The Jambos boss has refused to rule out more arrivals across the month as he tools up for a title battle
Hearts boss Derek McInnes(Image: Getty Images)
Derek McInnes insists there is always room for new signings at title-chasing Hearts after bringing in Jordi Altena and Islam Chesnokov.
The Premiership leaders have been linked with a move for Uganda winger Rogers Mato amid reports they’ve had an initial offer of £300,000 turned down at North Macedonian side FK Vardar. Mato has scored 15 times and claimed two assists in 17 appearances this term.
Despite having a bloated squad and with the Tynecastle beancounters keen to unload some of those on the fringes, McInnes has refused to rule out more arrivals in January.
The Hearts boss, whose team head to Dundee on Sunday, said: “There’s one or two other things we’re kind of looking at, sometimes it’s difficult to get things over the line, particularly in January. Again it would be dependent maybe on a few moving out.
“I’ve been a manager when I’ve been trying to get seven, eight signings in January and it’s never a good thing. It means you’ve not done your work right in the summer and it’s never easy to get good players in that can make the difference.
“We’ve got a lot of what we’re looking for, for the second half of the season, and you can still be quite reactive. We’ve got plenty of games in January and you can pick up injuries but we’re hoping that’s not the case.
“With Jamestown and (sporting director) Graeme Jones there’s a finger on the pulse with one or two things and that might still be something we’d maybe do but there’s nothing certain about it.”
Potential target Mato played in all three of Uganda’s Africa Cup of Nations games and scored in their final group clash against Nigeria as they exited the tournament. Hearts striker Landry Kabore is on his way back from Morocco after Burkina Faso were knocked out by Ivory Coast in the last-16 stage on Tuesday.
Kabore featured in all three group games but was an unused sub in the knock-out clash.
McInnes said: “I spoke to him on Wednesday and there’s something official he needs to do over there. So we were hoping maybe Friday he’d be back but he’ll be here for Saturday. So all being well he’ll be part of the squad on the weekend. His last text to me was, ‘I’m ready to play’, but we’ll see how he is.
“And he’s had decent involvement, they got out the group, something he spoke about they were keen to do and he was quite confident they could do it. But they came up against one of the favourites and from the bits and pieces I’ve seen it was maybe just a step too far for them.”
McInnes admits he’s pleased to see Steven Pressley hush his early-season detractors by guiding Dundee to three wins on the spin – including last week’s derby at Tannadice. But that sentiment will go out of the window on Sunday.
McInnes added: “I’m actually really pleased for Steven, I hate seeing any manager, not just Steven, judged so quickly.
“He’s been through a tough time. It’s so unnecessary, a lot of people were so unfair on him in their judgements and unfair in writing him off really early. So it’s good to see – I like seeing a manager who’s come from a difficult situation, come out the other end of it, and that’s the case with Steven.
“He’s done well and there’s good work being done there, clearly you don’t win three games in a row in the Premiership without knowing what you’re doing. So it will be a tough game for us there’s no two ways about it.
“They’ve got a good thing going at the minute but it’s our job to go and beat them on Sunday and we need to do well against a team who will be extra buoyant after beating Dundee United.”
