'A lot': Hearts' latest signing Tomas Bent Magnusson makes goals clear after lifting weight from shoulders

Icelandic midfielder Tomas Bent Magnusson was only confirmed as a Hearts player four hours before kick-off, a week after transfer negotiations with Valur had all but been concluded. Fortunately, the necessary paperwork was completed in time for him being a part of an important opening-day victory to start off a season that is already promising quite a lot.

Spare a thought for poor old Pierre Landry Kabore though, who has been in Edinburgh now over a fortnight - longer than Magnusson - but remained sidelined by paperwork delays. The winger from Burkina Faso will have to wait until this weekend at the earliest for his bow. Understandably, Magnusson was just grateful to be involved against the Dons.

"Monday morning, just when the offices were open,” Magnusson said of when his visa arrived. “I was pretty hopeful it would happen. Most of the guys have got their visa pretty quickly, except Kabore, so I was hopeful. It's a weight lifted off my shoulders.”

Hearts have high hopes for Magnusson, who is an athletic, tall defensive midfielder. The 22-year-old adds further depth to head coach Derek McInnes’ options. He will compete with Cammy Devlin, Oisin McEntee, Beni Baningime and Calem Nieuwenhof for a place in that part of the team. It was notable that Devlin and McEntee were two of Hearts’ best performers.

Regardless, Magnusson isn’t here to fill the bench. “I'm just really happy that I made my debut,” he continued. “I can't wait to move on to the next game. The fans were crazy. I've never experienced like this before - but it's great. If it's like this in every game, I can't wait for the next one.

It was a no-brainer to make Hearts transfer

Magnusson said that he had no hesitation to swap his homeland for Hearts. “It's a big club,” he said. “The Scottish Premiership is a big league as well. When I heard that they wanted me, I couldn't really hesitate about coming out.

“After the contact was made with Valur back home, I spoke to the gaffer and Graeme [Jones, sporting director] as well. They just told me what the plan was with the club and how they see everything moving forward.”

What can Hearts supporters expect from Magnusson? In his own words, “a guy who gives it his all, a ball-winner. I get up and down the field and just do what I'm asked to do”.

Magnusson and his teammates will head up the A90 to Tannadice in fine fettle ahead of their meeting with Dundee United. Expectation levels have soared amongst the Hearts faithful on the back of promising performances under McInnes and the fresh investment from Brighton owner Tony Bloom, who has made it crystal clear that he expects the Jambos to be challenging for the Premiership title sooner rather than later.

Magnusson signed off with a line that will no doubt appease Bloom and the fans. "A lot,” he replied to a question about what he wants to achieve at Tynecastle. “We've got ambitions for everything and obviously every player wants to win titles and that's what we want to do.”