There is no doubt McInnes was good for Hearts, but the relationship worked both ways.<\/p>\n
Player identification via Jamestown helped him build a side capable of challenging for the title and, as a result, further enhanced his reputation.<\/p>\n
He is now gone, so where do Hearts go from here?<\/p>\n
The club and its fans may feel battered and bruised, but in a matter of weeks, Hearts will be preparing for a Champions League qualifying campaign.<\/p>\n
There may yet be further changes. Devlin has still to decide whether his future lies in Edinburgh, while forward Claudio Braga’s outstanding season is unlikely to have gone unnoticed elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Hearts’ achievements last term attracted attention far beyond Scotland and, with Champions League football on offer, there is unlikely to be any shortage of interest in the vacant head coach position.<\/p>\n
McGlynn remains highly regarded by some within the club and is believed to have been a strong contender for the role 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
Several new signings will arrive for pre-season training and the dressing room will have a very different look and feel.<\/p>\n
Shankland, centre-back Frankie Kent, Baningime and veteran goalkeeper Craig Gordon have all departed, while Devlin could yet follow. <\/p>\n
They are all influential figures, while centre-half Craig Halkett is unlikely to feature before Christmas after suffering another long-term injury.<\/p>\n
Whoever succeeds McInnes faces a significant challenge, with rebuilding confidence, belief and leadership within the squad among the immediate priorities.<\/p>\n
Last season’s Hearts side set a benchmark for those who follow. Whether a new head coach and a reshaped squad can match – or even surpass – what was an extraordinary campaign is undoubtedly a difficult challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is no doubt McInnes was good for Hearts, but the relationship worked both ways. Player identification via…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-646025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}