Robbie Neilson in Hearts Euro game changer admission as he maps out league and cup targets

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Robbie Neilson has urged Hearts to wrap-up third place asap and give themselves the best shot at winning Euro millions to fund a top two push next season.The Jambos have ambitions of splitting the Old Firm even if those have been put on the back burner for this season.

But they also have a shorter term aim of securing European group stage football - something Neilson admits would be a game changer at Tynecastle.

Third place would secure a play-off spot for Europa League groups if either of the Old Firm were to win the Scottish Cup. Should the Jambos lift the silverware at Hampden in May they would automatically go into that 180-minute shot at the money-spinning groups with the fall back of a Conference League group stage spot for the losers.Neilson has done his homework and knows what’s at stake.And ahead of this afternoon’s trip to face Dundee United he admitted: “It’s huge.

Whoever wins the cup gets direct access to the Europa League play-off then if you don’t win that you go straight into the Conference group stage.“So it’s worth a lot of money and it means we can re-invest it in the squad and hopefully give ourselves a chance to go and have another crack the next year to try to get into that top two.“You want to get third place done as soon as you can and there’s still a lot of work to do.