Hearts reveal status of two potential new signings, explains transfer stance and exits on cards

The Tynecastle outfit are still awaiting Home Office clearance for the arrival of Kabore, with the Burkina Faso internationalist having agreed a move from Estonian outfit FK Trans Narva. They have also struck a deal with Valur to buy Magnusson, a 22-year-old from Iceland, and McInnes is optimistic that transfer will be finalised in the coming days.

However, he expressed sympathy for Kabore, 24, who has now been in Scotland for more than a week but unable to be part of the first-team picture until his work permit is signed off.

Speaking to the press ahead of the clash with the Dons on Monday, McInnes said: “We have done everything we can on Landry, that needs to be said. So, we have done everything on our end that we can. We're just in the land of hopefully the Home Office just rubber-stamping. We don't anticipate any issues. I think it's just volume and time, and nothing to indicate that it's going to be a problem, equally nothing to say when it's going to be. We've done everything we can. We've been given every encouragement that there's no issue. It's just a volume thing.

“I feel for him because normally a new signing, you come just bursting to get going. Obviously sometimes there needs to be a slight delay. But I think for him, the enjoyment of all that and the feel-good factor of all that is getting diluted because it's just frustrating. You see his teammates going out and training every day, see them preparing for games.

“We just try to keep the boy's head up, really. And unfortunately for him, he's not been able to take part yet. But we're trying to do all we can as a club to support him and he seems in good spirits. He understands where it's at. We would just like that now to be resolved as quickly as possible. We would like to think that we could get both lads in with a chance for Monday night.”

Hearts admit big interest in Magnusson

Pressed on Magnusson, McInnes continued: “Obviously Magnusson is a player that we’re trying to bring to the club. We’re quite well down the line with the process of that but we’re not there yet. And if we do tick all the boxes between now and Monday then we have a chance maybe to get him for Monday night.”

McInnes does not anticipate too many more incomings between now and the end of the transfer window once Kabore and Magnusson are officially unveiled and said attention will now be turned to pruning the squad, which he feels is too big right now.

“We obviously tried to identify getting a bit more pace, a bit more physicality, and I think we've got that,” continued McInnes. “Obviously re-signing Lawrence [Shankland] was a big part of that. I think every striker we've got can complement Lawrence. Lawrence for me is the guy who was so key in this in terms of having that ready-made goalscorer in the building. And a lot of the new signings have shown a wee flavor of why we brought them to the club, and hopefully there's a bit more of that to come.

“So, we're still way short of the window closing. So a lot of factors can happen between now and then, but I think whether it's players getting injured longer term or players moving on that might free up maybe a bit more space for that. But I think if we can get these two done, then it's just important that we try and free up some space and try and move one or two lads on to get some regular football, because we're not going to be able to provide that for everybody, clearly.

“I'm not going to be blasé with that. The window can't possibly shut with the amount of players we've got at the minute. If everybody's fit, there's clearly a problem. And I'm well aware that we need to reduce the cost, we need to reduce the size of the squad. The club has been really supportive because a lot of clubs will wait and say, you need to get players out before you can get players in. But they've put a huge trust in us to get what we need to do, and trust us to try and make the necessary changes in the squad.

“We don't want to stop what we need to do to get players in. We can't have let that impact having extra, too many players, stop us doing what we want to do. And the board has been so supportive of that and understanding. Equally, I'm understanding that there has to be a natural process and a few players will need to move on to get regular football. And these conversations have been had and are ongoing.

McInnes anticipates interest in his players

“We've got a lot of good players, and I'm no doubt there'll be a lot of interest in a lot of our players. Clubs will be looking at what players aren't playing regularly, and I'm pretty sure that our players, a lot of our players will be attractive to other clubs.”

McInnes also revealed that Norwegian right-back Christian Borchgrevink is set to be fit for Monday’s match while he is “hopeful” Calem Nieuwenhof will shrug off a hamstring injury in time, but Beni Baningime availability is in the balance.

“Borchgrevink is fine,” the head coach added. 2He trained more or less the full session yesterday, trained the full session today, no adverse effects. So he's good to go. Nieuwenhof, I think is full training Saturday, so again, as long as there's no effects to that, I think he should be fine. He's running, a bit of running today with the medical team and running tomorrow. All being well, train Saturday.

“Beni's got a wee bit more to do. I think Benny's actually doing a bit of running tomorrow as well. Straight line stuff he'll be fine with. The nature of his injury, more than Hof's, is just about that little impact on the inside of the knee.”