Our signing policy

[billybalfour]

One of our few successful signings in recent years was Peter Haring.What has happened that he can;t get on the pitch at all.

He was terrible at Dundee but if I were him I would be totally demotivated by now.Neilson surely should be trying something different and he is one of the players who might improve things.

[Jambo 4 Ever]

36 minutes ago, ramrod said:

The fact that the club are trying to  sign Stewart on a permanent contract alone tells you how utterly clueless our coaching staff are  about players abilities to improve us, embarrassing. 

He will do as a back up to Gordon 

[Sertse]

At the moment we're basically a retirement plan. Old past it players and 'good enough' signings that get drastically worse as soon as they put on our jersey.

If we were able to sign Nisbet (hear me out) he would have skooshed this league and we could have sold him on for a hefty fee. Instead he went to the hobos and he looks like he'll end up making them a decent chunk. It's a perfect example of not utilising the transfer market properly. 

The team is full of duds and they're managed so poorly. I guarantee if the likes of Popescu and Frear went to other teams they'd improve drastically. Look at Roberts.

[Thomaso]

1 hour ago, 1971fozzy said:

According to him yesterday on the radio (when asked by Dick Gordon) there are 8 or so kids that are really special and exciting. 
Craig Levein - the grand master of spin of course

He is the grand master of arrogance!

[Class of 75]

1 hour ago, Riccarton3 said:

Aye. Very curious the old recruitment

I just think questions need to be asked as from this perspective it doesn't add up. 

[Class of 75]

6 minutes ago, Sertse said:

At the moment we're basically a retirement plan. Old past it players and 'good enough' signings that get drastically worse as soon as they put on our jersey.

If we were able to sign Nisbet (hear me out) he would have skooshed this league and we could have sold him on for a hefty fee. Instead he went to the hobos and he looks like he'll end up making them a decent chunk. It's a perfect example of not utilising the transfer market properly. 

The team is full of duds and they're managed so poorly. I guarantee if the likes of Popescu and Frear went to other teams they'd improve drastically. Look at Roberts.

Totally agree. We should have signed Nisbet and as I have suggested, Kamara also. Both woyld have been a success and provided healthy sell on fees. 

[Thomaso]

33 minutes ago, billybalfour said:

One of our few successful signings in recent years was Peter Haring.What has happened that he can;t get on the pitch at all.

He was terrible at Dundee but if I were him I would be totally demotivated by now.Neilson surely should be trying something different and he is one of the players who might improve things.

Haring obviously has a bad case of ‘Robbie Flu’ - one bad game doesn’t turn a class player into a rubbish player.

This Neilson era is like watching a re-run of the Levein horror show - shite negative football, freezing out good players, arrogant post match comments, with a chairwoman fawning on his every word!

[Riccarton3]

10 minutes ago, Class of 75 said:

I just think questions need to be asked as from this perspective it doesn't add up. 

Maybe didnae want to deal with certain agents so ****s the club for his own comfort

[Cruickie's Moustache]

The signing policy has been poor considering the assets we have. A good stadium, loyal fans resulting decent crowds week on week,  good training facilities, a beautiful city, great place to live etc etc. Wages must be pretty decent. All of that and we fail to attract half decent players. There must be thousands of players around Europe to choose from that could do a job for us but we sign the likes of Frear who we knew was no more than mediocre.

 

As an aside, this season we could have done a 'two cheeks' and stripped all of the best younger players from our competition in the championship and put out a better team than the way we have been playing. We weaken the others while trying to make us stronger.

 

Hard cheese if they all don't progress and move on in a short space of time. They should be begging and dying to put a season at Tynecastle on their CVs. Trouble is some will now be looking at us as a poisoned chalice and think they may have a better chance of career at places like St Johnstone!

 

 

[OTT]

What signing policy? Genuinely. There has been a total lack of forward thinking and planning within the squad. We've pretty much just gap plugged for several years with no rhyme or reason to 90% of our signings. I've said this before, but I'll say it again; we need criteria which guides how and why we make signings. I think we should be trying to build a squad based on 4 main criteria:

 

1.) Older experienced pro's - To bring leadership, accountability and mentoring to younger players. Examples being Gordon, Cowie, Hughes, Berra, Naismith and on paper even Whelan. 

2.) Academy lads making the step up - Self explanatory

3.) Best of rest journeymen - Guys like Gallagher at Motherwell who can come in and give us a solid performance level which benefits the team overall. Shouldn't have heaps of these as unsellable. The idea being to let the diddies take the risk on 26 year old+ punts with little potential for development

4.) Other clubs young talent - Guys like Souttar or perhaps Hickey, Wighton would be another example albeit unsuccessful, other examples are Ferguson, Maclean & McCrorie at Aberdeen, McGinn or Magennis at Hibs.

 

I also think we should be adopting a 'business case' justification for each signing built around a few basic questions: 1.) Are they good enough to play for Hearts? 2.) Will they add value to the squad? 3.) Can we develop them? 4.) Can we potentially profit off them in the future? - I think this covers basic areas that should be answered. Guys like Roberts or Frear don't tick any of the boxes listed therefore shouldn't have been signed. Foreign punts like Martin, Amankwaa or Oshinawa (Grzlak, Struna etc. etc.)  likewise should underscore why we need to focus on guys that understand Scottish football.

 

I'm not saying this is a cast iron transfer strategy but it includes a fair degree of common sense. We should be aiming to be a selling club with a successful academy. By making the academy central to what we do we will build competencies in youth development. Clubs that lean heavily on their academy are good at it because they have developed over a period of time a nous for doing it well. We should always be looking at a potential signings value if they are successful and the belief from the management team that they can develop them. We want to be making money so we can develop and invest in the club. We can't do that if we're signing duds like Frear who aren't good enough (and never were) that are too old to ever make money on. Guys like Gordon on the flip side, although are old have the experience and ability to be an asset in bringing value to the team. 

 

Our signings need to stop being stop gaps. If you look at their salaries like an investment, would you be okay investing circa £120,000.00 in an asset you can't make any money from? I don't want to condense it to just being about that, but there is no way you would green light that. Its a clear waste of money. 

 

I think Liverpool for a while operated a policy whereby the manager was essentially allowed any player as long as they are under 23. Obviously we don't have the financial might to do that, but we can adopt a similar mindset where criteria guides how and why we sign players. 

[jambonian]

49 minutes ago, billybalfour said:

One of our few successful signings in recent years was Peter Haring.What has happened that he can;t get on the pitch at all.

He was terrible at Dundee but if I were him I would be totally demotivated by now.Neilson surely should be trying something different and he is one of the players who might improve things.

I reckon he wants Haring out and by not even giving him much chance, he will be. Haring's probably pissed off so he's likely decided he's going in the summer anyway. 

Thing that infuriates me is that Damour still has over two years to go. Neilson said late October/early November he's back training again and yet he's not even been on the bench far less get any game-time. Folk can say he's shite but at the end of the day, i can't see him being any worse that the rest of them, plus he's getting paid anyway. Make him play for his wage.

[jambonian]

8 minutes ago, OTT said:

What signing policy? Genuinely. There has been a total lack of forward thinking and planning within the squad. We've pretty much just gap plugged for several years with no rhyme or reason to 90% of our signings. I've said this before, but I'll say it again; we need criteria which guides how and why we make signings. I think we should be trying to build a squad based on 4 main criteria:

 

1.) Older experienced pro's - To bring leadership, accountability and mentoring to younger players. Examples being Gordon, Cowie, Hughes, Berra, Naismith and on paper even Whelan. 

2.) Academy lads making the step up - Self explanatory

3.) Best of rest journeymen - Guys like Gallagher at Motherwell who can come in and give us a solid performance level which benefits the team overall. Shouldn't have heaps of these as unsellable. The idea being to let the diddies take the risk on 26 year old+ punts with little potential for development

4.) Other clubs young talent - Guys like Souttar or perhaps Hickey, Wighton would be another example albeit unsuccessful, other examples are Ferguson, Maclean & McCrorie at Aberdeen, McGinn or Magennis at Hibs.

 

I also think we should be adopting a 'business case' justification for each signing built around a few basic questions: 1.) Are they good enough to play for Hearts? 2.) Will they add value to the squad? 3.) Can we develop them? 4.) Can we potentially profit off them in the future? - I think this covers basic areas that should be answered. Guys like Roberts or Frear don't tick any of the boxes listed therefore shouldn't have been signed. Foreign punts like Martin, Amankwaa or Oshinawa (Grzlak, Struna etc. etc.)  likewise should underscore why we need to focus on guys that understand Scottish football.

 

I'm not saying this is a cast iron transfer strategy but it includes a fair degree of common sense. We should be aiming to be a selling club with a successful academy. By making the academy central to what we do we will build competencies in youth development. Clubs that lean heavily on their academy are good at it because they have developed over a period of time a nous for doing it well. We should always be looking at a potential signings value if they are successful and the belief from the management team that they can develop them. We want to be making money so we can develop and invest in the club. We can't do that if we're signing duds like Frear who aren't good enough (and never were) that are too old to ever make money on. Guys like Gordon on the flip side, although are old have the experience and ability to be an asset in bringing value to the team. 

 

Our signings need to stop being stop gaps. If you look at their salaries like an investment, would you be okay investing circa £120,000.00 in an asset you can't make any money from? I don't want to condense it to just being about that, but there is no way you would green light that. Its a clear waste of money. 

 

I think Liverpool for a while operated a policy whereby the manager was essentially allowed any player as long as they are under 23. Obviously we don't have the financial might to do that, but we can adopt a similar mindset where criteria guides how and why we sign players. 

 

The recruitment has been a disgrace for the last 6 years or so. There are many examples, too many to go though here but a few examples are Mulraney, Sowah, Sammon, Frear.

Mulraney was a player that couldn't get into the Inverness first team, a sub most of the time so how could anyone think that he's good enough for Hearts? Sowah....freed by Hamilton, yes, Hamilton. Not by some half decent proper club who just needed to lose a few players to freshen up their squad. Sammon. I remember the day i heard he'd signed, furious is an understatement. Never rated him at Killie many years before so how anyone thought he could be good at Hearts beggars belief. And that's how it worked out. Loans to Motherwell, Partick Thistle and someone else, possibly back to Killie throughout his 3 years. More money down the drain. Frear. Nothing to say other than pftt! There was also the likes of Struna, Martin, Oshaniwa, Stockton, Grzelak, Nowak and tons more, the Greek players and hopeless loanees like Choulay, Randall, Pereira and Kastaneer. On top of all that they signed some players then never gave them much chance. Damour, Edwards, Adao, Amankwaa spring to mind and then there was the carry-on with David Vanacek.

The whole recruitment policy is an embarrassment and even this season it's been as bad. Do i trust Neilson to go back into the transfer market in the summer? Absolutely not. We're going to end up with more of the same, particularly if Savage is going to recruit the backwaters of English lower League nobodies. 

[Class of 75]

5 hours ago, Riccarton3 said:

Maybe didnae want to deal with certain agents so ****s the club for his own comfort

Possibly. That is one way of looking at it but there could be something else. 

[Class of 75]

What gets me is how a club the size of Hearts does not have a second choice Right Back. If Smith is on international duty or indeed injured surely there is a youngster who can step up and fill the role instead of shoe horning either an unfit Haring or a slow Halkett into that position. QoS exploited this by playing 2 up front one of which, Shields was young and quick. There are many other reasons but for that alone Neilson should walk. To have a Hearts manager out thought and out fought twice in the space of a week by 2 lower league pub teams is unacceptable and sums up all that is rotten at the club. 

Edited March 28, 2021 by Class of 75

[Riccarton3]

4 hours ago, Class of 75 said:

Possibly. That is one way of looking at it but there could be something else. 

Don't know all to the ins and outs of recruitment. Levein looked at the coaching set up differently from other clubs. Little surprise he took different routes re recruitment

Edited March 28, 2021 by Riccarton3

[Class of 75]

Yep would certainly be interesting to find out. He left us in a mess 

[Riccarton3]

9 minutes ago, Class of 75 said:

Yep would certainly be interesting to find out. He left us in a mess 

The actual turnover of players as highlighted above is quite staggering. Fairly unique for Scottish football. Like a overhaul every window

[Greedy Jambo]

I find it odd that our sporting directors role is head of recruitment. 

Is that all he does? and if so, why is John Murray still employed? 

[greggy123]

YouTube videos of players completing a 5 yard sideways or backwards pass. Failing to realise they only manage two games a season, can’t run, tackle, or complete any of the basics a professional football should be able to. 

[greggy123]

2 hours ago, Greedy Jambo said:

I find it odd that our sporting directors role is head of recruitment. 

Is that all he does? and if so, why is John Murray still employed? 

Good question, maybe I’m a dinosaur but don’t get the need for a DOF. Surely the manager picks and signs his own players, with the help of a head scout which we have in John Murray(although he’s useless). What is Joe Savage employed at hearts to do? 

[daavojaay]

all these names cant be shit just when theyre here more or less,just shows the common sense of even how to train theyre clueless.Its almost like theyre all so unbelievably thick,i just cant understand all these signings im shocked all names ive read,maybe something more seedy is actually going on behind fans and were not even getting close to what it actually is. Look at rangers.....tax man etc.None of this makes any sense and its almost like the club are scared to say to much and are very calculated about how and when they do say things to press etc.Just none of this makes any sense.If u think of all the names man its insane

[daavojaay]

Its depressing this shit the way were all being treated.Never in my life have i not looked forward to watching a hearts game even playing bad or being expected to lose have always had the interest,people well myself are losing interest just down to being ****in spat on and disrespected in a sneaky manner.Would rather an honest slap in the face than a sneaky old womans bs or being told to go support another team but even that was in a sneaky snakey way it was said. assholes man to the highest degree