The Canadian-born Dutch star is a former coach of FC Twente and assisted Marco van Basten with the Holland national team before moving with him as his assistant coach at Ajax.

Heart's newly-appointed football operations manager John Didiluca has admitted they are keen on luring Schip to the Victorian side in time for the start of next season.

And today Schip, 45, told the Dutch press he was keen to meet the club and discuss the future.

"They want staff and a head coach as quickly as possible." he told Netherlands website sportsweek.nl.

"We will talk further about the project soon. I am open to the idea and have told Ajax of their interest"

Schip was born in Canada in 1963 but returned to Holland when he was nine. He joined Ajax and stayed with them for 11 seasons where he won a string of trophies, both domestic and continental.

The winger then joined Genoa for the last four years of his career in 1992 and also picked up 41 caps for his country, playing in two European Championships and the 1990 World Cup.

Heart had earlier made a beeline for fellow Dutchman Henk van Stee, but the veteran opted to take a post with Zenit St Petersburg instead.

Didiluca said the club would move into top gear in the next couple of days as they move to begin player and management recruitment when the contract window opens on October 1.

He told AAP: "We're going to be running through a whole raft of things, and we'll be putting things together in the next 24 to 48 hours towards getting some things out there and undertaking what will be a very exciting adventure."