HEARTS last night signed their second goalkeeper in as many weeks as Janos Balogh arrived on a six-month loan from the Hungarian side Debrecen.
The 25-year-old is expected to arrive in Scotland over the weekend and challenge Marian Kello, loaned from FBK Kaunas last Friday, and Jamie MacDonald for the right to be first-choice.
"This is a player that we've been very keen to bring to the c
lub," said manager Csaba Laszlo. "He will provide valuable competition with Marian and Jamie.
"Like Marian, Janos is young but has very good experience and he will be a good addition to our squad. I am happy to welcome him."
Laszlo yesterday defended the club's decision to drop Steve Banks as the first-choice goalkeeper and demote the veteran Englishman to the position of youth team coach. He told a heated press conference at Riccarton that the decision to seek younger goal- keepers was made during the pre- season training camp in Germany.
After Vladimir Romanov was widely reported to have told Banks he could no longer be trusted, Laszlo argued Hearts were entitled to make difficult decisions for the good of the club.
"We have a new goalkeeping coach for the first team (Arturas Ramoska from Kaunas] and Steven is the youth goalkeeping coach," he said. "We make a decision and it's finished. Everyone must respect that decision. We have harmony. To be a leader, you cannot only make nice decisions. Harmony is important but you have popular and unpopular decisions.
"Steven is the goalkeeping coach for the youth teams. That's all. Yes, I'm happy with the decision. We've been looking for a new goalkeeper – Marian Kello is here, Janos Balogh is coming and we have Jamie McDonald. Steven's career here is slowly finishing."
Laszlo, who flew to Lithuania for talks with Romanov this week, rubbished any suggestion he was ready to leave Tynecastle because of interference from the owner. He said the decision to make Banks the youth coach was a joint one. Asked if he would walk away if Romanov interfered again, the manager replied: "I don't think this. Don't worry, Mr Romanov likes this club."
Ugandan midfielder David Obua is in line to make his debut against St Mirren at Tynecastle today while Kello, who joined from Kaunas, is available to start the match in goal. "I hope if I play well I'll have a chance to stay here," said the Slovakian. "I'm ready to play if the coach says so, but it's not my decision."
St Mirren have won at Tynecastle in each of the past two seasons, and Stephen O'Donnell insists they can do so again: "We've shown going to places like Tynecastle, Parkhead or Ibrox that we can hold our own and we're not scared to go and play in arenas like that. We're all looking .
We'll be looking to go there and take some points."
MICHAEL STEWART INTERVIEW, PAGES 12-13
