Wouter Vrancken explains why Claudio Braga could benefit from staying at Hearts

Wouter Vrancken has told Claudio Braga he can benefit from remaining at Hearts in the increasingly likely event that no move materialises for the Portuguese forward in the current window.

Braga was widely expected to be sold this summer after scooping every Scottish Premiership player of the year award last season as the Jambos fell agonisingly short in their quest for title glory under Derek McInnes.

But current boss Vrancken expects the 26-year-old to remain at Tynecastle for the first half of the season at least, with several of Europe’s main transfer deadlines having now passed.

“For me, he is now here, he is fully focused here, he is fully committed here,” the Belgian said. “I think he will be here, I’ll bet on this.

“You never know, but let’s hope that we can keep him because he is a lot of value to the team.

“He is important because of his quality. He is also a guy who is coachable and who thinks about the team, this is also very important. It’s not him who is the most important, it’s the team who is the most important.

“I think he has this mindset and that’s for me an extra reason to want to keep him. I hope we can keep him for sure for another six months.

“I think also for him it would be a good thing to stay and to show himself in a different style of play because the bigger teams, the teams he would probably like to go to, are not looking for a player who does one year good in a certain style of play.

“I think when you can show yourself, that it’s not a lucky shot, he is consistent in quality and he can show himself in different ways of playing and in different positions, then it adds to his personality or to his abilities as a player and I think the range of (interested) clubs will be bigger.”

The Scottish transfer deadline is 5pm on Thursday, just a few hours before Hearts face city rivals Hibernian at Easter Road.

Vrancken was coy on what further activity he anticipates, stressing his full focus is on his first derby since moving to Edinburgh from Sint-Truiden in June.

“I’m excited,” said Vrancken, who revealed influential left-back Harry Milne is back in contention after a four-week injury lay-off. “It’s always a special game, especially for the fans and we want to win it for the fans. We have to be ready to go full again.

“The biggest derby for Sint-Truiden, my hometown team, is the Limburg derby against Genk. They are fun games, games you look forward to, but as long as the rivalry is always on the pitch.

“When violence comes into the picture, then for me the fun is gone, but the emotions around it, it makes it special.”