Stendel should stay if Hearts relegated: Boyce

NORTHERN Ireland international Liam Boyce says he wants Daniel Stendel to stay in the Hearts hotseat.

The 46-year-old, currently working for free, has a release clause in his Gorgie contract in the event of the club suffering the drop.

Having been persuaded by the German to head back north of the border from Burton on a three-and-a-half-year deal in January, the former Cliftonville hero isn’t planning to jump ship if the club’s relegation is rubout ber stamped by the SPFL board. Boyce said: “Since I’ve been here he has been brilliant with me.

“When I had my sore back, he was great at giving me a rest and trying to give me the best opportunity to get me back playing the way I was when I first joined.

“He was looking after me that way, and always talking to you.

“He always has a game plan with tactics for every team and I’ve never seen that sort of detail.

“Obviously every manager does it but the kind of detail he goes into is class.

“So it was good — you learn stuff off him and I’d like him to stay.

“Obviously

it hasn’t worked this season but I think he is a really good manager the way he sets up a team and with the way he talks.

“But this decision — whatever it is — could change a lot of things. You don’t know what the club is doing, what the club is thinking.

“I have signed a contract for three and a half years and I’ve always stayed but there are a lot of things that come into it.

“Butifitisuptomeiamstaying and that is the way it is basically.”

Stendel’s representative Timo Rodewald has insisted no decision has yet been made regarding his future.