Bologna are close to landing Hickey after tabling £1.3m bid

BOLOGNA have launched their £1.3million bid to land Aaron Hickey from Hearts. The Serie A club are locked in a battle with Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich for the 18-year-old left-back. Hickey has toured the facilities of both clubs and as Sportsmail revealed on Tuesday, the teenager has plumped for firstteam football in Bologna over a move to Bayern’s second team, playing in Germany’s Liga 3. While Hearts have yet to accept Bologna’s offer, owner Ann Budge admits the approach is ‘not a million miles away’. Hickey’s current contract expires next summer, with the youngster also attracting interest from Celtic and Manchester City after breaking into the Hearts team at the tail end of the 2018-19 campaign and making 30 appearances last season. ‘Despite all the names thrown about, the club has only had one approach,’ said Budge yesterday. ‘That was on Tuesday of this week. ‘We did receive an offer. I have gone back to them with a couple of questions, so it is basically still being discussed. It’s not a million miles away, it’s pretty close. ‘Aaron is a lovely young lad. That’s one of the reasons I would love him to stay. He is also very sensible and he’ll think it all through. He works so hard and, despite everything going on, he is giving his all to training.’ Budge conceded, however, that there is now little chance of Hickey (right) signing a new long-term deal with Hearts. ‘I would love to keep Aaron here but the situation has snowballed a bit. Could we turn it back again? I don’t think we would have much chance of success. His advisors are telling him he would be better moving. ‘We have been trying to get Aaron to sign a long-term contract for a very long time. ‘We’ve gone back two or three times but, with all the recent interest, I think it would be difficult to persuade him to stay.’ The cash boost Hearts are set to receive through any sale of

Hickey will help in their bid to balance the books after Budge previously conceded that dropping to the second tier could cost the club around £3m in income. Elliott Frear became manager Robbie Neilson’s fourth summer recruit after the former Motherwell winger signed a 12-month contract yesterday. However, the departures of high-earner Conor Washington and the likes of Sean Clare and Uche Ikpeazu have already helped to redress the disparity in the turnover-to-wages ratio. Budge added: ‘We’ve cut the playing budget by a reasonable amount, which was essential. Our playing budget was too high for the Premiership, never mind the Championship, so we had to address that.’

STEPHEN McGOWAN