Neil Critchley has confirmed he wants to keep in-demand Kye Rowles at Hearts but admitted that every player has his price.
The Jambos are currently in talks with DC United over a potential £600,000 move for the Australian international. Rowles played in Hearts 1-0 Premiership win over Dundee United but Critchley admitted that discussions between the clubs are on-going.
Neil Critchley confirmed: “We’re in negotiations with that club now. Kye is obviously an important player for us and we don’t want to lose him but everyone has a price unfortunately. January creates this uncertainty. Agents, players, rumours, gossip, it creates this and sometimes there’ll be a lot of players on there today that no one’s aware of that they’ve been spoken to and their agents are saying they’re interested in you and they want you and it’s not easy for players.
“Kye’s been fantastic, he’s been a brilliant servant for the football club in the last few years, he’s been fantastic for me. I think he’s played nearly every minute of every game and we don’t want to lose him but I say everyone has a price.”
The Hearts boss also confirmed new signing Elton Kabangu didn’t make his debut at Tannadice because they are still waiting for his work permit to be issued. Critchley, who has already signed defender Jamie McCart from Rotherham, claimed: “The home office, they must be having a good Christmas or something so we’ve not been able to get that over the line yet. Hopefully in the next 24-48 hours they’ll be back in work after Christmas and we can get that sorted.”
Barrie Mckay and Yaturo Oda weren’t part of Hearts squad but the manager admitted it is not cast in stone they will leave in this window. He stated: “We’ll see. Some players obviously when they’re not in the squad and they want to play football, January’s open so it does give that option but I think if you look at Jorge Grant and Boyce where they’ve been out of the team and then they get an opportunity to play so I won’t rule anything in but I won’t rule anything out either.”