Gary Mackay-Steven is bidding to win a contract at Kilmarnock, it’s understood.
The 33-year-old has spent the last two weeks training with the Rugby Park outfit after he asked Derek McInnes for the use of training facilities. The Killie boss was only too happy to oblige having worked with the former Dundee United and Celtic winger at Pittodrie.
Mackay-Steven played just six games for Hearts last season. He suffered a broken foot last December, and he endured a setback in his recovery towards the summer. While he was released by the Tynecastle club, they did allow him to continue to continue his rehab in recent months.
McInnes insists it’s too early to be discussing a deal with the pacey attacker, however, he has impressed during his short stint in Ayrshire so far. Fans who attended yesterday’s open training session were able to catch a glimpse of Mackay-Steven in action, as he joined the rest of the first team in their preparations for this weekend’s home game against Livingston. So, it’s certainly no secret that he’s on the radar of Killie.
“He’s been in this week and last week,” McInnes admitted. “Obviously, I’ve worked with Gary before. I spoke to his agent in the summer and he was still coming back from his foot injury at Hearts.
“He’s been in at Hearts training even though he’s not under contract and then just been keeping in touch. Then a couple of weeks ago, Gary reached out to me and asked for training facilities and we were glad to help him.
“I need to say, he’s been terrific. He’s trained every day. He looks good and he’s shown his qualities. You would have seen that if you saw any training, so we’re really pleased to get him in and help him out, but it is just a case of that at the minute, nothing more than that.
“It’s still early days for Gary to be thinking about anything. It’s just helping him out and getting him back to fitness. I don’t want to put any extra pressure on him. The two of us have been pretty relaxed about it.
“Kyle Magennis has the same agent and I asked him about Gary’s situation in the summer and he just said he had a wee bit of a setback with the operation on his foot. He had work to do to get that sorted. But he’s been back now doing a lot of work at Hearts, individually with the physios there. He was then ready to go into a team set-up in training and we were glad to offer that.
“He still has that quality and he still looks young! I look at him and still think he’s the same young boy even though Wikipedia tells me he’s not. But his quality has never been in doubt and he has looked terrific.”
The manager reflected on their time together in the north east. He added: “We had a good time working together previously. He was great for me at Aberdeen and I was disappointed to lose him when he went to the States. We were probably up against it in terms of the finances and the lifestyle part of it. At the time, I thought maybe it was the wrong move as we had got him into the Scotland set-up.
“He went out there and, I’m not saying that he lost his way and it was quite rewarding for him out there, but it was maybe just a wee bit out of sight, out of mind. But, obviously, he is someone that has something to offer.”
Killie will be aiming to win their first Premiership match since the opening weekend of the season tomorrow.
David Martindale’s side sit three points ahead of the Rugby Park outfit in midtable. With three out of the next five games scheduled to be in Ayrshire, Killie must start to pick up more points if they’re to have any hope of climbing the table to compete for the top six positions.
McIness said: “We had a meeting with the players. We’ve played 14 games in all competitions. Won five, drawn five and lost four. That probably tells you the story. Just a bit okay. We’ve had some good highlights and illustrated what we are capable of with some really big results and big highs.
“I don’t think we’ve had any really poor performances. We’ve always been okay in the games, but okay does not get the job done. We’ve spoken to the players about trying to give a bit more, concentrate a bit harder in certain moments, limit mistakes and, hopefully, we’ll get a few more wins in the next period of games.
“We have five before the next international break and, by that time, we’ll have played everyone in the league and it’s important we don’t wait until February, March next year to really grab the bull by the horns.”
