Two ambitious managers make the final preparations for their start to the season and hope to be there or there abouts come May 2010

Dundee United welcome Hearts on Monday and Tannadice manager Craig Levein insists the visitors will be the team everybody must beat to end up in third third place in the SPL. Casba Lazlo has added five new players to his Hearts' squad that ended up the best of the rest last season so they are expected be a formidable force once again. The resources available to the two clubs are rather striking in their disparity with Hearts spending around £10million on their players compared to United's modest £2.6million. Levein hopes he has assembled enough quality at Tannadice to reach a coveted place in Europe but this early in the season it is hard to say if he is right.

Levein said: "Let's be honest, Hearts should finish third every season. Their wage bill is closer to the Old Firm's than ours is to theirs, so that tells you they should be in third spot most seasons. It didn't happen for a few years but Csaba Laszlo has come in and did a fantastic job last season. Although their wage bill is much bigger than ours, we still feel we're able to compete with them, there's no doubt about that. It's a great fixture to start off with, it will be a real occasion and the fact the television cameras are here makes it even better. Both teams have new players so the fans will be eager to see them in action and I'd expect the game to have a real edge to it. Our games against Hearts are always good and we know that if we want to continue our progression then games like these are the ones we need to win."

Levein's opposite number is worrying over an injury to one of his fit strikers which could wreck Hearts' start to the season. Calum Elliot needs major reconstructive surgery to correct a congenital heel problem. The club are planning to put off an operation for as long as possible and will try to manage the condition, with the player expected to return to training soon. But having missed out on Macedonia international Ilco Naumoski, Laszlo has been left with only three forwards at his disposal. Laszlo said: "We have Gary Glen, (Christian) Nade, (David) Witteveen. We don't have at the moment front men who will help us. If you have an injury, you are completely out of strikers." Laszlo has his eye on Craig Beattie, who has struggled to break into the West Brom team. However, resources are unlikely to be made available to afford a transfer fee for the former Celtic and Scotland striker. Expressing his disappointment at missing out on Naumoski, Laszlo added: "We'll look for other possibilities. We must not go and decide tomorrow because they cannot play in the Europa League. The other thing is that at the moment, the market is not so rich in good strikers which one can transfer for free."

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