Laszlo says any stars who leave in January won't be replaced

CSABA LASZLO today warned Hearts fans that some of their top stars may leave the club in January – and there are no plans to replace them.

The Tynecastle manager believes a number of his rising stars could be targets for other clubs when the transfer window opens at the turn of the year. Laszlo fears Lee Wallace, Andrew Driver and even young Craig Thomson could be the subject of bids.

Meantime, the Hungarian claims he has been told to cut back on spending and utilise the club's youth system.

His team has already been weakened this year by the departures of players such as Christophe Berra, Christos Karipidis and Bruno Aguiar. Laszlo, who was told to draft 18-year-old Gordon Smith into his squad at the beginning of the season rather than buy a new striker, admits that the Gorgie faithful could see the same scenario in January.

He said: "We have the question of what will happen in January with the transfer window. We have got a lot of young players who might interest other clubs, bigger clubs. But, at the moment, we do not have any of our own targets, only to stabilise this team.

"The board decided to go this way. Last season, definitely for me, was easier."

Despite his fears – and Hearts' disappointing start to the 2009-10 campaign – Laszlo believes his team can turn things around.

He insisted the Jambos can haul themselves back up the table and into the top six again and has also targeted reaching the finals of both cup competitions.

The Gorgie outfit went into today's clash with Aberdeen at Pittodrie sitting in eighth position in the SPL table and Laszlo conceded that, if they are to start their climb back up the league, they must improve on the dismal record which has seen them fail to win a game away from home since February.

He added: "We know we must be realistic. But if you are realistic you must also know that we will come again from very low down in the table and we also play with a lot of young players who last season were not involved at this level.

"Now we must build with these players in our side and to bring the confidence back.

"At the moment, we are okay at home, I don't think that we have a big problem in Tynecastle.

"But definitely we have a big problem to keep the results away from home.

"At the moment, if you are realistic, we know that we can achieve more than we are at the moment.

"The target is still the same, to qualify for the best six. We have a lot of games to go and in the two cup competitions we want to try to reach the finals."