Celtic and Rangers are both believed to be very keen on signing an exciting Hearts youngster, with the player’s transfer stance emerging.
Hearts three games away from breaking Celtic and Rangers stranglehold
It has been a long time coming. 66 years, to be precise. The last time Hearts lifted the Scottish Premiership title.
Now, with three games to play and a three-point cushion over Celtic, Derek McInnes‘ side stand on the verge of something that would shake Scottish football to its foundations.
Monday’s 2-1 victory over Rangers at Tynecastle — a second-half comeback sealed by Lawrence Shankland’s 14th league goal of the season — all but ended Danny Röhl’s side’s faint title hopes and left Hearts clear at the summit.
The Jambos, who have been unbeaten at home all season, will be odds-on to become the first non-Old Firm champions since Aberdeen in 1984/85 if they avoid defeat at Motherwell on Saturday — a fixture that carries enormous weight given that Hearts have not won a league game at Fir Park since November 2023.
Should Hearts beat Motherwell and Rangers win at Celtic Park on Sunday, the Bhoys would trail by six points with two games left — making the race Hearts’ to lose going into a home fixture against Falkirk and a final-day visit to Glasgow.
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The pieces are falling into place.
The nervousness is understandable, but the belief in Gorgie has never been higher.
Off the pitch, however, Hearts face a familiar challenge — holding onto a prized young asset against competition they cannot match financially.
Hearts gem Boyd Fraser makes transfer wish clear amid Celtic and Rangers interest
Boyd Fraser, a 16-year-old midfielder who has become “one of the brightest young talents in Scottish football”, is attracting significant interest this summer.
According to TEAMtalk’s Graeme Bailey, Celtic and Rangers are both very keen on the youngster.
That kind of dual Old Firm interest would ordinarily represent an enormous pull for a Hearts academy product.
However, Fraser, it seems, has other plans.
Southampton are in advanced talks to sign the teenager, with the Championship club hoping to fend off that Glaswegian interest and secure a deal that would represent a very significant piece of academy recruitment.
The structure of any agreement would see Fraser join on a scholarship arrangement initially, with a professional contract already prepared for when he turns 17 next year.
The financial mechanics are significant, because this would be a cross-border transfer involving a player below professional age, Hearts would receive less than £100,000 in compensation — a figure that underlines how little power clubs have in retaining teenage talents who choose to head south of the border.
Southampton have added motivation to get this one done.
They missed out on Queens Park teenager Harris Afzal to Crystal Palace earlier this year, a defeat that has sharpened the focus of their recruitment team ahead of what could be a return to the Premier League via the Championship play-offs.
Palace — who beat them to Afzal — are monitoring Fraser’s situation again, and Nottingham Forest are also understood to be in the picture.
Fraser himself, despite the Celtic and Rangers interest, is said to favour a move to England as things stand, giving Southampton a meaningful advantage in what remains a competitive situation.
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The Eagles and their rivals are both keen on him.
