Sean Clare: I deserved criticism for early Hearts form – but I’m getting better

Sean Clare holds no gripes with Hearts fans for any criticism he received earlier in his Tynecastle career, admitting he wasn’t doing enough to prove his qualities as a footballer in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

Sean Clare is finding his feet at Hearts. Pic: SNS

The 22-year-old is starting to find his feet in the team after an inauspicious start to his career north of the border following a post-transfer deadline move from Sheffield Wednesday in September. Still recovering from injury at the time of his arrival, Clare was thrust into the spotlight a lot sooner than manager Craig Levein had originally planned after injuries to Uche Ikpeazu and Steven Naismith robbed the Hearts manager of a couple of key options in attack.

The Nike Academy graduate would operate on the periphery of games, showing only fleeting glimpses of what the supporters were promised when he signed his three-year deal in September.

Since returning from the winter break his play has improved significantly, including opening his account for the club with the winning goal against Livingston in the Scottish Cup fourth round, a strike he then followed up with the opener in the 2-1 win over Kilmarnock at the beginning of this month.

After another encouraging showing, this time in the 2-1 loss at Motherwell, Clare acknowledged that things came a little too soon for him in the latter months of 2018. But even though he’s pleased with his displays in maroon since the turn of the year, he insists there’s still far from to come.

“I think my form has been picking up, I think it’s been good but there’s still a lot more that I can bring to the team,” Clare told the Evening News. “There’s more that I can do and I’m working on the pitch and off the pitch with the staff and my team-mates to show what I can do.

“When I was first signed it was spoken about that it would be gradual, but I was more than willing to try and do the best for the team at the time and trying to get my job done. I maybe wasn’t as fit as I could have been but I’m feeling much stronger now and I think it’s showing in my performances.

“Wherever you play you’re going to have doubters. To be fair, some of the doubt at the beginning was fair enough. I wasn’t doing enough to live up to the hype that was around me. I was disappointed in myself, let alone other people being disappointed in me. It’s good to start to hit some form, but I need to keep improving and contributing more goals and assists.”

His manager hasn’t been afraid to alter his starting line-up from one match to the next, particularly in the final third where the likes of David Vanecek, Steven MacLean, Callumn Morrison and Jake Mulraney have all dropped in and out of the team since late January. Clare, though, has started every match so far in 2019 as Levein now views him as one of the more important members of the squad.

Even though he’s been shifted around on occasion, just knowing that his manager believes in him is enough to keep Clare feeling confident and focused on helping Hearts win games.

“Wherever the manager puts me I’ll play. I just want to keep playing and keep contributing to the team,” he said. “I’m a central attacking midfielder by trade but I can play a variety of positions and I think the gaffer has shown that. Him putting his trust in me and playing me in different positions has certainly helped me.

“One-hundred per cent the manager’s belief helps me to improve my game. The coaching staff since I came in have backed me even when other people haven’t and hopefully I’ve been repaying them and can continue to keep repaying them.

“The team target is to get into Europe and I think it’s manageable. Personally, my target is to just improve game on game and keep my place in the team by helping the team and not just being a passenger. I feel like I’ve been doing that recently and I hope I can continue doing that.”