Jim Jefferies to hold player talks with Sergey

• DECISIONS: Jim Jefferies has plenty of options. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

Jefferies has identified several signing targets and compiled a list of players unlikely to be part of his plans for next season, although he refused to divulge details on who may be entering or leaving Tynecastle over the coming weeks.

Fedotovas will convene with Jefferies and attend tomorrow's match against Celtic before returning to Eastern Europe to report to Vladimir Romanov, Hearts' majority shareholder. The pair will then mull over Jefferies' suggestions before pressing ahead with any recruitment plans.

The manager is keen to reinforce all three outfield areas – strikers, midfield and defence – but that will depend on how severely his budget is reduced and on how many players he can remove from the wage bill. High earners Jose Goncalves, Michael Stewart and Christian Nade are guaranteed to leave Tynecastle, while Hearts have yet to decide whether they will offer Larry Kingston a new contract.

Others who are under contract, such as Jamie Mole and Dawid Kucharski, are likely to find themselves surplus to requirements next year.

"Sergey is over this weekend. I'm not sure whether I'll meet up with Mr Romanov or not but I'll liaise through Sergey," said Jefferies. "We'll sit down and he'll carry things back to Mr Romanov. All I can do is let them know my thoughts and see what happens.

"I know what I want to do. It's just what changes you feel have to be made. The owner has said we have to cut down the wage bill and I've said the only way you can guarantee doing that is with people out of contract. Sometimes you have to lose people you might not want to, just to free up funds to get other targets in. It's the same at any football club. I had to let people go at Kilmarnock last year who I wanted to keep.

"You can tell people who are in contract that they aren't in your plans, and then they make the decision. They may want to stay because they're under contract. Whether they want to stay and not be in the plans is up to them. They may want to gamble by trying to find another club. That's part and parcel of management, I've had to do it for years."

The Hearts manager has been credited with an interest in a host of Scottish-based players, including St Mirren's Billy Mehmet and Andy Dorman, Kilmarnock's Kevin Kyle and Craig Bryson, Leigh Griffiths of Dundee, Dunfermline's Steven Bell and Scott Arfield of Falkirk.

"I haven't spoken to any player except Jose Goncalves because I wanted to concentrate on the games while we still had something to play for," he said of those whose contracts are due to expire.

"Maybe it's helping because I'm keeping them on edge. There is still that little bit of apprehension about what is going to happen. If it's bad news they can feel a bit suppressed. I wasn't going to put them into that scenario."