Craig Levein estimates Hearts need just four players this summer to turn them into a class contender.
The Jambos’ season has been wrecked by long-term injuries to their top stars, a plight that has seen them use 32 players in their 34 Premiership games so far.
But the Tynecastle manager insists their next transfer window will be one where quality trumps quantity this time around.
Levein said: “I need four players and they all need to be much better than what we have – that’s the challenge.
“I feel good about that though, because I don’t need to worry about the rest of the side.
“I don’t need to concern myself with back-ups for this position or that position. We’re well covered.
“So if I can get four players of significant quality...
“It’s hard to say what would have happened this season without the injuries we had but quality is what’s important now, which is a good position to be in.
“We’ve done a lot of good business since January in signing up the players who will be critical for us next season.
“And we’ll have a summer when it will be nearly all about quality and not about numbers.
“That’s probably the first time that’s happened in five years.”
Hearts have gone through some major window upheavals since their return to the top flight.
But Levein insists that pinning down the likes of John Souttar, Christophe Berra, Uche Ikpeazu and Michael Smith, with hopefully Peter Haring and Steven Naismith to come, can settle them. He said: “When I look at the turnover of other clubs, it’s the same.
“Things have changed in football, there’s not the same attachment from players to clubs and clubs to players.
“A lot of teams in our league are dealing with players who come in through free agency and maybe stay a couple of years before doing the same thing again.
“It’s much more difficult to keep a team together than when I played.
“But we’ve got to a position where if we can get all these players signed up and committed for the next three years I feel we have a real chance of getting a level of stability that will allow us to climb the table and stay there.”
In the short-term though, Levein has his focus on overhauling Hibs above them in the league.
He added: “We want to do that every season.
“We want to win every time we play them and want to finish above them in the league – that’s just what we have to do here.
“There’s almost a different thing, you get judged on all the rest then people just look at the derby matches and see how you’ve done during the season in those.
“Once you’ve been here a while and understand the nature of it – it isn’t just another fixture. I don’t believe people who say it is.”
