LARYEA Kingston, the Ghana international midfielder, is happy to see out the remaining two seasons of his current contract with Hearts. Speaking after Saturday's 0-0 draw with Falkirk, which was his first game back since he was injured during the Africa Cup of Nations, Kingston also said he thought Stephen Frail, who has been the caretaker manager at Tynecastle since the start of the year, deserved to be given the post on a permanent basis.
"I'm a little bit disappointed for myself this season, because my ambition was to win the league," he said.
"After this season, I have two more years, so I'm concentrating 100 per cent here to do my best to win something for the club. I'm happy h
ere, my family is happy, so I'm very happy to stay with Hearts.
"I was very happy when I heard that Stephen Frail is controlling everything. For us, he is doing everything in the club.
"I used to say to myself, 'He's a good manager, so why can't they give him a chance to take over?' And I was very happy for him that he's now controlling everything.
"Since I got back (from the Africa Cup of Nations], I've seen very big changes. He's OK, his influence is good, he's like a father to all the players and he encourages them all the time. So I think he's the best person to run the team especially as he's Scottish and understands Scottish football."
Kingston suggested that Hearts needed to strengthen their squad over the close season, with a new striker the priority.
They lost their top scorer when Andrius Velicka was sold to Norwegian club Viking Stavanger earlier this year, and at the weekend were also without French forward Christian Nade, who is injured.
With Roman Bednar set to make his loan move to West Brom permanent, Mauricio Pinilla in limbo, Juho Makela out of favour and Ricardas Beniusis on a plane back to Lithuania, Hearts had only Calum Elliot and Jamie Mole as their striking options on Saturday.
"I don't know the plans of the management, but I hope they do their best to bring a couple of new players to the team," Kingston added.
"We lost our top scorer, so definitely we need someone to replace him as soon as possible.
"It's quite unfortunate that Christian Nade had an injury and could not play, so we are lacking strikers at the moment.
"Calum Elliot is doing his best. He's a young lad, but I think if he had a lot of encouragement and confidence he can make it."
The full article contains 440 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
