Neil Critchley: Hearts closing in on January recruits to bolster squad in key positions

Neil Critchley says Hearts are closing in on new signings as they look to bolster their squad for the second half of the season.

The Tynecastle club are in talks with someone they are keen to bring in to the club and are hoping that deal can be done soon.

Hearts have agreed a fee with Swedish club IFK Varnamo to sign Austrian defender Michael Steinwender, with the 24-year-old expected to finalise his move to Edinburgh over the next week.

The manager wouldn’t name any names but revealed he has highlighted key positions that he wants to strengthen this month.

And with just two weeks left of the January transfer window, they are keen to get some signings over the line as soon as possible.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, Critchley said: “We are close, we are talking to someone and pursuing something but nothing is done yet and until it is I won’t be going any further in speaking about that.

“I am not going to confirm any names, but he is someone we know and someone that we are interested in bringing here.

“It would be wrong to mention his name and I won’t speak any more about that until we are further down the line with it.

“We get linked with numerous players in January, there is a lot of speculation and a lot of rumours. We are doing a lot of work behind the scenes and talking about a lot of players.

“There are certain areas of the pitch that I think if we improved on or had a slightly different profile of player it would help us and we have identified positions where we want to bring players in.

“So that’s the journey we are on, but obviously that journey only lasts for one month and there are only two weeks of the window to go.

“So let’s see where we are in 14 days from now.”