Derek McInnes: Hearts’ status as a club on the march hindering recruitment

Derek McInnes revealed that Hearts’ status as a club on the march was hindering them in their quest to sign a new striker before the transfer window closes.

The William Hill Premiership leaders have already recruited Islam Chesnokov, Jordi Altena and Marc Leonard this month, while Uganda winger Rogers Mato is set to finalise his move to Tynecastle imminently.

The Jambos are eager to add a new attacker after learning last week that top scorer Lawrence Shankland was set to be sidelined until March with a hamstring issue.

But manager McInnes believes clubs are trying to squeeze more money out of them because they are flying high in Scotland and due to their link-up with Brighton owner Tony Bloom and Jamestown Analytics.

“We’d still like to do one more if we can,” McInnes told Sky Sports. “The difficulty we’re finding a lot of the time is because of our position in the league, because clubs are now aware of Tony Bloom and all the interest and everybody thinks we’re awash with money, which we aren’t.

“Sometimes, players that we maybe identify can soon become outwith our reach because clubs start to raise the fee and raise wages and all the rest of it. We’re constantly up against it in that sense.

“The club have been really supportive of what we’re trying to do, we would like to bring one more in if we can, but if the window shuts and we’ve got what we’ve got in the building, I’m confident we can make a right fist of it.”

McInnes has been loosely linked with the managerial vacancy at English Championship club Leicester but the 54-year-old – who was touted for the Rangers job following Russell Martin’s sacking in October – reiterated that he had no interest in leaving Hearts.

“I don’t know where that came from,” he said of the Foxes link. “Obviously, a club’s looking for a manager. These things you just take with a pinch of salt, really.

“It’s clear my focus is here and I’m in the job that I want and I think there’s work to be done here. I just want to make sure we finish the season as strongly as we can.”

Reflecting on Hearts’ 2-2 draw at home to Celtic, in which his side twice came from behind to maintain their unbeaten record against the two Glasgow clubs this season, McInnes said: “The game on Sunday didn’t tell me anything other than we’re Hearts, we’re a strong team, we’re not going to get pushed about and we’re going to let people know we’re there.

“Although we didn’t win the game, it was a kind of follow-on from previous games with Celtic and Rangers this season where we’ve had a belief in what we’re doing.

“So I was a wee bit disappointed we never won the game because I thought in terms of having watched the game back and how I felt at the time, we’d done enough to win it.”