No gossip is juicier for football fans than details about transfers they wouldn’t ordinarily hear about.
It usually doesn’t happen for a reason but can sometimes come out if a key figure moves on from a club and is happy to then speak openly.
That has been the case with Joe Savage after leaving his previous role as Hearts‘ Sporting Director.
We already told how you the 40-year-old told of a triple transfer near miss for the Jambos, including one current Celtic player and one that has left the Hoops.
Joe Savage reveals tiny sum Hearts paid for Devlin
Savage reflected on further transfer dealings during his time as sporting director at Tynecastle.
The club have wheeled and dealed and shopped in markets all across the world, including Costa Rica, Japan and Colombia.
One they tapped for a while was Australia with Cammy Devlin, Kye Rowles and Nathaniel Atkinson signed. And the fee paid for Devlin is sure to surprise.
Asked if he was happy with his recruitment track record, Savage told Open Goal: “Aye. Listen, did we make some mistakes? Absolutely. But if you’d said to me ‘I expect you to get 100 per cent strike rate’. I would say ‘that’s not going to happen, sack me now’. Because it’s impossible. I’d like to think we got more right than wrong but we definitely got some wrong.
“You could talk about Shankland, Zander Clark. Cammy Devlin came in for £30k, goes on to play for Australia’s national team. Kye Rowles and Nate Atkinson play for Australia’s national team.
“We were big on data. We didn’t live scout them, that was data. That was players identified through Robbie’s KPI’s for the position.
“So the idea behind Cammy Devlin was Robbie wanted somebody with a bit of energy, bit of legs, get about and make tackles. We were playing the 3-4-3 at the time so get about, make tackles, win the ball back.
“I think Cammy was very good at that. His first year here he was brilliant.”
Hearts missed out on Celtic pair and Nicky Devlin
In terms of players Hearts looked at but didn’t end up bringing in, Savage divulged a few.
Hibs were looking at Luke McCowan before Celtic signed him from Dundee, but it turned out Hearts were also interested. And they were also close with Oh Hyeon-gyu before he joined Celtic and Nicky Devlin before he left Livingston for Aberdeen.
On McCowan, Savage said: “McCowan, he was one we were watching at Hearts thinking we might have had a sniff and a chance.
“[Hearts didn’t see him] Probably because we heard that Celtic were hovering. We heard that they were in and around it. Considering it and not considering it.
“Then, in the end, we felt, I wouldn’t say our midfield three were better than Luke because I think Luke’s a good player. It probably cost us a lot of money as well. I think he ended up being like £1m. We can’t afford that at Hearts, certainly at the time.”