Joe Savage has explained why Hearts failed to sign Callum Paterson during the January transfer window. But he's confirmed they’ll try to get him on a pre-contract for next season.
Having already secured James Hill, Yutaro Oda and Garang Kuol this month, Robbie Neilson was keen to bring Paterson back to Tynecastle, five years after he left on a free transfer for Cardiff City. The Jambos had already made two previous bids for the Scotland cap, but both were booted out by Sheffield Wednesday.
They tried again on deadline day, but Paterson’s recent run of games have helped the Owls climb to second spot in English League One, and Darren Moore wasn't for selling him as the Hillsborough club push for promotion back to the Championship. Paterson is out of contract in the summer though and while Savage expects Hearts will make the player an offer, he's warned that it may depend on how Wednesday’s season ends.
He told BBC Scotland: “We tried to get one more in. It’s been well documented that we’ve had an interest in Callum Paterson.
“We made another offer today to get him and Sheffield Wednesday rejected it. They don't want to sell him so you respect their decision and you move on.
‘We’ve always preached that it's about quality rather than quantity. We tried to get Callum, it never went through so we moved on. I was home for half past seven.
“We’ll try but let's not kid ourselves, Sheffield Wednesday are a massive club and they’re doing really, really well. If they win promotion to the Championship and Callum helps them, because he’s been starting the last few games, then you never know, do you?
“The Championship is a good league and they’ll obviously pay good money. We’ll obviously have that interest in him but we’ll probably need to wait and see what happens with that one.
“Recently they've played him as a centre forward or right wing. He’s athletic, he’s strong as he suits that style down there.
“When we first tried to sign him, he wasn’t in the team and we thought there was a good chance we were going to get him. But then there was an injury and Callum’s Mr Reliable.
“He’s got good qualities, they put him in the team and they started winning more games. They're second in the league and it’s ultimately our downfall that that injury has led to him getting back in the team and meant they don't want to lose him, which is understandable.
“It would have been great for the fans. You don’t want to sign players just to appease the fans; you want to show that you've got the quality of squad to really kick on.
“But it would have been a double win for us. We would've signed a good, good player to improve the team. But unfortunately it wasn't to be and we have to move on”
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