MELBOURNE Heart chief executive Scott Munn said marquee target Harry Kewell could be signed up to the A-League club within 10 days.
The former Melbourne Victory striker has been strongly linked with a move back to the Victorian capital, while also receiving offers from the Newcastle Jets and clubs in the United Arab Emirates and Europe, according to Munn.
Heart remain upbeat Kewell will sign on, and help boost the side's well-publicised poor crowd numbers.
"We sort of agreed that if we can get everything done, he'd be here for pre-season, first week of July. Our position is we want to have it done in the next seven-to-10 days," Munn told SEN 1116 on Monday morning.
Munn said Kewell's personal interests were stalling his professional ones, but said recent discussions in London between himself and the 34-year-old went well, while Heart coach John Aloisi also had a productive chat with his former international team-mate.
"I won't put a percentage on it (the likelihood of Kewell signing) because I've been in this world for a little bit now. The meeting was fantastic, it went as well as we could have expected," Munn said.
"John Aloisi had spent time with him two weeks prior. He asked a lot of questions, we took him what we want to do and what we are looking to achieve. I came away feeling really happy and really confident about the meeting."
Munn said he felt Kewell still had a point to prove in his homeland, but did not necessarily want to chase a call-up to the national set-up.
"He thought that he played really well in the second half of the year when he was here last (with Victory), and that he had a little bit of unfinished business here still to deliver particularly on the pitch," he said.
"I think he wants to come back and show people that he is a great footballer, and if he does well, great - he may get picked for the Socceroos but that wasn't his first and foremost challenge."
And despite already being knocked back by English Premier League club Norwich City for a play at striker Grant Holt, Munn said the Heart still saw an opening for the 32-year-old.
"He's an interesting one. That's a bit more complicated," Munn said.
"He's the club captain there, and he's got two years to go but they've just spent eight-and-a-half million pounds on a Dutch striker (Ricky van Wolfswinkel). So clearly his position is under pressure.
"He played here as a 16, 17 year old in Perth, so we've talked to him, he's keen and he's certainly interested in Australia but the complexity is that he's still under contract and would need to be released."
Heart's initial bid for Holt fell short of Norwich's two-million pound price tag for the imposing forward.
(c) Sportal Australia
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