Hearts: Csaba Laszlo glad Hearts landed Kevin Kyle

• Csaba Laszlo wanted to sign Kevin Kyle during his tenure at Hearts

THROUGHOUT his tenure as Hearts manager, Csaba Laszlo tried manfully to persuade Vladimir Romanov to sanction the purchase of Kevin Kyle from Kilmarnock. According to the Hungarian, the striker was extremely receptive to the idea. But Romanov preferred to wait, and has now successfully procured Kyle for free rather than parting with a transfer fee of more than 300,000.

The 28-year-old has agreed a two-year contract to rejoin his former Kilmarnock management team of Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown, and will lead the Hearts forward line next season after scoring 18 times in 49 appearances in blue and white.

Laszlo is not bitter over the missed opportunity. In fact he openly wishes Kyle, Hearts and Jefferies well as they embark upon the new SPL campaign together. He believes Kyle is ideally suited to Jefferies' attacking ethos and expects that the 28-year-old will soon be rippling rigging all across the country in a maroon shirt.

Romanov told Laszlo he would not act on recommendations to sign Kyle because he was "not needed" at Hearts. In reality, the majority shareholder was simply loathed to pay for the services of the Scotland internationalist. By the time his Kilmarnock contract expired last month, Romanov had received another recommendation to sign Kyle from Laszlo's successor, Jefferies. This time the conditions were correct. The player was a free agent and, despite interest from Charlton Athletic and clubs in Greece, he chose Hearts. Laszlo believes it is an ideal match.

"Every season is the same, you must build your team," he explained. "Jim Jefferies has worked together with Kevin Kyle and he has his ideas on what he wants to do. It is not my business to tell him what he can do and what he can't do with Kevin Kyle. I know the kind of football Jim Jefferies plays. He needs players who are big and strong in the air. He puts balls up front and for this kind of game Kevin Kyle is a welcome player.

"For this reason he put David Obua up front last season. Obua is a big player, a good header of the ball but he is not a striker. Kevin Kyle is more focused in the air and more dangerous from headers near goal than David Obua. For playing this way, Kyle is definitely a good choice.

"He was always dangerous in front of goal. He played in the national team and he is a good striker. In the air, he is very strong and is a good header of the ball. All these things impressed me but the owner was always of the opinion that we didn't need him.

"At the time we needed somebody who showed physical attributes. We had some small strikers and we needed someone to score goals. Kevin Kyle was one of many strikers we had in our focus. He was under contract and he cost money, and for this reason the club looked for players who did not have a contract.

"I tried to bring him to the club and the player was willing to come. His agent knows we tried to bring him to Hearts and always it was the same game. All the time it's a problem for clubs to pay a transfer fee. This is true. He can go to Hearts now and I hope he can score goals."

An uncanny ability to find the net with both feet and head restored Kyle's reputation and confidence in Ayrshire. He had endured a miserable period in England at both Sunderland and Coventry, being loaned out to lower league clubs on five separate occasions throughout an eight-year spell.

When Jefferies lured him to Kilmarnock late in January 2009, it prompted a rebirth in the tall striker who grew up just down the road in Stranraer. Eight goals in 12 matches captured the headlines and early this season he was recalled to the Scotland squad after five-year absence. However, a knee injury sustained in a Co-operative Cup tie against Morton precluded him from the final two World Cup qualifiers against Macedonia and Holland in September.

Laszlo was undeterred and, frustrated by strikers such as the comatose Christian Nade and listless David Witteveen, still hoped to convince Romanov that Kyle would be worth a January bid with his contract nearing expiry. Unknown to the Hungarian, he would be unemployed by the time the window closed. Kyle's knee complaint hindered him for much of the campaign, but he nonetheless finished with ten goals from 37 outings. It was a reasonable return from a striker playing in a side firmly engaged in a relegation battle and who only secured their safety on the final day of the season.

"That is a very impressive record with Kilmarnock at a time when the team was playing against relegation," noted Laszlo. "He scored a lot of goals for a team which was always near the bottom, I don't look at players who are two metres tall, or one metre 20 centimetres tall. I look if they score a lot of goals and that is what impressed me about Kyle."

At 6ft 3in tall, his height and physical presence are two of his strongest assets, though. "Hearts have players in the wings, like Driver, Obua, Novikovas, Templeton and Suso who can deliver good crosses from the left and right side. If you have a player like Kevin Kyle then you can score more goals from this," acknowledged Laszlo. Despite the admiration, Laszlo does not concur with theories that Kyle could have saved him from the sack in January had he been signed by Hearts earlier. "Whether we had more strikers or not, my second year was still successful after we finished third in the first season. We were in the League Cup semi-final, we were in fifth place and at the end of the season I knew we could reach the Europa League by finishing third or fourth. If we got to the cup final we could have won the cup, so I think we were in the right way."

Romanov evidently did not feel the progress merited a substantial investment in the forward line. The owner's patience has now paid off. Following the exasperating exploits of players like Nade and Mauricio Pinilla in recent years, Hearts fans can look forward to cheering a wholly committed Kevin Kyle.