Olly Lee is wanted by Gillingham on a permanent basis after his loan ends.
The Hearts midfielder was a surprise departure on loan in mid-January after featuring regularly under Robbie Neilson during the first half of the Championship season.
But discussions revealed that the midfielder was keen to return to England, so was allowed to depart Gorgie ahead of his contract expiring this summer.
He joined Gillingham for a second loan spell after being farmed out their by Craig Levein in 2019/20.
Lee featured in every game up until the end of the season for the Kent side, scoring five times.
Manager Steve Evans has confirmed that he’s spoken to Tynecastle sporting director Joe Savage and Neilson about Lee and expects to be in a position to try and do a deal soon.
He told Kent Online : “I have spoken to the key people at Bristol City and the people at Hearts, they are making decisions on those lads early next week, same at Southampton with Tommy.
“We lost the boy Slattery through injury and he did well but we need to let their parent clubs make decisions before we can in any way take a stab at bringing them back, but Cundy, Lee, O’Connor and Slattery since January they have been terrific, absolutely terrific.”
Lee was a popular figure amongst the Hearts support, especially after his stunner to win an Edinburgh derby away to Hibs in December 2019.
He also provided the assist that Craig Wighton headed home in Hearts’ 2-1 Scottish Cup semi-final win over their rivals last October.
