Kyle Reese

He was disliked because an element of our support are bigoted racist scumbags, mate. There are no two ways about that. Pure and simple - they exist - we have our share. Apart from the (nudge-nudge-wink-nod) “lazy” comments from the thick arseholes who think they are really clever by racially abusing him without being actually provably racist, he also suffered from being lumbered with a dick like Lafferty as a striking partner. His goals to games was every bit as good as Laff’s but Lafferty was a greedy selfish arsehole who would rather try and score from the half way line, than play in a strike partner. I preferred Isma personally. pretty black affronted by some of the comments about him today, but what can you do?

Hearts racially abused him? f**k me, the scumbag element at my club is a bigger problem than I thought. Was it Budge or Levein?

I liked Isma. Seemed like a decent guy, and he was a very good player. He was one of those guys who sadly was the victim of unconscious (and in some cases conscious) bias by an element of our support. His goals to games ratio was every bit as good as Lafferty’s and he provided more assists. Sadly for a certain element of our support his face did not fit … or more accurately his face was the wrong colour. Seriously doubt he looks on this forum, but if by some small chance he does, I and a lot of other Hearts supporters have nothing but respect for you big man. Don’t let the scumbags grind you down. I think he will do well for you boys.

That’s not how you spell ‘echo’.

Hiya @RossBFaeDundeethanks for the red dot, mate. You enjoy your home coming tour in the Championship, matey. Thank you

Not sure there was one for us this season. Losing to Dundee and St Johnstone was a sore one, but that wee short poor run was sandwiched between our best for in years, so it never really caused me massive turmoil. If it had gone on much longer maybe. I think we got most of our heidgoneness out of the way the previous season and the one before.

It would have been a bit weird to have had a season review, and not mention the two clubs with the most fans, that finished first and second. Especially in a season where one of them reached the UEFA Cup final. I tend to just skim over the coverage of them these days, whilst accepting that it is something that is not going to change.

Sadly that is just the football in this country summed up though. It reflects the reality of the set up unfortunately.

Yip. If you consider that is what we are paying now anyway, then if we ended up getting a loan from Anderson or some sort of blended finance set up involving more than one source, then we have a starting point for repayments of 400k straight off the bat where we wouldn't notice any added stress to our outgoings. Obviously there are a lot of other things to consider too, mind you. Maybe benefactors are happy to pay for the project and would not want us to repay them? There would also be the servicing and upkeep of the facilities that would fall on us as a responsibility rather than the landlords, like in our current arrangements. Lots more to consider besides, but it is encouraging that we are thinking about it nice and early.

Maybe we were concentrating on different parts. As a Dunfermline fan I am not sure which parts concerned you most in relation to your club. For me it was the parts that directly mention my team, our closest rivals and the Scotland national team, were where my focus was drawn. I found it pretty fair. Which parts did you find sycophantic and/or short-sighted?

I think it is more down to access and privacy. We have our own exclusive use areas at Riccarton, but we have to book the indoor pitch and gym like everyone else. It also means Joe Public can just rock up see what we are working on etc. Savage has spoken a few times recently about the benefits of having something that is just ours. Conversely he has also spoken about how good the facilities at Oriam are, and how it is a selling point to signing prospects. I’m putting two and two together really, so this is just my inclining based on various interviews. In the EEN McKinlay flippantly mentions if there are any Hearts mad farmers looking to offer us a patch of land, then that would certainly catch our attention. He also mentions a ballpark figure of £20m and floats a few options about potential funding. https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/exclusive-hearts-ps20m-plan-for-a-new-training-ground-explained-by-chief-executive-andrew-mckinlay-3708372 Who knows though, it reads to me like we are asking Oriam to consider how much they want us there, before we settle on plans for when the lease runs out in a few years. All quite sensible to leave all options open at the moment, and to explore the different possibilities. Since we abandoned the one man band of Levein running everything, we have been systematically fixing each department of the club from top to bottom. Neilson comes back and ditches the Levein and Stendel circus. Ann becomes chairperson and concentrated on the business side of things. Anderson comes on to the board. Sponsorship and partnerships bring in more money. McKinlay takes CEO job. Savage takes over football operations and appoints his own team of scouts and analysts. FoH board bring in some really experienced business professionals. One of them also joins the club board. Womens team overhauled, and more funding and ambition instilled. Stadium completion stepped up with funding in place for the final vacant floor of the stand getting fitted out, and screens etc sourced. The next box on that list appears to be the academy and our training base. This also includes the step up from youth academy to first team, hence the lobby to get the reserve league reestablished, or a suitable alternative established, such as colts. I like the way we go about our business just now. It all feels pretty sensible and professional, and stems from having the right people heading up their departments. I have faith in us making the right decision with the academy and training facilities. I personally hope that will be us building something connected to Oriam where we have more of our own improved set up there, but we continue in partnership with them on some things.

I think we want to build an indoor pitch on the same site as Oriam and get some more facilities with exclusive access. I read it as a bit of a “how much do you want us to stay” statement. They get £400k a year in rent from us being there. A few fields around Oriam maybe going up for sale in the near future.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/61577131 Pretty accurate here, imo.

No, good on you mate. Personally I am just glad that HMFC are a part of it again. I have a lot of good memories of tournaments in the past.

It’s a win-win situation really. I’m not getting bogged down with which is better. There’s advantages to both competitions. Personally, I think I’d like Manchester United or Arsenal or any of the biggest clubs in the world, then a group in the conference where we could grab second and reach the knockouts. I’m really looking forward to it no matter what though. I’ve seen us play Bayern, Mallorca, Leverkusen, Liverpool, Spurs, AEK and loads of other European clubs. It’s all just about enjoying the tournament and feeling like you are a part of something. It helps players develop too.

Get back to your bush league forum you illiterate jute licking bumpkins. (thank you)

Shame for Caley. Hopefully they keep Dundee down next season and then switch places with Ross County for the season after that.

I am feeling pretty good about the new season, just now. Although it will be a bit of a slog around Christmas and New Year, I think. League season starts July (30th June really). Europa games from August. League cup from September. Winter/World Cup break from mid November to mid December. Hard to to say if the break will be a good thing for us or not. On the one hand the squad will be in need of a rest, and it will give one or two a chance to recover from injury no doubt. On the other hand, we always seem to struggle coming back after a break, for some reason. Is this about the time we are expecting Baningime back? Then it’s trying to get momentum going over what is always a busy period over the festive season, and hopefully still being in a couple of tournaments besides just the league grind. Scottish Cup by this stage too. You saw how knackered and threadbare we were last weekend in the final, and that was after just the league campaign and a sprinkling of Scottish cup games, for months before that point. We are going to need a decent and fairly big squad if we have any serious ambitions to get to the latter stages of the domestic cups, and qualify from the Europa groups. We may even have a couple of players playing for Scotland in either the World Cup or (more likely) a series of friendlies to make ourselves still feel relevant. Still, it is at the fun stage just now where anything and everything is still possible. Some good signings and a strong pre-season and we hopefully start with a flourish. HHGH

Still, at least when they did get rid, the brought in the right man to get them back to where they belonged.

I went back and started reading the thread from the start. Not a lot of love for Hearts on here, eh?

Have a great time, whatever the result. I’ll be going for the good old fashioned ‘lots of lager’ evening if we win.

It would be a massive one for me. Obviously I hope we win, but we are right up against it here.

Yeah, probably mate. I'll be sure to check the betting apps on the day, in case there's odds to good to miss on Rangers. Back in the real world though, there is always a chance, but we are really up against it.

We are long second favourites for this. We have a chance, but it is going to take a monumental effort and we need Rangers to be off it.

That's great. It kind of falls apart when the whole format of the sport has been redesigned specifically with excitement in mind though. As The 100 was.