DC92

The fact it was a second string line-up makes all the difference because neither that line-up nor one similar to it will ever play for us in a competitive match. Barring a catastrophic injury crisis.

Goals conceded in pre-season: Ozturk and Wilson: 1 (against Manchester City) McGhee and McKay: 8 A massive difference.

Of the team that started tonight's game, I reckon you'd only expect Paterson, McHattie and Buaben to start the proper games. Still got Alexander, Wilson, Ozturk, Gomis, Walker, Nicholson, El Hassnaoui and Sow to come in.

Surely UltraJambo and Jambo99 can't be two different posters?

Sow

We were playing well before the goal, which was very well worked. Since then City have just passed the ball about the midfield and defence and we've seen a lot less of the ball. We've played some really nice stuff and nearly took the lead when Carrick was clean through. Gomis was a stand-out - very good in tight situations and barely misplaced a pass. He looks to have a good understanding with Buaben. Everyone has looked comfortable on the ball, including the defence and Alexander. Encouraging performance so far, even if it is a pre-season friendly.

No. We've simply gone for quality over quantity.

We are now officially out of administration. What a Great Feeling™.

Sit doon.

Sorry, but that is just complete shite. Success is relative to resources. For Germany, success might be winning a tournament, while for Andorra it might be picking up a point in the qualifying rounds. Scotland are somewhere in between. For us to be in the top 13/16 performing nations in Europe would be a brilliant achievement given the pool of players we've had to choose from since '98. The fact that no one has managed it since then is testament to that, although you've bizarrely concluded that it's because all managers automatically become shite when they walk into the Scotland job. That isn't accepting mediocrity, that's accepting reality. Oh and we're 27th in the latest rankings actually - much higher than we were when Levein was punted. Anyway, more to the point, when did I mention "success" in the first place? I think that was you. The fact is that these managers all did a better job than Craig Levein as Scotland manager, whether you think they "succeeded" or not. To make an equally shite statement about club football: "Success at club level IS assessed on winning league titles. MAJOR success is quantified by winning the Champions League. Almost all Hearts managers are equal in that regards. I don't give a toss how many times we've finished "best of the rest". But go ahead and accept mediocrity. You probably think climbing from 7th to 3rd in the Scottish Premiership is a big "success" too "

Saying Strachan, Smith and McLeish didn't do better than Levein because none of them qualified for a major tournament is assessing them on the basis of one factor. Cheers.

A manager's performance should be, and is, assessed on the basis of more than one criterion.

Spectacular missing of the point there. OK: third placed finishes. Paulo Sergio versus Eduard Malofeev. Go. ETA: Had to laugh at the "with the nation's greatest players" bit. Who are we competing against again?

Well, yeah if you pluck that random criterion out of the air as the only factor then they've all done the job to the same degree of competency. Graham Rix or Craig Levein? How many league titles has each won for Hearts?

Except Brown, Smith, McLeish and Strachan (most of them). Although that's largely irrelevant to us. More important is his record in the Scottish leagues, which is excellent. I don't recall many people complaining when he was awarded the Scotland job on this basis.

Heart's

"I'd bite anyone's hand off for a play-off place" means you'd bite their hand off for 4th place surely? I'm not sure what you mean with the last comment.

This isn't about saying we've got the xth biggest budget so we'll finish in xth position in the table. Of course having a bigger budget doesn't equate with success, but it does give you a better chance of success and, therefore, sets higher expectations. When HIbs and Aberdeen were finishing in the lower half of the SPL, their fans were, quite rightly, pissed off - they should be doing better. If Queen of the South had done the same it would have been seen as a success because they'd be outperforming teams with bigger resources. It's about how we should do, not how we will do. We should be doing better than 4th, so I certainly wouldn't be snapping anyone's hand off for it.

I never said it would be easy. That doesn't change the fact that 4th would be a disappointing effort. We're not making predictions here - we're talking about biting hands off for 4th placed finishes in the second tier. Posting a "this is our line up at the moment" on the first day of June doesn't really tell us anything considering we've just released a load of players who haven't been replaced yet. What would Hibs' line up be just now? They've just culled half their squad. A fair chunk of the division will only have a handful of first teamers contracted for next season. As for your second reply: again, it has nothing whatsoever to do with thinking it's going to be "easy". That doesn't mean 4th would be a good result. It would be pretty shite considering the resources available and we should be doing better.

Even if we don't spend much relative to our income, we'll still have a comfortably larger budget than 7/9 other teams. It will be roughly the same as Hibs'. Add that to the possibility of a 25 point deduction for Rangers and 4th is miles away from being a "bite your hand off" type prospect. Third would be disappointing but understandable, fourth would be pretty shite but just about acceptable and fifth or below would be a dreadful effort. This isn't a prediction of where we'll finish - I've no idea. It's just how our performance will be assessed. I wouldn't completely rule out finishing 5th but that doesn't change the fact it would be a disaster. Given that we'll probably add at least half a dozen players (and most of the names mentioned are experienced Premierhsip players) it seems pretty strange to me to want to snap anyone's hand off for 4th just now

You'd bite someone's hand off for 4th in a league where we'll have a comfortably bigger budget than 7/9 other teams before we've even done any transfer business? I'll have to disagree.

My mum (yep, I watched the game with my mum) I asked "is that Dougie MacLean?" when the song came on. No higher praise IMO.

Obviously talking Feruz up as a future star before he's even played a competitive game is premature, but dismissing him just now is equally as ridiculous. As for his athleticism, he's quite clearly physically well developed for his age, much more so than any other Scottish player in that age group I can think of. I'm also struggling to think of many Scottish players with more natural pace. He also has plenty of natural talent going by some of the goals he's scored for the Chelsea youth/reserve teams. Here's the most recent article I could find on Feruz: http://thechels.net/2014/03/feruz-pressing-for-improvements/ . The follow-up comment is particularly interesting. It suggests that Feruz has struggled to adapt his game after gaining muscle mass.