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The Positives From This Season


CaptainShanks

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CaptainShanks

- Highest scorer in the league since Robbo.

- Most away wins in over 30 years.

- First win against Celtic in the league against Parkhead since 2007. 

- Four points away from highest points total since 05/06. 

- No goals conceded from a corner.

 

Please feel free to add as you like. 

 

The reality is this season will likely be remembered for years to come and as a benchmark for future success. 

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A manager in place who has the ability to spot our weaknesses and knows how to improve.

 

He has started with defensive solidity and now will move on to more attacking threats ( signing of Dhanda and Spittal prove this out)

 

Exciting times ahead in Gorgie as the saying goes we welcome the chase.

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CaptainShanks
2 minutes ago, Rods said:

A manager in place who has the ability to spot our weaknesses and knows how to improve.

 

He has started with defensive solidity and now will move on to more attacking threats ( signing of Dhanda and Spittal prove this out)

 

Exciting times ahead in Gorgie as the saying goes we welcome the chase.

His in game management is the best I have ever seen. So many lacklustre first halves followed by a tactical tweak and a changed team second half which has resulted in wins.

 

Defensive solidity came from the signing of Kent and Kingsley and Rowles having better than expected seasons imo. Even Atkinson has had a good year overall. Cochrane consistent as well.

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karipidis
13 minutes ago, CaptainShanks said:

- Highest scorer in the league since Robbo.

- Most away wins in over 30 years.

- First win against Celtic in the league against Parkhead since 2007. 

- Four points away from highest points total since 05/06. 

- No goals conceded from a corner.

 

Please feel free to add as you like. 

 

The reality is this season will likely be remembered for years to come and as a benchmark for future success. 

The proper coaching and improvement of players is the one for me. Yes some are not good enough, but he has got a tune out of a number of them and they have all played there part this season. Grant, Natty, Forrest have improved a lot over his spell and we need upgrades on them but they have proven they can be squad players. Kingsley, Cochrane, Clark and Shankland have all improved on last seasons performance. Oda, Vargas and Neuwenhoff are all young players we have brought in that seem to be developing well over the year. 

 

 

 

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Polonia Gorgie

A massive positive for me was putting out Rosenborg, that was an awesome night and quite a big scalp to take

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Selkirkhmfc1874

Loads of positives from this season and a solid base to build from , we're definitely going in the right direction a don't think there's any doubt about that 

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Gorgie_Rules

Sealed Europe for a third consecutive year for first time in our history.

 

That’s now 3 consecutive top 4 finishes for the first time since 1958 - 1960 - a true barometer of the success of this current regime and hopefully a platform for the club to progress with the strongest financial footing we’ve ever had.

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rudi must stay

The biggest positive has been the 2 wins over Celtic. The second one was easy too we weren't at our best

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Smithian
1 hour ago, CaptainShanks said:

- Highest scorer in the league since Robbo.

- Most away wins in over 30 years.

- First win against Celtic in the league against Parkhead since 2007. 

- Four points away from highest points total since 05/06. 

- No goals conceded from a corner.

 

Please feel free to add as you like. 

 

The reality is this season will likely be remembered for years to come and as a benchmark for future success. 

Looking to the future, intelligently bleeding in young players like Denholm and Tait. B team with a strong season.

 

And looking even further into the future, keeping a young man like James Wilson at Hearts. And I don't follow the U18's closely, but my few glances in academy threads makes it seem Hearts are keeping more good young players than we have in the not distant past.

 

This is best three year stretch for Hearts in decades and it's been accomplished while the club keeps getting stronger for the future.

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Reduced OF support at Tynecastle. 
Hospitality lounges doing a roaring trade

Hotel opening ( hopefully a success)

 

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FionaHmfc
1 hour ago, rudi must stay said:

The biggest positive has been the 2 wins over Celtic. The second one was easy too we weren't at our best

It’s mad to think they’ve only actually lost 3 times in the league this entire season and twice of them were to us and once to Killie. Even Rangers have only taken 1pt from them too

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Our form the last 5 months is almost par with Celtic and Rangers.

 

We've got improvements already coming in the summer, and we're getting to splash a bit cash too.

 

For a rookie manager Naismith is doing incredibly well and we're only going to get better.

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Dunno if it’s just me, but I honestly don’t think we have played well any game this season bar the 2 Celtic games. Somethings been missing but if we can sort that then next season should be enjoyable. 

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Doc Rob

The Rosenborg victory hasn’t been as appreciated as it should have been. I genuinely think it’s our biggest ever European result over a two-legged tie. (Yes, I do know about Bayern, Athletico and Liverpool, but all of them knocked us out in the end). Rosenborg have been CL campaigners for years. They may not be at the very top table, but that was a tie most people would expect us to lose.

 

Other than that: amazing away form, and we’ve figured out how to play Celtic. Can we figure out how to play Rangers* now, please?

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Polonia Gorgie
Just now, Doc Rob said:

The Rosenborg victory hasn’t been as appreciated as it should have been. I genuinely think it’s our biggest ever European result over a two-legged tie. (Yes, I do know about Bayern, Athletico and Liverpool, but all of them knocked us out in the end). Rosenborg have been CL campaigners for years. They may not be at the very top table, but that was a tie most people would expect us to lose.

 

Other than that: amazing away form, and we’ve figured out how to play Celtic. Can we figure out how to play Rangers* now, please?

I totally agree, if you saw Rosenborg in the Champs League beating a side like Liverpool or Milan you wouldn't fall off your seat. A massive result for us

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Getting business done for next season with PCA for Penrice, Dhanda and Spittal (also maybe Phillips)

 

The Hoff becoming a key player after being a target for boo boys early in the season.

 

Coming back to win games after being behind in several games 

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8 minutes ago, Doc Rob said:

The Rosenborg victory hasn’t been as appreciated as it should have been. I genuinely think it’s our biggest ever European result over a two-legged tie. (Yes, I do know about Bayern, Athletico and Liverpool, but all of them knocked us out in the end). Rosenborg have been CL campaigners for years. They may not be at the very top table, but that was a tie most people would expect us to lose.

 

Other than that: amazing away form, and we’ve figured out how to play Celtic. Can we figure out how to play Rangers* now, please?

 

5 minutes ago, Polonia Gorgie said:

I totally agree, if you saw Rosenborg in the Champs League beating a side like Liverpool or Milan you wouldn't fall off your seat. A massive result for us

 

Rosenborg last played in the Champions League 17 years ago and finished 9th in the league. It was a good result, but not that good. Killie are probably a better team.

 

As for two legged results, beating Braga (4th in Portugal) in 2004 was definitely more impressive imo. Probably a few of the ones in the late 80s/early 90s as well.

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Watt-Zeefuik
19 minutes ago, Doc Rob said:

The Rosenborg victory hasn’t been as appreciated as it should have been. I genuinely think it’s our biggest ever European result over a two-legged tie. (Yes, I do know about Bayern, Athletico and Liverpool, but all of them knocked us out in the end). Rosenborg have been CL campaigners for years. They may not be at the very top table, but that was a tie most people would expect us to lose.

 

Other than that: amazing away form, and we’ve figured out how to play Celtic. Can we figure out how to play Rangers* now, please?

100%

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Dia Liom

I've really enjoyed it after a so-so start. Credit to the management and players, and recruitment! The defence has been superb. Shanks has been a joy to watch.

 

I thought Rosenborg were woeful in both legs. I was watching the 2nd leg on tv and they kept having to take players off injured and were replacing them with teenagers. Could be wrong, mind.

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10 minutes ago, Hansel said:

Good thread 👌 


Indeed , hopefully it stays that way but ………….

 

Biggest positive for me was the guaranteed £6m tbh

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Rocky jamboa

For me, we have more of a winning mentality now, even when behind. I remember a game v dundee at tynie under robbie, we were 1 nil down with a few minutes to go and you thought we would have thrown the kitchen sink at it but we didn't. Just whimpered to a 1 nil defeat. This team under Naismith doesn't know when it's beaten. The 3-2 win v dundee recently a prime example of that. That's a big positive for me.

 

I also feel we should see improvement each year and stats wise, we finished on 54 points last season. This season, we're already on 62, with 5 games still to play. We also finished 38 points behind 2nd last season, whereas this season we're only 13 behind, which is a massive improvement. 

 

The 2 wins at ceptic park are brilliant too and the performance v the rangers at ibrox in the 2-1 defeat was positive also, albeit some crooked refereeing robbed us of taking home the 3 points.

 

So defo going in the right direction under Naismith. Hopefully he is backed with a bit of cash in the summer to make a few quality additions to make further improvements next season. 

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JimmyCant

Watching us at 1-0 down, sometimes 2-0 knowing we were still in the game

 

Some of Shanklands goals were true class

 

 Celtic Park

 

Hibs in our wake

 

And of course the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow 

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Jim_Duncan

Loved the win at ER. Last minute, Shankland.

 

The league cup win at Rugby Park was similarly satisfying.

 

 

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Doc Rob
52 minutes ago, DC_92 said:

 

 

Rosenborg last played in the Champions League 17 years ago and finished 9th in the league. It was a good result, but not that good. Killie are probably a better team.

 

As for two legged results, beating Braga (4th in Portugal) in 2004 was definitely more impressive imo. Probably a few of the ones in the late 80s/early 90s as well.


I nearly checked the stats before posting - I knew someone would be along to quote them at me! OK, they haven’t played GROUP STAGE CL football since 2007-08, but they’ve played in the Europa League group stages 7 times since then. So they might not be the power they used to be, but they still have an impressive European pedigree.

 

I agree that Braga is the biggest scalp we have taken otherwise.

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I'm buzzing for next season. Can't wait to see the new players we've signed and I'm excited to see who else we bring in. 

 

At the start of this season I was feeling very meh, especially with the way we started. I think the majority of us were starting to wonder who was going to be our next manager, but all credit to Naismith, the rest of the coaching staff and the players.

:bravo:

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Lovecraft

Some of the Academy players making it into the first team and actually getting games.

 

 

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CaptainShanks
15 hours ago, karipidis said:

The proper coaching and improvement of players is the one for me. Yes some are not good enough, but he has got a tune out of a number of them and they have all played there part this season. Grant, Natty, Forrest have improved a lot over his spell and we need upgrades on them but they have proven they can be squad players. Kingsley, Cochrane, Clark and Shankland have all improved on last seasons performance. Oda, Vargas and Neuwenhoff are all young players we have brought in that seem to be developing well over the year. 

 

 

 

Spot on. I loved the way Naismith never questioned the ability of the players after our poor start. It showed real faith in them and paid dividends. Contrast that to a lot of other managers who at the first sign of bad results say they need more quality or make excuses about not being able to cope with injuries. 

 

Every player has played their part this year with the exception of Tagawa and Halliday for the first half of the season. The squad size was just perfect. I remember Naismith saying at the start of the season you don't want players not featuring due to the negative impact it has on squad morale. 

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CaptainShanks
15 hours ago, Smithian said:

Looking to the future, intelligently bleeding in young players like Denholm and Tait. B team with a strong season.

 

And looking even further into the future, keeping a young man like James Wilson at Hearts. And I don't follow the U18's closely, but my few glances in academy threads makes it seem Hearts are keeping more good young players than we have in the not distant past.

 

This is best three year stretch for Hearts in decades and it's been accomplished while the club keeps getting stronger for the future.

The B Team have really kicked on this year and the club seem really positive about the impact of playing in it for player development. 

 

It would be great to see Wilson get a run out before the end of the season. Great that we got Tait tied down on a long term deal.

 

The more youth players we can have contributing in the squad the more we can stretch ourselves for quality in other positions. 

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gar jambo
15 hours ago, JJ93 said:

2 semis.

Correct the more cup runs the more chances we will finally win one again! 

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colinmorewasgash

2 semis 

2 wins over mhanky mob 

Steven finally beating hibs 

Hibs bottom 6 lol and hibsing it as usual.

Rosenborg game. 

Frankie Kent is a positive but need another alongside him (Rowles isn't answer although decent, far too weak against more physical strikers)

 

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Silvery_Moon

Once 3rd and European Group football is secured that is a massive step forward for the club. Galling that we lost 3rd last season but 3rd, 4th, 3rd is decent and the only disappointing thing is that we have no trophies to show for it. Hopefully the European money can help with that.

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gordon simpson

watching our club grow stronger with 

strong leadership in the boardroom

strong management throughout all our football sides 

the constant support from the FOH 

the Big Hearts connections 

all this for a jambo who started following 1960s

and seen the bad times (and the good) 

present day is like a dream 

onwards and upwards 

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Cruickie's Moustache
16 hours ago, ecky92 said:

Dunno if it’s just me, but I honestly don’t think we have played well any game this season bar the 2 Celtic games. Somethings been missing but if we can sort that then next season should be enjoyable. 

That's a positive. Winning or securing a point even when we don't look to be playing that well.

Other seasons we would have seen folk rip us apart. 

Naismith has developed a bit of grit and determination.

Just needs to keep making progress on that front so we can deal with T'Rangers next season.

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CaptainShanks

We have a better head to head record against every team in the league expect for Rangers and an equal record with Ross County. 

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26 minutes ago, CaptainShanks said:

We have a better head to head record against every team in the league expect for Rangers and an equal record with Ross County. 


And that is the sort of quantifiable reason to be positive , that is easy to miss because of emotion

 

We are moving in the right direction . I seriously hope that we are aiming to improve on that because we have a bit of an unknown element to the chasing pack next season

 

Aberdeen - New manager with reasonably decent track record , and presumably a bit to spend

 

Hibs - New background set up and the potential for them not to make an absolute Hibs of it yet again

 

Kilmarnock - How many more times does McInnes need to do really well before people acknowledge that he is a very good manager

 

St Mirren - unfortunately Robinson has a bit of a knack of getting results

 

We should not be thinking about cementing our current position , we should be looking to step up to the next level . That next level is being a strong enough team to compete in Europe and qualify again the next season imo 

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meister
3 hours ago, Sooks said:


And that is the sort of quantifiable reason to be positive , that is easy to miss because of emotion

 

We are moving in the right direction . I seriously hope that we are aiming to improve on that because we have a bit of an unknown element to the chasing pack next season

 

Aberdeen - New manager with reasonably decent track record , and presumably a bit to spend

 

Hibs - New background set up and the potential for them not to make an absolute Hibs of it yet again

 

Kilmarnock - How many more times does McInnes need to do really well before people acknowledge that he is a very good manager

 

St Mirren - unfortunately Robinson has a bit of a knack of getting results

 

We should not be thinking about cementing our current position , we should be looking to step up to the next level . That next level is being a strong enough team to compete in Europe and qualify again the next season imo 

 

Agree with the last sentence especially, whatever points total we get this season, next season we need 6 more, then 6 more the season after that. Teams will improve one season to another but in reality it is only ever for one season, then they've plummeted the next. We've done it consistently over the last three seasons and that's pretty much unprecedented outside the OF.

Keep improving and we keep getting Europe and we narrow the gap to the top two as well. Not as easy as typing it on here but I think in Hearts case it's doable. I'm looking forward to a three horse race in the next few seasons.

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21 hours ago, FionaHmfc said:

It’s mad to think they’ve only actually lost 3 times in the league this entire season and twice of them were to us and once to Killie. Even Rangers have only taken 1pt from them too


Brendan Rodgers has only lost 9 league games in total as Celtic manager. 
 

4 of those are to us 🤣

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EH11 2NL

Barrell load of positives. Easier to list the few disappointments. 

 

Home derbies top the list. 

Results v Rangers, harsh this one because we can't really expect to beat them. But 5 loses, isn't great, with another game to play. 

 

For me that's about it on the negative side, so many positives it's hard to list them all. We are in great shape. 

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CaptainShanks
7 hours ago, Sooks said:


And that is the sort of quantifiable reason to be positive , that is easy to miss because of emotion

 

We are moving in the right direction . I seriously hope that we are aiming to improve on that because we have a bit of an unknown element to the chasing pack next season

 

Aberdeen - New manager with reasonably decent track record , and presumably a bit to spend

 

Hibs - New background set up and the potential for them not to make an absolute Hibs of it yet again

 

Kilmarnock - How many more times does McInnes need to do really well before people acknowledge that he is a very good manager

 

St Mirren - unfortunately Robinson has a bit of a knack of getting results

 

We should not be thinking about cementing our current position , we should be looking to step up to the next level . That next level is being a strong enough team to compete in Europe and qualify again the next season imo 

I can't see any of these teams improving enough to get anywhere near us if we keep Shankland. 

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17 minutes ago, CaptainShanks said:

I can't see any of these teams improving enough to get anywhere near us if we keep Shankland. 


A bit of unknown quantity there though too . Best to expect them too be better and get of to a start like we did in 2021 - 22

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Watt-Zeefuik
9 hours ago, Sooks said:


A bit of unknown quantity there though too . Best to expect them too be better and get of to a start like we did in 2021 - 22

 

And so long as we keep improving ourselves, that's a good thing. It's good for us if Scottish football as a whole improves.

 

Now we need to concern ourselves with getting better results in Europe and starting to reliably generate some serious cash there.

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gregzy2k7

It's been a pretty good season imo,

 

3rd place finish and 2 x semi finals in the cups will always be a decent return imo, 

 

Knocking out Rosenborg was special and significant progress for us imo,

 

Also we weren't far away against Paok at home either,

 

Overall not bad at all.

 

I really hope we can go one better than last time though and reach the Europa League over the conference next season.

 

 

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