Hearts move for Kerr
by Brian Etherson, 08 May 2008
Hearts are interested in Dundee United midfielder Mark Kerr, but they will have to fend off other clubs such as Aberdeen, Preston North End and Nottingham Forest.
Kerr’s situation is being closely watched as he informed United recently that he would not be extending his stay with the Tayside club and that sparked a great deal of interest around the country.
The player’s agent has revealed the interest in his client stretches further than England and Scotland and revealed discussions have taken place with Hearts already.
“I've spoken with Hearts about Mark and I'm still speaking with them. No deal has been done as yet,” Scott Hume said in the Evening News.
“Mark has six teams in total interested in him from England, Scotland and the continent. He has a few options and Hearts have yet to discuss figures in detail with us.”
Kerr was brought to Vladimir Romanov’s attention by Anatoli Korobochka and caretaker boss Stephen Frail and he is just one of a number of players being targeted by the club for next season.
Meanwhile, the club has confirmed that the majority of the preparations for next season will take place at their own training ground in Riccarton, Edinburgh.
During the last two summers, the Tynecastle club spent a lot of their pre-season abroad in Germany and Austria which proved to be reasonably successful, but this time most of the work will be done at home before taking the players back to Germany.
Frail said: “We want to be at Riccarton for the first couple of weeks to do the bulk of the work. Everything is there on site so that makes it easier. There is sports science equipment, the gym and other facilities are all at our disposal.
“The places we've gone to in the past have been fine but we know everything is at our fingertips at Riccarton. We'll do most of the work here and then get the players away round about mid-July.
“We have a testimonial in Belfast but we should be going to Germany later in July for around a week or so.”