Budge has made it clear she still expects Hearts to be competing for a top-four place

[Inch Hearts]

1 minute ago, Nookie Bear said:

 

I wasn't suggesting we go out and throw millions of pounds about.

 

A decent loan signing or two, perhaps a bit of money on a player who was fit and could do a job for a couple of years? That's all.

 

Im in full agreement. We have been left a little short with no creativity and that should have been addressed in January.  We actually hit the ground running based on early recruitment last summer even though very little of the signings have made a massive impact minus Haring. 

[davemclaren]

11 minutes ago, Inch Hearts said:

 

Im in full agreement. We have been left a little short with no creativity and that should have been addressed in January.  We actually hit the ground running based on early recruitment last summer even though very little of the signings have made a massive impact minus Haring. 

Watching Lafferty last night left me wondering if him not going might have made a big difference. 

[Inch Hearts]

5 minutes ago, davemclaren said:

Watching Lafferty last night left me wondering if him not going might have made a big difference. 

 

It definitely dictated a change in play.  And regardless of off the field we miss his quality and attitude.

[Pasquale for King]

9 hours ago, Nookie Bear said:

We had a vibrancy in the opening weeks. The new players were keen to impress and guys like Lee, Uche, Haring, Dunne all hit the ground running and that had a positive influence on the likes of Morrison. Naismith was fit and the keeper looked solid.

 

It was inevitable that there would be a tail -off in that and, for me, we should have reassessed our ambitions in January and invested in the squad. A couple of additions in the right places could have seen us challenging for 2nd* but we seemed to get into a rut of feeling sorry for ourselves over Naismith without ever really planning for life without him.

 

*not only challenge for 2nd this season but also start the process of creating an even better team for next season

 

 

I think part of the problem was that we had spent all the budget signing 18 players in the summer. We had Vanacek coming in and needed a replacement for Dunne. Although we signed that many players we didn’t have cover for Naismith and to a lesser extent Uche.

[Pasquale for King]

8 hours ago, davemclaren said:

Watching Lafferty last night left me wondering if him not going might have made a big difference. 

I think we needed to replace him ( we knew was going for a month really) and it’s why we were after Sow, when Uche then Naisy got injured (no surprise looking at their records) we only had two guys in Clare and Wighton who weren’t ready to step in.