Kilmarnock skipper Craig Bryson wants to draw a line under Hearts’ failure to buy him and concentrate on his Rugby Park future.

Bryson, 23, spent the summer being linked with a move to join his former Killie boss Jim Jefferies at Tynecastle.

The Ayrshire club, believed to be looking for around £500,000 for the former Scotland Under-21 player, knocked back several bids from the Gorgie club including two on deadline day and thus the expected transfer failed to materialise.

Ahead of the home Clydesdale Bank Premier League game against St Mirren on Saturday, Bryson said that it is time to move on.

“It’s always nice when teams want you but now I can just concentrate on playing for Kilmarnock and that’s what I want to do.” he said.

“It was fine for me. Some people were asking me what was happening but I didn’t know so that was it.

“But I would rather move it to one side for now and concentrate on playing for Killie.

“We play St Mirren on Saturday and hopefully we can get a positive result.

“I want to do as well as I can for Killie and help the team get some good results.”

A 1-0 win at Aberdeen in their last outing gave Mixu Paatelainen his first three points as Killie boss.

However, Bryson has seen enough from the Finn’s new-look Rugby Park side to set his sights higher than simply avoiding relegation this season.

“At the start of the season I think we just wanted to stay up but we have been playing well and we got a good result at Aberdeen,” the former Clyde midfielder said.

“It was massive to get our first three points after we had been beaten in our first two games when we should probably have taken something out of them.

“Now we want to push on as much as we can.

“The gaffer has brought a new freshness in to the way we play the game and has has brought new ideas.

“We sometimes do two training sessions per day.

“Sometimes it’s two football sessions, sometimes it’s football and then conditioning circuits.

“He also uses a lot of sports science.

“It took us a little time to get used to it but it’s beginning to work.

“All the new boys who have come in have done well and they are all the same as me, they want to push on.

“To get the first three points is always a relief and we want to build on that and get a positive result against St Mirren.

“I think they beat us four times last season in league and cup games so know it will be a really difficult game.”

Giovanni Trapattoni has denied reports he claimed Darron Gibson would have to leave Manchester United to further his international career.

Reports claimed over the weekend that Gibson might have to quit Old Trafford to become a regular in Trapattoni’s Republic of Ireland side.

The suggestions earned an angry rebuke from Gibson with the midfielder unhappy that Trapattoni was advising him to leave United, stating the Italian ‘must have been having a laugh’.

“If Trapattoni wants me to move on from a club like Manchester United to better my game, move to somewhere like Stoke where I’ll get more games but have little chance of winning anything, then I just don’t know,” Gibson told the Derry Journal.

“At what club, other than Manchester United, could I go to improve my game? To be honest, if he’s trying to say that I should move somewhere like Stoke City and change my game to winning tackles and not winning games, then he’s having a laugh. To move on from Manchester United just doesn’t make sense to me.”

However, after Ireland’s 3-1 win over Andorra, Trapattoni moved to clear up the confusion insisting he never suggested for Gibson to find pastures new, but to work harder to establish himself at United.

“What I told him was that, for him, the action is not finished when he does not have the ball,” said Trapattoni.

“I told him that in this great team (United) it is not easy to play in this situation because he plays with ten great players and when these great players have the ball they play.

“He must ask for the ball, he must want the ball. That is important.

“He has to work to get the ball. He has fantastic vision and the long ball and he has a good personality with the ball.”

New Tottenham star Rafael van der Vaart has claimed Liverpool were interested in signing him this summer but has dismissed reports Bayern Munich also wanted him.

Van der Vaart last week completed a dramatic last-gasp £8million transfer deadline day move to Premier League Tottenham from Spanish giants Real Madrid.

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp had suggested Bayern had bid £18million for the Holland midfielder but this was denied by Madrid, while Van der Vaart said the German club had not made a “concrete” offer.

The 27-year-old now says Bayern were not interested but that Liverpool had wanted to secure his services.

He told Sky Sports News: “Liverpool were interested, Bayern were never interested, but you have to have a good feeling and this manager gave me a good feeling and I am really happy to be going to Spurs.”

Van der Vaart revealed his international team-mates who already played for Barclays Premier League clubs were pressing him to join them in England.

“They were telling me that I should come to England; now I am going to be playing in England and am very proud,” he said.

Van der Vaart is likely to make his Spurs debut on Saturday 11th September as the London side travel to take on West Brom.

Betting for the Premier League clash has Tottenham at 1.90 to get the away win, with West Brom 3.75 and the draw available at 3.25.

Don’t forget, all Premier League matches are covered by the bet365 100% Euro Soccer Bonus, where you could earn a bonus of up to 100% on your returns on pre-match accumulator bets.

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Nigel de Jong says he does not regret his horror challenge on Spain’s Xabi Alonso in the World Cup final.

The Manchester City midfielder caught Alonso in the chest with a high tackle in the showpiece game in South Africa, an offence for which referee Howard Webb has since admitted he should have sent him off.

However, De Jong is quoted in the Sunday Mirror as saying: “I don’t regret anything. I never intended to hurt him.

“And after such a great World Cup I came back to the dressing room of Manchester City as a different player. Well, that’s how it felt.

“I had just played in the final of the World Cup. It gives you a different status.

“The lads at City said they were impressed with the Dutch team’s performances out there in South Africa. That was really nice.”

De Jong is the subject of one of bet365′s special markets. Will Howard Webb have cause to send off the Dutchman the next time they share a pitch?

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Relieved Crystal Palace manager George Burley has revealed Darren Ambrose’s leg injury is not as serious as first thought.

The Palace medical staff initially feared the 26-year-old had broken his leg, but a trip to a specialist has revealed that the midfielder has suffered severe bruising.

“Darren has bruising around the bone but it’s nothing structural, so he’ll be out for another three weeks,” Burley told the South London Press.

“He’s been a big miss for us and we will continue to feel his absence keenly.

“It’s a big blow to lose someone who did as well as Darren did last year, and any team would suffer from losing that goal threat. But thankfully there is no operation needed, which is a plus.”