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Neil Critchley reveals Kenneth Vargas Hearts apology as boss makes 'one or two' things clear to Costa Rican
Kenneth Vargas has apologised to his Hearts team mates for his scathing attack on Scottish football writes Fraser Wilson in Brugge.
Jambos boss Neil Critchley revealed he’d sat down with the Costa Rican for clear the air talks ahead of the Conference League clash with Cercle Brugge - and is happy the striker understands he was wrong. Vargas infuriated fans while on international duty last week when he claimed he wanted to test himself at a higher level and that a move could happen in January.
The 22-year-old striker said of the Scottish game: "Football wise they don’t have such a good level, everyone knows that." He later took to social media to backtrack and claimed his comments had been misinterpreted. But it was too late to avoid the flak with punters pointing out he has only netted twice in 20 appearances this season and has been guilty of fluffing his lines in front of goal particularly in single goal defeats to Rangers and Aberdeen.
Vargas is in line to start in Belgium and Critchley said: “Yes, I spoke to him on Sunday. We had a good conversation.
“I think Kenneth has learned from the experience. He knows my feelings as well. That is a private conversation between me and Kenneth. Kenneth is a good guy. He is a good person. Since I have been at the football club, he trains every single day. He trains really well. He is committed to this football club and he wants to get better as a football player.
“That is my job to try and help him. I know he has apologised to the team-mates. We had a good conversation. I said to him how I felt and made a couple of things clear to him. He explained what he was attempting to say. He has learned from the experience. Hopefully we can not have an issue like that again in the future.”
Hearts are two points better off than the Belgians having won two and lost one of their games so far. And Critchley knows they are on the verge of achieving something special with a win on Thursday night all but securing a minimum play-off spot for the last 16. Over 3000 Jambos are in Brugge. And the manager admits he was a little envious as he saw them partying on the way out of Edinburgh.
He said: “It's fantastic isn't it? There are over 3000 coming, which is a massive following. It gives you a great feeling when you know you've got that support and backing.
“I hope they have a great night tonight and hopefully we can go out and give them a performance that is a really good representation of Hearts. There were a few at the airport. The Wetherspoons was doing a great bit of business!
“Sometimes you look over and, we say it as a staff, it must be brilliant to follow your club in Europe and go away with your family and friends and enjoy yourself. We have to concentrate on the football but sometimes we think you won't mind being in that yourself.”
Critchley says nobody inside the Hearts dressing room is getting ahead of themselves - even if they know they’re close to taking the Euro campaign into the new year. Even a point could secure a playoff spot with two games still to go.
And he said: “I think there's a quiet excitement. I don't mention leagues and I don't mention points. We just concentrate on the process and then hopefully everything else takes care of itself. We're all human, we know what could be lying further ahead down the line.
“We don't speak about that, I don't speak about that, because our focus is just on how to prepare for this game and how do we take to the pitch tomorrow night with a plan and implement that as best as we can to give ourselves the best chance of picking up the points that we need.
“It's about the players, it's about the club. It would be a big thing, it would be massive. It's exciting coming here, travelling here, seeing the stadium. It's different, it has a different feel to it.
“Life's for living and having different experiences and this gives all of us here, everyone, a great opportunity for us to progress further if we can and have more days and nights like this in the future.”
Hearts have no fresh injury concerns after the weekend defeat to Celtic. And Critchley is expecting a tough test from the Belgians despite their lowly league position in domestic football.
He said: “I've watched them myself, as the staff have. We always do prepare for the games. We know the type of team we're going to be facing. We know the style of play. We know the strengths and weaknesses, if you like.
“So that's what we do, we try to negate their strengths and try to exploit the things that are going to give us an advantage in the game. There's quite clear traits that are consistent when you watch this team play.”
“I’ve watched part of them games, but because they were pre-season-ish, you watch the more games that are closer. I've watched games of late and games that you think are going to be relevant to the type of game we're going to be playing.”
