DC92

My source for Kennedy having met Hearts didn't come from the Sun, but you could well be right about leverage. Aberdeen have been interested for longer, are way ahead in the league and can most likely offer at least as much money as us. He'll be going there.

Kennedy signing a pre-contract with a team 5 points adrift at the bottom would be a bold move as well. He has apparently met with us, though.

I see that you're still trying to make out that the manager changing the (failed) coaching staff is remotely unusual. The telling part was Daly revealing that Stendel had asked him his opinion on the training and, clearly, Stendel sensed that Daly wasn't bought in or didn't understand his methods. Given that, and the fact he was close to the previous manager, why on earth would you keep him on board instead of getting your own guys in? What is baffling is that, while the new manager is trying to make the changes necessary to turn things around by getting rid of the previous manager's underperformers, the previous manager is still employed by the club, still playing an active role and still has the ear of the Chairwoman. Meanwhile, that same previous manager's mates are sticking the boot into the new manager in the media. It's absolutely fucking mental. Levein and his cronies need to be gone completely to allow the club to move on, and the fact that Budge can't see that is testament to her sheer incompetence.

It would make sense as he came through the Hannover youth system when Stendel was U19 manager. Scored 6 in 8 this season, including a double in the cup against Eintracht Frankfurt, before getting injured (yes, I know). He's back in training now, though, and linked to a few German clubs, including Hannover. The tweet below suggests he's not moving anywhere, though.

That was done at the same time as Berra. Mulraney is apparently close to going to Atlanta and it seems like Dundee will move for Wighton.

Mulraney to Atlanta seems like a goer as well. Aberdeen must want us to stay up.

Thanks for your opinion, Hendo, but: 1) There really is nothing baffling about the results, given that our results have been terrible for a year now. Stendel has had 5 games, all of which were within 19 days of joining the club and even then, there has been some evidence of improvement from game 1 to game 5. We had some good spells of play against Celtic and created more chances than the opposition against Hamilton, Hibs and Aberdeen. Our downfall has been the same as it has been all season: a lack of quality in front of goal and a tendency for certain players to make calamitous individual errors at the back. The best performance came after the "senior players" had been dropped, by the way. Much like nobody sensible wanted Steve Clarke sacked after his first 5 games as Scotland manager, not many Hearts fans blame Stendel for the results in his short spell so far. 2) Regarding his Christmas absence, there was a suggestion that he was visiting a terminally ill relative in Germany. I don't know if that's true, but I'm not sure why you would automatically assume there was some frivolous reason for it nonetheless. 3) Daly and Fox were Levein's assistants and Stendel wants his own assistants, as per his agreement to join the club. To achieve that, Daly and Fox have to move aside. Once Stendel has got his own staff, Kirk will very likely go back to being U20s manager. There is absolutely nothing baffling about this. I agree that the situation with Whelan and Berra could have been handled better, and perhaps it will backfire. We don't know how the rest of the squad will react to this, but we had a similar episode in 2014 when Locke, Hamill, Stevenson and MacDonald were "brutally sacked" and some of them mouthed off in the press about it. The results that followed suggest this didn't have too much of a negative effect on the rest of the squad. If we get some new players in and win some games then this will be quickly forgotten about. There also seems to be an assumption from some that Whelan was some respected, influential figure at the club. Given that he lives in England, trained part-time, ducked media duties, put in half-arsed performances, is big pals with Jon Daly (who apparently was not popular among the squad) and heavily implied in that interview that his teammates were shite, I'm not so sure.

If what Whelan's saying about not being ignored is true then, let's be honest, together with the Berra stuff, it's a bit odd. It's also not the kind of press attention we need at the moment while we're trying to attract players. I'm not having the rest of what he's saying about being unfairly targeted, though. He trained part-time, ducked media duties and put in half-arsed performances after his first few games. Stendel could obviously tell very quickly that he was at it. At least we haven't paid him off.

Very jealous of Hibs signing up their old huddy defender on a 4 year deal, right enough.

Interesting to see Berra invoking the Chris Coleman "married man" counterargument.

It really isn't. Berra was really good for us, then he got a bad injury, came back and was shite. He is finished. It's that simple. The "shit show at Hearts" has been caused by having shit players and he has genuinely been one of the worst over the last year.

That we gave him a new contract last spring, after he already looked done, was mental.

We are not signing Hendry.

In all seriousness, I'm not sure how I feel about this. He is completely useless to us now as a footballer and if he moves on it will free up a decent wage. On the other hand, we don't know how the rest of the squad will react to the captain being unceremoniously binned. Perhaps we can't afford to be sentimental, but it doesn't feel like a fitting end for a committed player who was, until recently, a very good defender for us. When Stendel said we can't afford to have players who are injured every 2 weeks, it wasn't particularly difficult to figure out who he meant. That said, Naismith was training with the first team today so he hasn't received the Berra treatment yet.

Berra binned according to the Sun. Deserved for this IMO.

Muzza's still hurting after 10-0 IMO. The only explanation for his very frequent and very angry postings about Heart of Midlothian FC.

I agree with this, after a goalscorer, CB, CM, winger and goalkeeper are the next priorities. That said, getting a goalscorer is so crucial, it might not be the worst idea to hedge our bets if there's room for two. We'd probably get away with our current defence (+ Souttar) as long as we can actually score goals.

I wouldn't like to gamble on Lafferty repeating his goalscoring record from his last spell, but I'd take him if we're signing another striker as well. More importantly, it seems as though Atlanta United are actually going to pay us a six figure sum for Mulraney and Wighton might be away to Dundee.

Considering our recent signing record, it's an absolute miracle we didn't sign Bryson.

Not outwith the realms of possibility, but I'd be surprised if Stoke or any Championship teams will be spending significant cash on a 28 year old with 18 goals in 60 matches in League One. It's not like he was a big part of O'Neill's NI side either. Washington, Lafferty and Magennis all get picked ahead of him. Listening to Clough's interview, he was asked if all the interest in Boyce and Fraser was from Scotland and he responded by saying that he thinks Fraser will want to stay in England. Reading between the lines, it sounds like Boyce might be open to a return to Scotland. Unfortunately our league position makes us a hard sell at the moment. Wouldn't be surprised to see him end up at Aberdeen.

Not a sentence I ever thought I'd type, but we need to emulate Gary Locke's Hearts team from 2013/14. After 21 games, we'd picked up 13 points, the same as this season, and in the remaining 17 games, we picked up 25. 7 wins (all against bottom 6 teams), 4 draws and 6 defeats. If we match that, we almost certainly won't finish bottom and probably avoid 11th as well. Add another win and we're safe, take away a win and we're in serious trouble.

I'm not confident because we have very little margin for error now, but 8 days ago there was no gap at the bottom and now it's 5 points. These situations can be reversed as quickly as they happened in the first place. The straws I'm currently clutching at are: - Haring and Souttar are apparently due back in January, and Washington has just returned. Given the length of their absences, these three will effectively be new signings. f**k knows about Naismith. - we've started actually started getting on the front foot and creating chances in the last few games. If we can get a competent goalscorer or two in January we will inmediately be far better off. - Craig Levein won't be making our signings.

Hearts fans have spent the last few years watching the most obscenely boring, joyless, plodding guff on the pitch. There never appeared to be any discernible strategy or style of play and we got diminishing returns season after season. Leveinball has sucked the life out of the club and led us sleepwalking into the disaster we find ourselves in now. Stendel, on the other hand, has a clearly identifiable style of play based on high-energy, attacking football (i.e. the polar opposite of Levein). That style of play, along with his personality and willingness to engage with the fans, seemed to galvanise the Barnsley support and get them right behind the team. Even after his sacking, the Barnsley fans' opinion of him seems overwhelmingly positive. Basically, Hearts fans wanted someone to clear the apathy, to build a team with an identity and to give us something to get excited about. Put all that together and it's not particularly difficult to see why Stendel was the popular choice. Unfortunately, it's come 6 months too late and we may already be fucked. If Stendel does manage to keep us up, however, you can guarantee that next summer will be the most positive Hearts fans have felt about the club for 5 years (at least).

Much better and should have won. Despite results, we've at least shown we can have most of the play and create chances under Stendel. The focus in January needs to be on getting goalscorers in, which should reduce the pressure on the defence as well. Good to see that Conor Washington actually exists as well.

Well on top but can't score. Just need the catastrophic defensive mistake that costs a goal and it'll be a fitting end to 2019. Not sure who's going to deliver it with Berra and Damour not on the pitch. My money's on Dikamona.