Rix insists club's priority during the transfer window is buying new players

MOST of Hearts' leading players have been linked with moves away from the club in recent weeks, and the speculation will not be dampened by the appointment of George Burley as the new manager of Southampton, even though the Edinburgh club's ex-boss said he would not make a move for his former players.

Yesterday, however, Graham Rix, the man who succeeded Burley at Tynecastle, again insisted the club was aiming to strengthen the playing squad during the transfer window rather than cash in on some of its prize assets.

Inevitably, the fear for some of the Edinburgh club's supporters will be that Burley returns for some of the players with whom he got on so well during his brief time at Hearts, notably the two key midfielders, Rudi Skacel and Paul Hartley. The former, however, has already said he would like to make his loan deal from Marseille permanent, while Hearts this week denied a report which claimed they thought the time was right to cash in on Hartley.

"I'm pleased for him, and obviously I've got no axe to grind with George," Rix said when asked his reaction to the news from St Mary's. "He knows the players here, so I wouldn't be surprised," he continued when asked if the club expected any offers from Southampton. "But until it happens I can't comment.

"We've got a lot of good players here, but I think we need more. We're a little bit thin on the ground in certain areas. I speak to Roman and Vladimir [Romanov] on a daily basis, and the list of players is this long," he continued, stretching his arms to their full extent. "But the players have got to be the right ones. I'm not so bothered about the names being exciting, it's the performances I want to excite the fans. If the Hearts fans see a winning team, I think they'll be excited, whether it's Ronaldo or Bill Bloggs.

"Roman and Vladimir know how important Paul Hartley is - and not only Paul Hartley. Most of the players here are really important to Hearts.

"I certainly don't want to lose my better players. But you can never say never. If Real Madrid offered £30million for Paul Hartley... you tell me.

"But Roman and Vladimir don't want him to go. I don't want him to go. I don't think Paul wants to go. He's a good player, a key player.

"We want to bring in some players to play with him. I want everybody here that we've got, and we do need to bring in some fresh faces. I'm not going to say how many - we'll try and get what we think we need.

"The next six months could be glorious, but we need to weigh that up with the long-term plan that we've got. Do you go for a quick fix, or do you really build for the future?"

The immediate future sees Hearts play Falkirk at home on Boxing Day in a match they need to win to maintain contact with Celtic at the top of the SPL. Although he has only won once in his five games in charge, Rix has been heartened by the response from the players in training.

"We have done a few things differently. Training has been very upbeat, and I'm absolutely delighted with what I'm seeing from the guys.

"I suppose it takes a little bit of time to get to know the players inside out. We had a good discussion yesterday and certain things were said, and I've got to say the lads have responded really, really well this week. I'm expecting a really positive performance against Falkirk.

"Most teams have a little sticky period. It's how quickly you shake yourselves out of that. And it doesn't need much to shake you out of it and give you back that self-belief."

"We've got Falkirk on Monday then Celtic on New Year's Day. Two good performances, two good wins, in our next two games and everybody will be saying 'Graham Rix, super coach'."

Even the ongoing SFA inquiry into his suitability for the job had not thrown him off his stride, Rix continued. "As far as I'm concerned, it's getting sorted. It's just another little obstacle that's been thrown our way. I might not look it, but I'm quite a strong cookie."

Hartley revealed that, besides discussions with the coaches, the players had met as a group without them and talked about what was going wrong and how to put it right. "We have had a good chat this week and we have spoken about what we have to do and how we have to get back to the basics," the Scotland player said. "I'm sure we will do that.

"We will keep it in house between the players and the players only. A few home truths were said and I'm sure we will get back to winning ways soon. No-one likes to get criticised, but we had a lot of praise during the first couple of months of the season and rightly so because we were playing that well. We want to keep high standards at this club and the standards have dropped a wee bit."

Taken from the Scotsman