HEARTS have announced a groundbreaking partnership with Save the Children which will net the club a seven-figure sum - and owner Ann Budge insists that will ensure none of Robbie Neilson's players will leave on the cheap.

A handful of Scottish philanthropists have committed over £1million to the capital club over a three-year period and will donate the same amount of cash to the children's charity.

The deal is more lucrative than any commercial sponsorship Hearts have ever had.

As of next season, the Jambos will become the first club in the United Kingdom to carry the name of a national charity on its shirts, while they follow in the footsteps of European heavyweights Barcelona, Brondby and Olympiakos, whose kits have been adorned with Unicef in the past.

Budge beamed: "It's the biggest deal we've ever done and I'm told that it's on a par with some of the bigger deals done in Scotland in the past."

She believes the move is another major step in the rebuilding of their relationship with the community and local businesses following the ruinous Vladimir Romanov regime.

The club, whose previous sponsorship deal with payday lender Wonga ended last year, also became the first professional team in Britain to adopt the living wage for all employees in October.

Budge continued: "We have worked hard to get this partnership in place. I think it sends out exactly the message we want to send out. A number of businesses didn't like what was going on at the club and had withdrawn support.

"We had to work really hard to re-establish relationships with the business community. To a certain extent, the same was true of supporters. It was a very important priority for us to create new values."

The financial boost came as Celtic manager Ronny Deila expressed his admiration for Hearts skipper Danny Wilson. Head coach Robbie Neilson has also admitted that he is braced for interest in the stars of his Championship-winning side.

However, Budge said: "It puts us in a better bargaining position. We have a fantastic base on which to build and I hope we can hold as much of that together as we can.

"We have been successful and there will be a lot of interest in our players and management team.

"Am I confident we can hang on to the majority of the people we currently have? Yes, I am. The majority have bought into what we are doing and that's good.

"However, it is a commercial world out there and if someone comes long and offers someone something hugely substantial who knows?"

The additional funds will also boost the playing budget for Neilson and director of football Craig Levein and Hearts seek to build a squad which Budge wants to see aim higher than merely scraping into the Premiership's top six.

She continued: "I do know we have one or two positions we'd like to strengthen and all of that is in the pot already. We still have a conservative plan but we are ahead of the game, there is no question. If we finish sixth, we will be happy but I would like to think we will finish above that."