Hearts boss is all set to wheel and deal

JIM JEFFERIES today insisted he can handle the budget cuts that are coming his way this summer – because he's been through it all before with Kilmarnock.

In line with clubs across the country, Hearts manager Jefferies has been warned by the Tynecastle club's majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov to expect his budget to drop at the end of the season, compared to recent years.

Jefferies conceded he may be forced to dump Hearts' big earners, particularly those with contracts coming to an end, before he can bring any new faces in.

Among them will be players he would rather keep at the club but, for Jefferies, it's a case of 'been there, done that', as he stressed that there may be other options open to him, such as convincing some of his current squad to stay at in Gorgie on a lower wage. He said: "When you go to look at the squad for next year Mr Romanov has already said he wants to get the wage bill down.

"I have had that in the past and it's not just at this club, at any club if you want to get the bill down you sometimes have to let boys go that you don't want to. I had to do that at Kilmarnock. There were a couple of boys I would have loved to have kept but they were out of contract and that's where you can make the cuts. You have to accept that you have to try and get someone in who is just as good but on less earnings.

"The other side of it is maybe you try and keep them on a lesser offer." Jefferies will find out the figure he will have available to him after a meeting with Tynecastle director Sergey Fedotovas, pictured below, over the next few weeks and he believes his experiences with Kilmarnock will stand him in good stead when it comes to deciding which players may have to be sacrificed.

He added: "We have talked about cutting the wage bill and I'll be having another meeting with Sergey to find out what my budget level is.

"And, then, if it means for me to get players in I have to let players go, that could apply to boys who are out of contract.

"It may even mean boys who are still under contract but are not in my plans. I will try and have a word with them and, if you tell them that, they may not want to hang around and get themselves another club to move on to.

"So I'll just take all these things into account as I have done in the past and I will just deal with it."

Meanwhile, Jefferies was due to make a late decision on whether Michael Stewart would start in today's Edinburgh derby against Hibs.

The midfielder – who was named captain by former manager Csaba Laszlo at the start of the season – started the game against Motherwell last weekend after a spell of injury but Jefferies decided to retain defender Marius Zaliukas as the skipper. Earlier this week, there were reports that Stewart has become disillusioned and had played his last game for the club and, as a result, reportedly had to train with the youth squad on Thursday.

However, Jefferies insisted that Stewart could still have a future at Tynecastle but was playing his cards close to his chest over his line-up at Easter Road.

He continued: "I haven't decided the squad yet.

"What I do will have nothing to do with the captaincy article, I'll assure you of that.

"I'll pick the squad based on what I think is the right squad for Hibs, based on how I want to set up and how we're going to play.

"I'll have a look at things I am not sure about and have a look at other people playing in a position I have a problem with. We will see what materialises."