Swansea set to sign Ginnelly after Hearts exit

Josh Ginnelly scored 10 goals between January and the end of last season

Swansea City are set to sign Heart of Midlothian forward Josh Ginnelly on a free transfer.

He is believed to have attracted interest from a handful of Championship clubs and has also been linked with Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Ginnelly will become Swansea's first signing since the appointment of Michael Duff as their new head coach.

Capable of playing as a winger or up front, he scored 13 goals in 41 Hearts appearances last season.

He scored 22 goals in all for the Edinburgh club, having played 89 times since joining from Preston North End, initially on loan in September 2020 and then on a permanent basis.

Nuneaton-born Ginnelly was at Aston Villa as a youngster before beginning his senior career with Shrewsbury Town.

After moving to Burnley in 2015, he had loan spells at Altrincham, Walsall, Lincoln City and Tranmere Rovers before joining the Saddlers on a permanent basis in 2018.

He joined Preston in 2019 and had a stint on loan at Bristol Rovers before joining Hearts, where he formed an impressive partnership with Scotland striker Lawrence Shankland last season.

Hearts conceded defeat in their bid to keep Ginnelly this week, saying he would leave despite the club making the "best possible offers to retain his services".

Ginnelly wrote on social media that leaving Hearts was "one of the toughest decisions I've had to make" because the club had helped him through "one of the toughest times of my career" as a result of injury problems.

Ginnelly has scored 38 goals in 213 career appearances.