Claudio Braga insists his focus remains entirely on Hearts despite transfer speculation surrounding his future, with the Portuguese forward determined to help the club embark on a new era under head coach Wouter Vrancken.
After an impressive debut campaign at Tynecastle inevitably attracted interest, Braga was asked about rumours linking him with a move away. His response left little room for doubt about where his priorities lie.
“We have a very, very important game, maybe one of the most important games for the club in the past years,” Braga said.
“I’m here and I’m completely focused on that.
“Of course, there’s interest, but at the same time, I can’t focus on that while I’m here. I’m here, I’m a Hearts player and that’s all you guys need to know and that’s all I need to feel.
“I’m a Hearts player and I’m here 100 per cent. I’m trying to be as professional as I can and not care about that, because I leave that to my agents.”
Braga revealed he has also had honest conversations with Vrancken about the speculation, reiterating exactly the same message behind closed doors.
“We had talks in the beginning, but I told him exactly the same as I told you guys.
“I’m here 100 per cent. I’m a Hearts player. I’m really happy. I was really happy here last year. It didn’t change anything. I’m really happy now.
“Of course, there may be interest or not, but that’s something that I can’t control or can’t focus on while I’m here. That would just be bad for me and for the club. I’m just focusing on Sturm Graz now.”
The 26-year-old is one of several players adapting to life under new boss Wouter Vrancken following a summer of significant change at Hearts. While acknowledging there is still work to do, Braga believes the squad is embracing the Belgian’s methods.
“We’re still building it. It’s such a new idea, it’s new players, so we’re still building it, of course. I think we have a lot of potential for the next matches.”
He highlighted the intensive use of video analysis as a key feature of Vrancken’s coaching, particularly with limited time to prepare before crucial European fixtures.
“We do a lot of videos, analysis, and that’s probably the best way to communicate, showing the trainings and analysis and just show us what we should do.
“If we did something good, that’s what you should do. If we did something that is not good, you should do the opposite.
“It’s such a small time, so you kind of need to use every time that you have. The analysis helps a lot to make us understand. I think the message has been passed really well.”
Braga also explained that Hearts have deliberately prioritised embedding Vrancken’s playing philosophy before turning their attention fully to European opponents.
“Mostly we were trying to build up. I think it’s more important that we get to know the idea of the coach and to put ourselves first than just know the opposition.
“I believe that now we’ll do the opposite. We’ll just focus on Sturm Graz and a little bit on us because we did a lot on us now.”
Reflecting on last season, Braga admitted the painful finish initially overshadowed what had been an outstanding campaign for both himself and the club. With time, however, his perspective has changed.
“It was really crazy. Too crazy, maybe. A lot of ups and downs, but it was crazy in a good way.
“Of course, that last game kind of makes you think that it wasn’t a good year, but I take a long time to think that it was a good year.
“When I start thinking deep, then I would pay anything to have a year as I had and the club had last year.
“It’s kind of ungrateful if we look at that year and say it was a bad year. It was just a bad end, maybe, but it was a great year. It was something that we weren’t expecting from the beginning.
“Me personally, also as an individual, I could never expect that. I think we just need to be grateful and just look at the things in a good way.”
Braga admits the summer brought disappointment following the departures of key players and the managerial change, but believes Hearts have recruited well enough to move forward.
“It was hard in the first weeks, but after that you just need to face it. It happens, you can’t control it, so you just need to move on.
“Some important players go out, but at the same time we had a lot of signings and I’m sure a lot of the signings will help us a lot this year.
“I wish them all the best. They were great people around the club… but other players came and we should not think about it.”
The striker has been particularly encouraged by the quality shown by Hearts’ new arrivals.
“You could see against Rayo the quality on the pitch. It was a lot of guys with good technical abilities, good quality.
“The communication in the group is really good and I feel we’re doing well.”
Attention now turns to Hearts’ Champions League qualifier against Sturm Graz, with Braga eager to experience European football on the biggest stage.
“I’m very excited. I’ve been saying this a lot, it’s any player’s dream to play Champions League.
“Even though it’s qualifiers, everybody wants to play that kind of game against big teams. Just to talk about European games is something really good as a player.
“I’ve dreamed of this since I was three or four. Every time I watched football, these were the games you wanted to watch. To be possible to be a part of it is something really big.”
Far from being overawed, Braga believes Hearts should approach the tie with belief.
“I feel like we have a good team. We proved it last year and we proved on Friday that we can play against international teams and still do a good job.
“We’re not going to Sturm Graz to lose or to draw. We’re going there to win and make the best result possible. I feel we are confident in the locker room.”