SPL sanction on Hearts is effectively meaningless as McGlynn wasn’t expecting to sign new players

GOOD job John McGlynn is not easily flustered. After another week dominated by non-football events, Hearts return to the pitch tomorrow against Ross County. Their manager is unperturbed by off-the-field matters and has barely looked up from the training pitch all week whilst the Scottish Premier League were reprimanding his club and banning them from signing players.

To McGlynn, a 60-day transfer embargo means absolutely nothing. When you aren’t intending signing anyone it has little effect. His present situation at Tynecastle mirrors that of his old job with Raith Rovers when player recruitment was an occasional luxury rather than a regular occurrence. So this week has been business as usual.

Whilst Hearts’ managing director David Southern faced SPL cub-committees at Hampden Park, McGlynn was diligently preparing his players for upcoming assignments. Hearts are looking to complete the first quarter of their Scottish Premier League campaign with a second successive home win, this time against a Highland club visiting for the first time on league business. Then it’s a League Cup quarter-final at Tannadice next Wednesday.

To McGlynn, tactical efficiency is far more meaningful than transfer embargoes right now. “It’s not really bothered me in the slightest because I’ve been used to it at Raith Rovers,” he told the Evening News. “Transfer windows come and transfer windows go and I don’t bat an eyelid because I never had the chance of getting players in anyway. This (embargo) has made no difference to me whatsoever and I wouldn’t suggest it will make any difference to the players.

“We have been performing consistently. We maybe haven’t been consistent in front of goal and that might be why we haven’t won as many games as we should have. I think our performances and our effort deserve more. However, our spirit is great, the lads are buzzing and I have every confidence that we will go from strength to strength. I could be talking to you this time next week sitting with 15 points and in the semi-final of the League Cup with everything to look forward to.”

One of the areas McGlynn has worked on all season is that of goalscoring. With the help of assistant manager Edgaras Jankauskas and first-team coach Gary Locke, he is eager to make the few strikers at his disposal more potent after bemoaning chances being passed up. Dale Carrick’s hernia surgery leaves Callum Paterson