Let’s take some positives from the season. It has been a growing experience which has allowed us to look at some young talent that’s on show. In the later weeks of the season Stevie Frail has fielded several young teams.
The likes of Gary Glen and Jason Thomson have flourished in the bottom six and look to have the ability to cope with being in the Hearts squad over the course of a hectic SPL season. When you add these young starlets to the players who have been in the team all season you can’t really understand why we have underperformed so much.
I mean just a quick glance at the team shows a lot of good young talent. The emergence of Eggert Jonsson has been a plus point as he has commanded the midfield with a true class act in Ruben Palazeulas. A midfield duo that I am confident will do well next season. Add to this the Chilean enigma Mauricio Pinilla whose depression and injuries have held him back since moving to Edinburgh and you have a very respectable midfield and strike force that could cause problems for the Old Firm.
We may not be as strong at the back as we were; Pressley, Webster and Gordon were the dream SPL defenders and goalkeeper. But Christophe Berra has come on leaps and bounds since being instated as Hearts captain after the sale of Gordon to Sunderland. He has formed a strong partnership with both Marius Zaliukas and Christos Karipidis this season which gives hope for the next campaign.
This is a good backbone of a team but football has become a squad game due to the length of the season. This means that you need a big squad and no one in the SPL can boast as big a team than Hearts. Fair enough there are a lot of bad players involved in the setup but a lot will be released over the summer.
There are more highly rated youngsters who should have probably been drafted in for the final games but were left in the reserves. These players have true quality and will hopefully feature in the Hearts team in the coming seasons. Players such as Branimir Konstandinov, Dmitru Copil and Matej Rapinek have proven themselves in the reserves but so far have had limited opportunities with the first team.
I hope to see these names on the team sheet in the coming season as they have come to Hearts with big reputations. Branimir Konstandinov is a lethal striker who has scored goals for fun in the reserves and must feel he is ready for the leap to the first team. Dmitru Copil came with the reputation of the next Georghe Hagi and we beat of competition from Liverpool and Celtic to win his signature. Matej Rapinek is current Slovenian under 21 captain and is set to have a bright future in the game.
Out of the current crop of Hearts players it would be interesting to see how this lot got on against the SPL.
Banks
Thomson Berra Zaliuskas Rapinek
Kingston Jonsson Palazeulas Copil
Glen Pinilla
Hi Adam, just found your site. Do you think Hearts will find a new full-time manager soon or will they stick with Frail for now? It’d be hard to get anyone up there I reckon given the policy the Jambo’s have of bringing in 3rd rate players from a 4th rate team in a 5th rate league as well as having the chairman pick the team; just how much of a manager would you be?
It’s frustrating not to have any real opposition to the old firm in Scotland. Between United, Hearts, Motherwell and The Mighty Aberdeen (‘mon the Dons!!!) one of us has to put up a challenge surely next season? Hearts are, imho, the sleeping giant of Scottish football: large support, good history, just a bizarre way of running the club.
ah well, all the best /seb (insideleft.wordpress.com)
By: Seb on May 16, 2008
at 10:52 pm
hmm yeah well hopefully romanov will realise that after two bad seasons in a row that he has to give full control to whoever he ends up putting in charge. If he does then who knows. we obviously need to strengthen in certain areas (up front is a must) but we do have good players so if we can get a manager who can gain Vlad’s trust to have 100% control i believe that we can challenge the old firm once again.
i personally don’t think that Frail will stay in charge. he might stay on as assistent but i cant see vlad sticking with him. we need to do a lot of rebuilding over the summer as he has been in charge of both the first and reserve teams without any help since anatoly korabochka went upstairs.
By: adamcouper on May 18, 2008
at 1:13 pm
I think that Frail will stay on in some capacity in the backroom team. I think Billy Davies would be a good shout for the job, as I think Romanov has realised his tinkering is doing more harm than good.
And, lets be honest, if Hearts aren’t successful, Romanov won’t get much return for his investment.
Anyone to challenge the Old Scum is welcome. Even your mob!
H-E-A, R-T-S……etc.
By: hartypar on May 18, 2008
at 11:05 pm