Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Hearts bag Barr

It's customary to describe any competition between clubs to sign a player as a "race", and Hearts have won the race to sign Darren Barr on a pre-contract for next season, ahead of Aberdeen, Hibs and perhaps one or other Dundee club.

Well, they are the nearest to Falkirk after all.

Barr will be joining a squad that will be significantly overhauled in the summer. Apparently, he has been assured of his first team place - well, if everyone else leaves, he won't need to worry about that.

Hearts may have beaten their City rivals and others to the defender's signature, but this is a club with serious money problems. Csaba Laszlo said, after Christian Nade's sending off against Rangers triggered a £10,000 fine from the SFA, that "we have a problem paying the money".

With Ian Black signing last summer, and now Barr, Hearts' strategy seems to be a core of decent Scottish SPL Pros supporting a young team picked from the academy.

Needless to say, this is not a formula to dominate the SPL, let alone make an impression in Europe, but then those days are long gone.

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