment as winter window review booked

Hearts head coach Neil Critchley has revealed that attentions will quickly turn to the summer window after a busy winter recruitment period at Tynecastle.

In his first chance at making additions to the Hearts squad, Elton Kabangu, Jamie McCart, Michael Steinwender, Sander Kartum and Harry Milne all arrived over the transfer window. Out the way went Liam Boyce, Andres Salazar, Kye Rowles, Daniel Oyegoke and Malachi Boateng as some fine-tuning commenced.

Aided by Jamestown analytics, Critchley says that while there has to be an eye on the here and now of Premiership football, a review of the window will take place in the coming weeks with the summer recruitment drive coming into view soon after. He told the Edinburgh Evening News ahead of Monday night’s match in the Scottish Cup last 16 vs St Mirren: “The squad is the squad now to the end of the season and I'm really happy with that.

“But part of our ongoing strategy is always to succession plan and look forward. In the next few weeks we'll be reviewing what we've done in January but also looking ahead to the summer and that process never ends. I can't take my eye off the ball of winning games of football. The immediate aim, but we also have to have an eye on where we want to go in the summer as well.”

A number of young players were loaned out during the window, including Macaulay Tait, who Critchley watched personally at Almondvale on Saturday as he featured for Livingston in a cup victory over Cove Rangers. Coming from a background in youth football at elite sides like Liverpool, Critchley reckons there’s a good network of people inside the club to deal with development.

He said: “I've obviously been part of youth development myself for a number of years and I've coached myself under 23, under 21 level and there's no linear journey for young players. Some players will play in the B team and go to the first team. Some players will go straight to the first team.

“Some players will go out on loan. It's how we manage each individual's journey, their process. It's not the same for everyone and I think we've got good experience internally with the staff that we've got of managing young players' pathways.”