Sheffield United warned "crazy bid" needed to sign defender this month; Middlesbrough, Rangers also keen

Souttar is out of contract at Tynecastle in the summer, meaning he can sign a pre-contract agreement with a club outside of Scotland this month and move in June.

Rangers are keen to keep the international defender in Scotland, while Blackburn Rovers and Middlesbrough have also been credited with an interest – alongside United – south of the border.

But Neilson, whose side are chasing a place in Europe, remembers a similar circumstance early in his reign when Hearts sold Osman Sow to a Chinese club after they offered £1m for a player in the final months of his contract.

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Hearts were flying at the time but fell away, losing to their rivals Hibernian in a cup Edinburgh derby, and Neilson is keen to avoid a repeat – insisting it would take a “crazy bid” for his employers to consider selling Souttar this window.

“As we’ve said all along, our aim this season is to get European qualification,” Neilson told the Scarves Around the Funnel podcast.

“It’s brilliant for the club, brilliant for the fanbase and very lucrative to get into that position. So it’s really important we keep the group together.

“You’ll remember five years ago when we lost Osman Sow. That had a real negative impact, not just in terms of losing the player but on the dressing room, and on the club and fanbase, that we’d lost one of our best players. Although we ended up that season finishing third, I felt we struggled to get our feet over the line.

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“We have to keep our best players in the team. If that means it’s at the end of the season they go, then it’s the end of the season when they go. Unless there’s a crazy bid coming in, but I don’t expect there will be.”

United identified Souttar as a target after analysis of Paul Heckingbottom’s squad revealed a glaring weakness in squad depth at centre-half. United currently have four senior centre-halves on their books.

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