Excluded Scott Robinson waits for his agent ahead of showdown talks

HEARTS hope to resolve their dispute with Scott Robinson early next week, when the player’s agent returns from holiday. Robinson has not been officially disciplined at present, but has been excluded from training after apparently refusing to be a substitute during Hearts’ home game against Aberdeen last Saturday.

“It’s an internal matter, which we are keeping internal as things stand,” Hearts manager John McGlynn said yesterday.

“We’ve got a meeting early next week where we’ll take discussions further. He’s not been suspended. His agent is wanting to represent Scott and his agent is actually away abroad. It was at his request that we wait until next week.

“People at the football club will need to sit down with him and see where we go from there. Then there should be something to say if the football club decide that’s what they want to do.”

The 20-year-old midfielder has made more appearances as a subsitute than as a member of McGlynn’s starting 11 this season. He has clearly been frustrated at not getting a run of games, especially as his replacements have not been enjoying outstanding form. His place in the squad for last week’s 2-0 win at Tynecastle went to Adam King, a 17-year-old product of the Hearts academy.

Asked if he was surprised by Robinson’s refusal of a seat on the bench, McGlynn declined to give a yes or no answer. “I’m not really wanting to get into it at the minute, because we are trying to keep it internal,” he said.

“So I don’t really want to get involved in that.

“Once things come out it may well be we can take that further. But at the minute we are just trying to keep it in house.”

Robinson joined Hearts from Hutchison Vale Boys’ Club in 2006 and made his debut two years later, just a month after his 16th birthday. His current contract, signed in May 2011, runs out at the end of this season.

He figured more prominently last season under former manager Paulo Sergio than he has this season under McGlynn, despite being widely expected to become the club’s main playmaker in the middle of the park following the departure to Rangers of Ian Black.

His refusal to be a substitute is the only known breach of club discipline this season. The squad has otherwise remained united throughout a period of severe financial uncertainty.