Robbie Neilson issues message to Blackpool amid interest in Hearts defender Toby Sibbick | OneFootball

Hearts boss Robbie Neilson is keen to see defender Toby Sibbick stay at the club until the end of the season amid interest from Blackpool.

It was reported earlier in the week that Blackpool saw a £400,000 offer for Sibbick turned down by the Scottish Premiership club.

The 23-year-old only joined Hearts this time last year, as he left Yorkshire side Barnsley, and he signed a three-and-a-half-year deal when he joined.

Since joining Hearts, Sibbick has gone on to become a regular for the side, making 44 appearances for the club, 18 of which have come in the league this season, and the defender even managed to score in last week’s derby day win over Hibernian.

His performances in Scotland don’t seem to have gone unnoticed, with Mick McCarthy keen on securing a deal for the defender.

However, Hearts have suffered some recent injuries in defence, and Sibbick has become integral to Neilson’s plans, and the Hearts boss has no plans to see him depart anytime soon.

Neilson said, via Lancs Live: “He is a very important player to us. Any player that we have at this football club has a value and that value didn’t get matched, so he’ll stay here and I hope that stays until at least the end of the season, because we need him.

“It’s the whole process of building a team, there’s no point in bringing people in in the summer, then six months later flipping them for money that we didn’t believe the value is there. We’re building a team around key players and at the moment Toby is one of those key players.”

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Blackpool have already brought in Charlie Goode this month, a defender from Premier League side Brentford, but it seems McCarthy is still keen to further strengthen his back line.

Despite only being 23, Sibbick has already appeared 51 times in the Championship, and while he still has a lot of development ahead of him, he is well-known to life in the Championship, and this will be something that McCarthy will have considered.

However, it seems Hearts are under no pressure to sell the defender this month, and with no real price tag being mentioned, it remains to be seen how much it will take for Blackpool to get Sibbick out of Hearts this month.