OFFICIAL HEARTS JUGGERNAUT THREAD 2020-

[Falcor Roar]

There's decent backup keepers out there. And they know they'll get at least a few games over what will be a busy season.

Someone like Jamie McDonald who could come in and do a job, is maybe at the age where games aren't as important as picking up a decent last pay.

[Falcor Roar]

I think it'd be sensible to go and get Shankland for £0.5m if it's possible. He's a known quantity, relatively anyway. I know a few fans were underwhelmed by the link but it's a safe enough bet he'd improve the squad. We've got the advantage over Hibs and Aberdeen of having a settled squad so if we get the forward and cb right then we're laughing I'd think.

 

[Empty It]

I think it'd be sensible to go and get Shankland for £0.5m if it's possible. He's a known quantity, relatively anyway. I know a few fans were underwhelmed by the link but it's a safe enough bet he'd improve the squad. We've got the advantage over Hibs and Aberdeen of having a settled squad so if we get the forward and cb right then we're laughing I'd think.
 

What's he like as a backup keeper....

[Falcor Roar]

Better than Stewart I'd reckon. His massive forehead would stop some shots at least. 

Not sure how good his patter is though. Anti vaccine odd ball I think. 

[the jambo-rocker]

Sounds like we're being pragmatic as we'll need 4 homegrown players for the European squad. I make it Gordon, Stone, C. Smith, and Henderson. 

[DC92]

22 minutes ago, Falcor Roar said:

I think it'd be sensible to go and get Shankland for £0.5m if it's possible. He's a known quantity, relatively anyway. I know a few fans were underwhelmed by the link but it's a safe enough bet he'd improve the squad. 

Beerschot will want to recoup some cash, he'll want to move, and he seems to want to come to Hearts. I also can't see many teams outside Scotland being ready to drop six figures on him just now, so  think we're in a decent position to be patient here.

If someone else swoops in and takes him for £500k then fair enough. I really don't think he's worth that at the moment.

[Falcor Roar]

1 hour ago, DC92 said:

Beerschot will want to recoup some cash, he'll want to move, and he seems to want to come to Hearts. I also can't see many teams outside Scotland being ready to drop six figures on him just now, so  think we're in a decent position to be patient here.

If someone else swoops in and takes him for £500k then fair enough. I really don't think he's worth that at the moment.

Maybe that's what's going on with it. Happy to trust the process after a successful window last summer. If we can save £150k then it makes sense to wait.

I'm hoping we've got another young player as good as Baningime lined up. Either that or a diminutive, mercurial flair player from Italy that nobody knows about. Either or. 

[Tony Wonder]

17 hours ago, paranoid android said:

I just think we need better back-up than Stewart, and we need to be ushering in a long-term replacement for Gordon - if the plan is for that to be Stone, then fair enough - he's had setbacks at Partick and Albion Rovers, but he has to learn.

Play Stone, and he gains experience that might help him have a decent career - play Stewart, and we drop points.

I don't really think he had any setbacks at Rovers, they loved him.  Partick I think he was just unlucky. He started well, then made a bad error or two in the same game and McCall took him out to protect him a bit which is understandable given his age, but then Sneddon came in and kept a club record of clean sheets in a row.  Can't really drop him after that.

[paranoid android]

4 hours ago, Tony Wonder said:

I don't really think he had any setbacks at Rovers, they loved him.  Partick I think he was just unlucky. He started well, then made a bad error or two in the same game and McCall took him out to protect him a bit which is understandable given his age, but then Sneddon came in and kept a club record of clean sheets in a row.  Can't really drop him after that.

I think he'd done well at Rovers with a decent run of consecutive clean sheets, but then I think he maybe conceded 5 goals in one game, and was out of the team again - possibly to protect him again.

I would love Stone to step up and be a great long-term number one for Hertz - time will tell - I'm sure Aiberdeen fans had similar hopes for Derek Stillie and Michael Watt back in the day.

My worry isn't really about Stone - it's about Stewart not being good enough, and Robbie possibly having a blind spot for him - if he can't see what the rest of us are seeing, then that's a worry for me.

 

[Darren]

On 12/07/2022 at 12:12, DC92 said:

Given how close together the articles were (an hour or two?) I think it's more a case of one journo getting their wires crossed.

Don't put any credence in what Barry Anderson says, unless it's an obvious copy from a Hearts press release, and you'll not go far wrong.

On Shankland, £500k is a lot of money to spend on a player who's never really proven himself at a level above the Scottish Championship. Much like Jason Cummings.

[DC92]

37 minutes ago, Darren said:

Don't put any credence in what Barry Anderson says, unless it's an obvious copy from a Hearts press release, and you'll not go far wrong.

On Shankland, £500k is a lot of money to spend on a player who's never really proven himself at a level above the Scottish Championship. Much like Jason Cummings.

It wasn't Barry Anderson - he's on holiday at the moment. He's basically Hearts' pet journalist so I usually find him accurate enough when he's just punting what he's been told off the record.

I think Shankland is a better footballer than Cummings but I'd be surprised if we couldn't do better for £500k. He'll either be here for less than half of that or we'll sign someone else.

[DC92]

23 hours ago, the jambo-rocker said:

Sounds like we're being pragmatic as we'll need 4 homegrown players for the European squad. I make it Gordon, Stone, C. Smith, and Henderson. 

I make it those 4 as well.

I had a go at putting together a 25-man squad with those criteria. Tougher than I expected.

Goalkeepers (3): Gordon*, Stewart, Stone*.

Defenders (9): M. Smith, Atkinson, [NEW RCB], Neilson, Sibbick, Halkett, Rowles, Kingsley, Cochrane.

Midfielders (9): Devlin, Haring, [NEW CM], Halliday, C. Smith*, McKay, Grant, Forrest, [NEW 10/WINGER].

Forwards (4): Boyce, Henderson*, [NEW CF]x2

* Club-trained.

No room for McEneff, Ginnelly and GMS. I expect we'll be trying to move them on if we get the bodies in.

Very difficult not to include Baningime considering there's apparently an outside chance of him making the last couple of games, but I'm not sure you can leave any of those midfielders out on that basis.

[DC92]

Has Ross Stewart ever saved a shot?

 

[VincentGuerin]

1 hour ago, DC92 said:

Has Ross Stewart ever saved a shot?

 

Joel Stewart imo.

 

[Insert Amusing Pseudonym]

14 hours ago, DC92 said:

Has Ross Stewart ever saved a shot?

 

Not deliberately

[paranoid android]

Just the one iffy goal conceded by Cheesy last night, so a slight improvement, possibly?

McAneff in talks about a possible move to Perth Glory?

Is that St Johnstone? 

Edited July 14, 2022 by paranoid android

[DC92]

2 hours ago, paranoid android said:

Just the one iffy goal conceded by Cheesy last night, so a slight improvement, possibly?

McAneff in talks about a possible move to Perth Glory?

Is that St Johnstone? 

The full highlights posted by Hearts suggest he only had that one opportunity to f**k it up, so his 100% record remains in tact.

Said highlights also confirm Barrie McKay is still world class at carving open diddy teams with ease.

As for McEneff, a decent enough player and a tidy finisher, but just didn't do enough in general play and isn't equipped to play in our midfield two. Contrary to popular belief, he was given a long run of starts in the second half of the Championship season - they were just pretty forgettable. 

Definitely need another CM now, though, especially with Beni missing something like the first 25 games.

[Crùbag]

Kye Rowles has his visa apparently. Hopefully we can see him against Stoke next week.

[DC92]

Something possessed me to pay £10 to watch Hearts 2-2 "Crawley Town" earlier today so here are some thoughts:

- Despite the result, we were clearly a class above the opposition, as you'd expect. It looked like we were going to win about 5-0 at half-time, but the defence had a shocker for the first ten minutes of the second half and then the myriad subs took the sting out of the game before we had another flurry of chances in the last 15 minutes.

- Contrary to popular opinion on this forum, Stephen Kingsley is actually too good to play for Scotland.

- Jorge Grant looks promising. Very composed on the ball, has a good touch to get away from players and consistently delivers an accurate set piece. The obvious caveats being the level of opposition and the intensity of the game.

- Forrest was lively and, even though he didn't always take the right option, it's refreshing to have an attacking player whose first instinct is to work a shooting opportunity. I don't think he'll be first choice but he should complement Barrie McKay in that regard.

- Neilson looks composed and picked some nice passes. You can see why the club sees him as a bit of a potential poundshop Souttar. I did think he was partly at fault for the equaliser by getting caught in two minds between going to the ball and marking their striker, succeeding only in playing him onside.

- GMS: obviously not just based on today but he is, unfortunately, such a beige player these days. I expected him to be inconsistent when he signed, but we've not even had the occasional moments of flair. He doesn't have a burst to get away from players anymore so he's reliant on his 6/10 technique, which doesn't get him very far. I'd be surprised if he's not surplus to requirements by the end of August.

- Halliday: Tranmere's goal in midweek came from a ball to the back post for which he lost his runner, Crawley's first chance (which they should have scored) came from the same situation, and then their first goal came from another switch of play in behind him, which he fumbled. I doubt he'll be first choice, but that seems a bit of an issue.

- I love Devlin as a player and his intensity and ability to win the ball back in midfield was crucial to our success last season. I also appreciate that if he could score he probably wouldn't be with us, but f**k me, that effort near the end when he had so much time to set himself was laughably bad. He gets into good areas regularly, so if we could coach him to at least hit the target in situations like that he'd be good for 5 goals a season.

- It's really obvious and everyone knows but, in a similar vein, we really could do with a couple of finishers in the team. Seeing plenty of the ball in the opposition box and faffing/taking the wrong option was a feature of last season, especially pre-Simms, and that was still evident today.

[Loominous]

13 hours ago, DC92 said:

Something possessed me to pay £10 to watch Hearts 2-2 "Crawley Town" earlier today so here are some thoughts:

- Despite the result, we were clearly a class above the opposition, as you'd expect. It looked like we were going to win about 5-0 at half-time, but the defence had a shocker for the first ten minutes of the second half and then the myriad subs took the sting out of the game before we had another flurry of chances in the last 15 minutes.

- Contrary to popular opinion on this forum, Stephen Kingsley is actually too good to play for Scotland.

- Jorge Grant looks promising. Very composed on the ball, has a good touch to get away from players and consistently delivers an accurate set piece. The obvious caveats being the level of opposition and the intensity of the game.

- Forrest was lively and, even though he didn't always take the right option, it's refreshing to have an attacking player whose first instinct is to work a shooting opportunity. I don't think he'll be first choice but he should complement Barrie McKay in that regard.

- Neilson looks composed and picked some nice passes. You can see why the club sees him as a bit of a potential poundshop Souttar. I did think he was partly at fault for the equaliser by getting caught in two minds between going to the ball and marking their striker, succeeding only in playing him onside.

- GMS: obviously not just based on today but he is, unfortunately, such a beige player these days. I expected him to be inconsistent when he signed, but we've not even had the occasional moments of flair. He doesn't have a burst to get away from players anymore so he's reliant on his 6/10 technique, which doesn't get him very far. I'd be surprised if he's not surplus to requirements by the end of August.

- Halliday: Tranmere's goal in midweek came from a ball to the back post for which he lost his runner, Crawley's first chance (which they should have scored) came from the same situation, and then their first goal came from another switch of play in behind him, which he fumbled. I doubt he'll be first choice, but that seems a bit of an issue.

- I love Devlin as a player and his intensity and ability to win the ball back in midfield was crucial to our success last season. I also appreciate that if he could score he probably wouldn't be with us, but f**k me, that effort near the end when he had so much time to set himself was laughably bad. He gets into good areas regularly, so if we could coach him to at least hit the target in situations like that he'd be good for 5 goals a season.

- It's really obvious and everyone knows but, in a similar vein, we really could do with a couple of finishers in the team. Seeing plenty of the ball in the opposition box and faffing/taking the wrong option was a feature of last season, especially pre-Simms, and that was still evident today.

Good summary. Grant and Forrest are looking pretty good as far as the new signings go. It's good preparation for the European schedule this season and hopefully the players take the experience on board. It's been good not to have League Cup games as Robbie has been able to tailor the schedule to what he needs.