ANDREW Driver is determined to focus on the season ahead with Hearts after Burnley failed in their attempts to sign him.
The Coca-Cola Championship side have had two offers rejected and manager Owen Coyle has ruled out a fresh bid for the 20-year-old winger.
Driver came through the youth ranks at Hearts and is now a first-team regular after making his senior deb
ut in August 2006.
He has refused to rule out a move south of the border one day but insists that he is committed to the Tynecastle club for now.
"The speculation about Burnley hasn't affected me," Driver said.
"I haven't heard anything from the club or anyone else so I just need to get my head down and keep working hard and get on with it.
"I'm still only 20, have loads of improving to do, and I'm looking forward to getting back playing again after missing the last bit of last season through injury.
"I am a Hearts player and I want to concentrate on getting fit for the new season.
"I want to do the best I can in my career and I want to improve as much as I can. If I can do that, then maybe the chance will come to play in England.
"Obviously it is a boost that someone is interested and shows I am maybe doing something right but I just want to keep improving as a footballer."
Hearts endured a turbulent campaign which saw them finish in the bottom half of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League for the first time since the league split was introduced.
The club have also yet to appoint a new manager after majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov launched a search for a new head coach almost seven months ago.
However, Driver insists that the players, who returned from their five-week summer break for the start of pre-season training at Riccarton yesterday, are determined to make amends for the disappointments of last season.
He told www.heartsfc.co.uk: "I've been trying to forget about last season without really managing.
"It didn't go very well so we'll be going into this pre-season with extra drive compared to other years. We want to get back and show it was a one-off. We have a low average age in the squad and if the team can stick together we can only improve."
Meanwhile, Burnley are also interested in signing former Dundee United defender Christian Kalvenes, only two months after he left Tannadice advising that his wife was homesick for Norway.
Burnley manager Coyle, who signed Dundee midfielder Kevin McDonald for £500,000 on Tuesday, is believed to have talked the Scandinavian defender into making a return journey to Britain on a deal that will see the player able to return home during the season.
The full article contains 480 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
