Star player shone as brightly as £100m trio but Hearts are still missing key piece of the jigsaw – Ryan Stevenson
Ange Postecoglou sent out a galaxy of Spurs stars at Tynecastle the other night.
James Maddison, Heung-Min Son and Brennan Johnson – even if you limit the discussion to this Tottenham trio alone, we’re still talking about a group worth over £100million quid.
So it was incredible to see a kid who Hearts could end up signing for a meagre six-figure sum dazzle every bit as brightly as those big name Premier League aces.
Gerald Taylor has joined up with Stevie Naismith’s team on a try-before-you buy basis. But if the Costa Rican loan star’s first impression in a maroon jersey is anything to go by, he could end up making the Jambos a packet.
Listen, of course we shouldn’t be getting carried away on what was a midsummer rust-shaking exercise. But Taylor certainly looks like an exciting prospect. Defensively, he was energetic and robust and that will definitely go down well with the Hearts support. They like their defenders to be all action in Gorgie and the 23-year-old wasn’t shy getting stuck into the physical side of the game.
But it was his impact going forward that really stood out, especially against such top-class opposition, and it seems the fans have already taken to him. He more than held his own against a team that was the darling of the English football public last year and had it not been for ugly Kyosuke Tagawa misses, he’d have made way after an impressive debut 45 minutes with his team 2-1 up and with a couple of assists to his name.
In the end it turned out to be a heavy 5-1 shellacking from the North Londoners but that’s to be expected when you’re taking on a team who could pave every brick on the Royal Mile with a tenner and still have a huge bundle of notes left over. With Taylor, though, it’s Hearts who could be onto a nice little earner.
They have an option to buy him from parent club Deportivo Saprissa next summer but the truth is that if the Costa Rican international carries on performing like he did the other night, he won’t be here very long. And that’s the way the model has to work for clubs like Hearts.
