Jambos fan Ryan has major doubts over the runaway title winners
Ryan Stevenson fears Hearts will struggle in the Premiership next season if they fail to box clever in the summer transfer window.
The 36-year-old has first-hand experience of the Edinburgh club punching their weight in the top flight, having been part of Jim Jefferies’ team that finished third in 2010-11.
He scored in wins over both Celtic and Rangers in the top flight, plus two over city rivals, Hibernian.
Still playing now with Albion Rovers, the self-confessed Jambo has followed the progress of the 2020-21 Championship side closely – and remains to be convinced.
“This was a difficult season for the club. You have no fans for starters, and the players have had to go through the rigmarole of getting tested for Covid all the time,” he said.
“The bottom line was that they had to get promoted, which they have done, and you can’t take that away from them now.
“But, excluding the 6-0 win over Alloa last week, the last 10-12 weeks have been bitterly disappointing from a performance point of view.
“Losing to Brora Rangers was the biggest upset in Hearts’ history. And, as poorly as they had been playing in the Championship, it just tipped everything over the edge.
“A lot of people, myself included, were looking at the squad with a view to not just this season, but also how they would do next year.
“I think even the players themselves would admit with the quality that is in the group – and especially the big players they have brought in – they have under-performed.
“And, unfortunately, that leaves doubt in everybody’s minds about how they will get on next season.
“So it is going to be a big summer for the club, recruitment-wise.
“Hearts should be up there challenging for the top four. To get there, they need to make sure they bring in the right players.”
Stevenson (right) who has a decision to make about his own future over the summer, reckons supporters will not have long to wait until they know whether the return to the Premiership is going to work out well.
“I think it is going to be sink or swim right from the off,” he continued.
“The first four or five games will be the biggest they have had in a long, long, time because they will let us know how they are going to deal with being back in the Premiership.
“It will go one way or the other. They will either continue to struggle – as they have done recently – in which case manager, Robbie Neilson, will come under pressure.
“Or they have a right good look at themselves, and they go in and they prove everybody wrong.
“That is what we are here to do as footballers – prove people who doubt us wrong.
“I hope they prove me wrong, and they get off to an absolute flyer.
“It will be down to them – individually and as a team – to make it work because they are good players.
“If it goes the first way, then I fear four or five games in, Hearts could already be in a difficult position.”
While Stevenson is generally critical of the players who were brought in last summer, Craig Gordon and Liam Boyce are exempt. “They are two players you can’t really have a go at,” he said.
“Craig is an amazing goalkeeper, has been one of the best we have had in the last decade or so, and he has been one of the mainstays.
“I would say the same of Boyce. He has been the one who has scored goals,and probably had pass marks in most games.
“But the rest – and I don’t like saying this about fellow professionals – have underperformed.
“Hearts are a massive club. You don’t actually know just how big until you are in it, and see what it is like from day to day.
“It was a privilege for me to play for them, and that is a privilege the guys who are there now have. They need to remember how lucky they are.
“Yes, they have been playing in the second tier, but you can’t get too caught up about the circumstances involved (with last season getting called early due to Covid) because it was going to happen anyway.
“It is what it is. They found themselves where they found themselves, but they are back up now and they need to make the most of the opportunity.”