● Hearts boss says Walker is now free to talk to suitors and believes successful club will get a better, all-round striker

Craig Levein has advised Hearts supporters to enjoy Jamie Walker while they can with the winger now free to speak to other clubs about a move.

The Hearts manager has seemingly abandoned hope of persuading Walker, linked with a move to Rangers earlier this season, to re-sign with the Tynecastle club. “We’ve had conversations but that is not for public consumption,” he said.

Levein accepts the end of Walker’s lengthy Hearts chapter – he joined the club as a youth player – is drawing near. He even admits he’s envious of whichever club is successful in securing his signature, because they will will be getting a better, more rounded player.

“The penny has dropped with him now,” said Levein. “He is serious now, I think, about his football and somebodyisgoingtogetagoodplayer. My main point with him is that I’ve been really pleased with his attitude and his focus.

“Some players are serious from the first moment they play football,” he added.

“Others go through life and then, at some point, something switches in their head and they say: ‘Hold on, I’d better focus a bit more – and take football more seriously.’”

Whatever happens next, Levein has no complaints about Walker’s attitude. Indeed, he has applauded the way the player has gone about his business since being left out of the side by former head coach Ian Cathro, who accused the winger of having had his head turned by Rangers’ interest. Interim head coach Jon Daly also meted out the same treatment to Walker after he took over.

The current manager has nothing but praise for the 24-year-old, who, it seemed, was heading for a fractious parting of ways with the Tynecastle club earlier this season amid several bids from Rangers, all of which were rejected by Hearts. But the Tynecastle club have less hold over the player now.

Levein acknowledged that, with contracts in Scotland tending to end in May, Walker is already free to talk to other clubs. He is now well within

The Hearts manager Craig Levein has revealed that injured attacker Jamie Walker is already permitted to speak to other clubs – and might already be doing so for all he knows.

The Tynecastle club are braced to lose the player, who was linked with a move to Rangers earlier this season, and the manager is realistic when pondering whether Walker has a long-term future at the club, with both parties seemingly reconciled to a parting of ways. Players are free to open talks with interested clubs from six months prior to the official end of their contracts.

“Contracts in Scotland end in May so Jamie has been eligible, or whatever you want to call it, to speak to clubs since the start of December,” confirmed Levein. “That’s just the way it is. We should be contacted by the club if he is speaking to anybody as a matter of courtesy but it doesn’t always happen.”

Hearts, meanwhile, have held talks with Swedish left-back Gabriel Somi who plays for Ostersunds FK and hope to tempt him to Tynecastle in January.

But Levein would not comment further on speculation linking Hearts with a move for Niall Mcginn after the former Aberdeen winger attended Sunday’s Hibs v Celtic clash as a guest of the Easter Road club.