Levein says Rangers let Walker down

New Hearts manager Craig Levein has taken a thinly veiled swipe at Rangers over their failed summer pursuit of Jamie Walker.

Hearts rejected several pre-season bids from Rangers for the midfielder and the clubs did not come close to an agreement during transfer deadline day talks last week.

The 24-year-old has rejected an offer to extend his deal at Tynecastle and could sign a pre-contract at Ibrox in January, but Levein feels the wide player has been let down.

Levein, who moved back into management from his director of football role just before the transfer window shut, said: “I don’t want to go into too much detail but if I was Jamie I’d be a little bit disappointed that a lot of the promises that were made to him weren’t kept. And not from our club.”

Meanwhile, Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes claims Hearts have turned down his request to test his team out on the Murrayfield pitch.

The Jambos are staging tomorrow’s clash at the home of Scottish rugby while the finishing touches to their new £12 million main stand at Tynecastle are completed.

McInnes felt his Dons side should be allowed to limber up at the Edinburgh venue.

That appeal, however, was rejected by the Gorgie side and the Aberdeen players will now have to wait for their pre-match warm-up before getting a closer look at the Murrayfield playing surface.

“We asked the question if we could train but were told we couldn’t,” explained McInnes.