Hearts managing director Campbell Ogilvie admits club is bracing itself for more financial difficulties next season. The Tynecastle side were reportedly still around £25m in debt last summer.

"You are always pleased to conclude these deals," he said. "Financially it is very important.

"If we hadn't succeeded it would have changed the financial climate but we were always confident that we could seal a deal of this nature.

"But it is going to be hard next season.

"Some of our outgoings such as our wages and number of players have to be reduced and we are working on that at the moment.

"We are operating at the top percentage of the wages to turnover ratio and we want to bring that down to about 50%.

"In terms of players, we peaked with 76 players, now we are down at 56.

"As far as incomes goes, we have lost 3000 season ticket holders from a base of 13,000, partly down to the bad season we had last season.

"We appreciate that people in normal day-to-day life are under pressure so football has to work very hard to make sure that we don't lose people.

"If we show an improvement on the field then that can help.

"But corporate hospitality will become an issue, companies can't be seen to putting out (money) at this time.

"These are thing that we have to consider."

He added: "Against Aberdeen at the weekend, nine out of the 18 players were home-grown.

"Some reports with headlines such as 'firesale' are negative.

"If you sell players on a managed basis, I think supporters will accept that.

"But if you are losing a player like Berra then someone else should be coming in through.

"A very high percentage of young players are getting a chance here.

"It helps us when we are signing a youngster, they will see that we are giving them a chance."