DC92

I think Jimmy Calderwood is probably quite a good comparison, in terms of how people feel about him. Not very exciting football, a poor cup record and a general sense that we're more likely to fall short of expectations rather than to exceed them. He's got enough credit in the bank to be given a chance to prove he's not a Calderwood but he's under a fair bit of pressure this season.

Juanma's a decent player when he's on it, which means he'd be guaranteed to score against us unless it's a loan deal. There was a rumour last week that he'd turned down a couple of Premiership teams because he wants to go back to Spain.

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/dundee/7224874/Paul-Hartleys-chasing-out-of-favour-Hearts-ace-Juanma.html?CMP=spklr-_-Editorial-_-TWITTER-_-scotsunsport-_-20160815-_-Football-_-545771284

Dundee are after Juanma, according to the Sun.

Michael Stewart defending his mate Neilson and blaming our problems on Levein, who he hates, as he has been doing since day 1. Surprising. What is "Neilson style" exactly? He's never managed prior to this job and it hardly seems inconceivable that they could have similar ideas given that he played under Levein for years and Levein chose to hire him. The Championship season, in which he seems to think we took games against Hibs and Rangers "by the scruff of the neck", doesn't exist. Yeah, we played exciting football against the shitey teams but we were generally pretty mediocre in the games against those two. In the opening game against Rangers two years ago we played 4-4-2 with two wingers and last week against Celtic we played 4-4-2 with two wingers, I'm not seeing a huge change. Then he goes on to list two of our better signings from the Championship season (and Mince Bobbins lol) and compares them with three of our poorer signings from last season. You could easily have made it Anderson, El Hassnaoui and Buaben against Rossi, Djoum and Kitchen. Basically, he's talking shite. I'd say the big differences between now and two years ago, aside from the level of football, are: 1) the number of attacking options and potential goalscorers in the squad - Sammon might end up being somewhat useful but he's not going to score many and Muirhead isn't likely to feature much. I'm optimistic about Watt but he's clearly not fully fit yet and although Johnsen might be decent but he hasn't been able to play. In midfield an injury-prone Walker and, at a push, Djoum are our only goal threats. Two years ago we had Sow, Zeefuik, Nicholson, Walker, King etc. who were always reliable for goals and it meant that, whether we played well or poorly, we won pretty much every week. We really need a couple of attack-minded midfielders in the next few weeks. 2) the pre-season preparations - This season we've had the goalkeeping f**k-up which has left us with an unknown quantity and two of our main striker signings arriving after we've already been put out of Europe, one of whom is half-fit and one of whom has registration issues. We're two league games in, already out of two cup competitions, and we still haven't signed an attacking midfielder. Two years ago we pretty much had everything sorted by day 1. Thankfully point 1) can still be resolved and point 2) can probably be forgotten about if we get the next couple of signings right. If we don't, there'll be a lot of pressure on both Neilson and Levein.

From stuff I've heard subsequently it does sound like someone at Hearts made a f**k-up. I just found it funny that what was clearly a sarcastic comment was reported as an earnest admission of fault.

There isn't a "rule". It seems Sinclair was registered in time because people at the SFA happened to be doing overtime, whereas Hearts were told the SFA wouldn't be able to able to process their signing after 5pm on Friday.

Robbie Neilson, on not being able to register Krystian Nowak before the Celtic game: How the Daily Record reported it:

That sounds shite tbh. It was the scheming, the backstabbing, the brutal things people did for power or revenge that make Game of Thrones so good, not the supernatural stuff. If it resolves itself with a whole season dedicated to the standard, predictable fantasy battle between the beige "good guys" Jon and Daenerys and the evil ice zombies then it'll be really disappointing.

Oshaniwa off to Turkey? http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2016/06/14/por-hearts-defender-oshaniwa-reveals-turkish-interest/page/1/ Imagine we get a 7 figure sum out of this.

I suppose we can look forward to this constant stream of drivel from the same half-dozen posters all summer.

Hibs' staff costs/turnover ratio was about ten percentage points higher than ours in 2014-15.

Also:

Losing the 2012 Scottish Cup semi-final before having a mental breakdown in the middle of the pitch.

They did last season, when I said he'd be a good signing for Hibs. Cheers.

It's embarrassing to brag about it having one shit player over another, yes. I said at the time that Keatings would probably be a decent signing for Hibs. He was absolutely no loss to us, though, because Alloa and Livingston don't play in the Scottish Premiership.

To clarify, Reilly and Keatings are both shit, which is why both have been punted. Hibs fans' continual bragging about having one over the other is so, so embarrassing for them.

But the goalscoring season is his most recent in Scotland, which suggests he might have improved. Adam Rooney was similar in that he only scored 5 goals in his first 30 SPL games at Inverness before his final top flight season there, in which he scored 15 goals before going to England. In fact, Rooney's record of 20 goals in 68 SPL games for Inverness is very similar to Sammon's 17 in 65. In spite of Sammon's lack of goals, he's also moved for a large fee, made a decent number of appearances every year and earned a few caps which suggests he might have something about him even if he isn't necessarily a goalscorer. Look, I'm clearly clutching at straws here. Let me have this.

1 goal and 0 assists in his last 19 games. 2 goals and 1 assist in his last 27 games. Clearly the creative heartbeat of the team. If that were the case then why would we consider selling him to our closest rivals? It's not as if Aberdeen are going to be bidding big money. He isn't contributing anything at the moment and his play is far too predictable, with him constantly trying to cut inside. He's nothing like Hayes, who is direct, always a threat and has an end product. That said, I'd rather we kept him unless we get a big money offer. He clearly has talent, even if it isn't manifesting in the form of actual goals or assists at the moment, and he has plenty of time to improve. There's a chance he'll go the same way as Templeton, but there's also a chance he'll become a very good player.

Sammon isn't exactly an inspiring signing. Neilson always makes the point that he thinks you get better value for money in the foreign market, and I agree with that, so I'm a bit puzzled at this and the Cowie move. Unless he's taken a big wage cut it doesn't make much sense. To be fair, there are plenty of strikers who haven't done much in England and done well up here, Kyle and Beattie are two examples of that for us. There's also the fact that he scored regularly in his last season at Killie. I know Eremenko was a big factor in that but apparently he only directly set up 4 of Sammon's 15 league goals, so that factor is probably a bit exaggerated. He might do a job but he's definitely not going to be someone who'll bring us up a level. Hopefully we'll have another striker coming in.

Hating this 5 year plan that has seen us make tangible progress in each year thus far.

Congratulations Hibs. Rangers, though.

What a fucking dreadful player Rob Kiernan is. Jesus Christ.

There are very few players from Locke's time still left at the club, aside from Paterson, Walker etc. You're more likely to be getting Callum Tapping and Dave Smith. Commiserations. McHattie, on the other hand, could end up being a decent signing for a Championship team. Jason Thomson was a shite, young Hearts full-back at one point after all.

A bit of a surprise given that he's reportedly been on the verge of signing a new deal for weeks. Presumably he's been told he won't be number 1 next season and he isn't happy about that. We'll need 2 keepers now if Hamilton is going on loan. I suppose Gilks might be one of them.