Steven Naismith reveals how many players Hearts will be looking to sign this summer

Steven Naismith reveals Hearts are looking to sign between three and six players for next season as he preached patience over the club’s lack of transfer activity to this point.

The Tynecastle club are yet to make a signing this summer window and recently missed out on target Sammy Silvera, with the Central Coast Mariners winger reportedly agreeing to a move with Middlesbrough.

The technical director is busy behind the scenes working with the recruitment team and sporting director Joe Savage in an effort to bring quality players into the first team. He doesn’t just want to add players for the sake of it.

He also doesn’t want a huge overhaul of the first-team. He believes there exists a squad which will improve the more they become accustomed to the management team’s style of play, while Liam Boyce and Beni Baningime are back in full training and should be available for the start of the new campaign after suffering ACL tears.

Steven Naismith with Hearts defender Toby Sibbick during training. Picture: SNS

“We’re not panicking because we know what we want and it needs to be the right player. We could have signed players but we never felt they were quite right. We will wait for the right time to move,” Naismith told the Daily Record.

“We have a good squad as it is. Boycey and Beni come in straight away and feel like new signings. We have Halks [Craig Halkett] back on the grass. That’s a good squad. It’s the depth we need.

“We’ve lost a few with players going back on loan and some at the end of their contract. Some of them will be replaced like for like. But we’re not signing seven, eight, nine, 10 players. We’ll be looking to do between three and six.

“A few areas we’re not happy with the depth and other areas the style of play is impacted with the players in certain positions and we need to look to try to be better.

“We’ve identified the areas we want to improve on, we did that last season. We’ve had some players we have identified and it’s trying to get deals done that are right for the club and right for the player.

“Hopefully we make a few sooner rather than later.”

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