Robbie Neilson has opened up on his plans for Yutaro Oda and Garang Kuol at Hearts.
The Jambos brought the pair to the club in January to aid their push to finish best of the rest behind Celtic and Rangers and qualify for Europe once again and be successful in the Scottish Cup. Both have arrived from different cultures having joined Scottish football from Japan and Australia respectively. The pair have both started on one occasion for the Tynecastle club to date while making a couple of appearances off the bench.
Neilson has outlined a patient approach will be adopted. They will start certain fixtures and in others they will come off the bench. The Hearts boss admits it is all about development for the duo at this stage as they get used to life in the capital. Speaking to Edinburgh Evening News, Neilson said: "He [Oda] is in a different continent in a different culture playing a different style of football.
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“We have an interpreter getting the language across to him so that he understands what we are trying to do. It's going to take time. He just needs to take his 20 minutes here and 30 minutes there.
“It's the same with Garang. He is a young kid so there are certain games he will start and others when he will come on. It's about development for both of them.”
Hearts set up a quarter-final tie in the Scottish Cup against Celtic after victory over Scottish Championship strugglers Hamilton Accies.
Oda was introduced in the final stages of the match, but Kuol was unused.
He added: “We just played a Scottish Cup tie on a Friday night on astroturf, it was bucketing down with rain, a 200-miles-an-hour game. You can actually end up hindering young players like that by putting them into those situations."
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