Kyosuke Tagawa to Hearts transfer timeline revealed but Steven Naismith admits Kenny Vargas is at pen pushers' mercy
Tagawa is on his way from Tokyo but vargas still has red tape to negotiate before he can make his way to Tynecastle.
Steven Naismith expects to have new boy Kyosuke Tagawa on board for the big kick-off at St Johnstone this weekend.
But the Hearts technical director admitted the arrival of Costa Rican Kenneth Vargas will be up to the pen pushers. Naismith reckons the Jambos are in good shape after rounding off their pre-season campaign with a narrow defeat to a powerful Leeds United outfit at Tynecastle on Sunday. But the man in the dugout admitted it could be a MONTH before his side are fully up to speed.
Naismith chucked in new recruits Calem Nieuwenhof and Frankie Kent against Leeds – and Tagawa’s move from Tokyo FC should go through in the next 48 hours. He said: "Hopefully there will be one at the start of the week. The other one, it's just the process. There are different elements to signing someone who needs a work permit and a visa and things like that.
"That timescale is outwith our hands. We will hopefully have one player (Tagawa) in ready to go for next week.”
Naismith is not finished the recruitment drive yet though and he admitted the transfer window still being open cans his team is still taking shape and could take a few more weeks. He said: “We will wait and see. There is no definitive 'we need to do this or that’.
“There’s a lot of time left, a lot of things can happen. We need these two in and then we will be in a comfortable position.
“Pre-season been good. The last bit has been getting players in, other than that we’ve worked on a lot, we have been able to go into a bit more detail in what we want to do. But I don’t think you can really say you are there or happy until a month into the season, that’s when everybody is hitting their sharpness."
Naismith was delighted with the rigorous Leeds workout – and the display of the signings. Liam Boyce and Beni Baningime were rested but Nieuwenhof and Kent looked the part.
Naismith said: “It was good to see them. They have been training for a few days and I thought they came through it quite well.
“Calem is coming into a new country, at times you could see his quality, at times you could see he’s still trying to get to grips with British football. And Frankie has come in and shown why we’re trying to get players like him.
“We knew we needed to get people in who are not just good players, but good leaders, people who organise. It was a good workout.
“We were up against a good Leeds side, so the emphasis is on being out of possession and how we’re going to be. And also how we’re going to defend our box as that was a big issue last season. We could have done better but out of possession we were good.”