Gary Mackay: Goncalves too good to be left on the Hearts sidelines

THERE'S no doubt in my mind that it would be better for Hearts if Jose Goncalves was available for selection.

• "Goncalves has given no indication that he will give anything less than 100 per cent for Hearts"

I feel that the club needs as many of their good players available as possible. This time last year, Bruno Aguiar and Christos Karipidis were in a similar situation, where everyone knew they probably wouldn't be staying on, yet they were still allowed to play until the end of the season and they didn't let anyone down.

I don't know the ins and outs of it, but I believe the one specific difference is that Hearts have actually offered Jose a new contract. Nevertheless, it's the player's prerogative whether or not he wants to sign that contract.

Jim Jefferies may indeed have made the decision himself that he if the player doesn't want to sign, he won't be playing, or maybe the decision was already made before he came in, and, I think it's fair to say, not necessarily by the previous manager. Unfortunately, if you inherit that situation then you just have to get on with it.

But I think most Hearts supporters would prefer to have Jose available for selection regardless of whether or not he wants to leave in the summer. He has been our best performer this season and has arguably been one of the best defenders in Scotland.

Put it this way, if I owned a football club or was a manager of a football club I would like to have all of my players available, rather than have a player be virtually redundant for four or five months while I was still paying him a salary. I can't understand why anyone would be happy to pay a player a decent wage without expecting some kind of a return from him. As far as I know, Goncalves has given no indication that he will give anything less than 100 per cent for Hearts, so it makes no sense to me to leave the guy kicking his heels on the sidelines.

It's all the more concerning given that we don't know if Ismael Bouzid will be back for our visit to Celtic on Wednesday. If he doesn't make it and Jose isn't allowed to play, that's going to leave us very short of options in defence at a time when we're still fighting to get back into the top six. And make no mistake, getting into the top six is still important because the club gets more money the higher up the table we finish. A decent finish to the season could also give Jim and Billy Brown a little springboard for taking things on for next season.

Talking of next season, everyone hopes the new manager will be allowed to bring in players of their own choosing. I think it's vitally important that Jim, Billy and Gary Locke are only judged on what they do with a squad they've put together and not a squad they inherited. Maybe I'm kidding myself on in hoping that they are given a chance to build their own team, but I can't see why the owner would bring in our Scottish Cup-winning manager and not allow him full autonomy over the rebuilding of the squad.

I think we need a balance of decent senior players who know what the SPL is all about along with some up-and-coming youngsters both from within the club and possibly one or two from other clubs along the likes of Darren Barr. Jim O'Brien, who will be out of contract at Motherwell, is also a player I feel would be a good addition.

But Jim Jefferies knows exactly the type of players we need – if he's given a chance I expect him to try and get the same type of players he brought in during his first spell. He signed the likes of Neil McCann, Colin Cameron and David Weir and got good football from them and also made the club some money when they moved on for a decent price. With that in mind, there seems no reason why the owner shouldn't trust Jim with the signing of players and all other footballing matters.

It will be difficult for Jim and Billy, though, because although they need time to stamp their own mark on the team, they have come into the job at a funny time. Even though the football wasn't great to watch under Csaba Laszlo, it's not like the team had been struggling too badly when Jim took over.

The fact remains that, apart from the two games against Aberdeen, results were very good towards the end of Csaba's reign and also last season. Csaba was a man who, if he had been backed by the owner, could have been a very successful manager. He wasn't given the backing he craved, though, so we can only hope and pray that Jim and Billy are given the chance to do things their way.