Football Season Guide

Hearts are looking to build on a successful 2023/24 campaign in which they finished third for the second year in three. During this time, they have not been out of the top four and Steven Naismith’s side expect to enjoy such success again this time around. Unlike some of their Premiership rivals, Hearts have the luxury of a deep squad, which allows the manager to make significant changes on a match-by-match basis and will be useful for the club when they take part in the Europa League this season – a competition they will surely attack with relish. Indeed, Hearts should have learned from last term, when they endured some difficulty in the early part of the season as they tried to juggle domestic and European commitments. It was this period that prevented them fighting more seriously for a top-two finish. Hearts can be pleased with the work they have done in the summer transfer window, which has seen them retain the bulk of their squad and lose only a handful of players who were typically peripheral to their ideas. Alex Cochrane, a left-back, is the only starter who has moved on. Recruitment, meanwhile, has primarily taken place within the Premiership, plundering players from other clubs on free transfers. Yan Dhanda, Blair Spittal and James Penrice will all bolster the team and should add quality. There are also some wildcard pickups. Daniel Oyegoke has joined from Brentford and will fight to start at right-back with Gerald Taylor, while striker Musa Drammeh joins up from Spanish football. Such signings have been more miss than hit in the past for Hearts, though they continue to stick by Yutaro Oda and Kyosuke Tagawa, two Japanese imports who disappointed last season.