Hearts AGM takeaways: Banned R-word, Shankland problem, January recruits and the golden ticket

“It’s good to see so many here,” said Ann Budge as she opened Hearts’ 118th annual general meeting at Tynecastle.

Around 350 or shareholders had filed into the Gorgie Suite to hear what the board members had to say about the club’s current predicament and how they intend to turn it around.

Bottom of the league with Christmas approaching is not how Hearts envisaged their season unfolding but that is where they find themselves. Their supporters were understandably keen to know how the club went from a comfortable third-place finish last time around to the present position but there was no vitriol, no blaming of individuals.

By the standard of past agms, this was a relatively tame affair. There is a recognition that Hearts are a well run club with sound principles and that head coach Neil Critchley has been in position for fewer than seven weeks.

Hearts managing director Ann Budge and chief executive Andrew McKinlay arrive at Tynecastle for the club's agm. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group) | SNS Group

Don’t mention the R-word

Hearts have won only two of 15 league games and are two points behind Hibs at the foot of the table. In the words of their chief executive, Andrew McKinlay, “the start to the season has been incredibly difficult, to put it mildly”.

It was, in fact, the worst league start in the club’s history and Steven Naismith paid for it. He was sacked in September after an eight-game losing run, with Critchley brought in the following month. While there has been an uptick in performance levels, Hearts returned to the bottom of the league at the weekend.

Despite this, McKinlay is refusing to contemplate relegation. “I'm not even using that word,” he said after the agm. “I'm confident we will finish in the top six. I look at the league table, it's very tight. I think Aberdeen's position… and I take my hat off to them, what they've achieved, I think they've had a magnificent start to the season. I think it's been interesting that now they've had to play some midweek games, it's maybe been a bit harder for them. They haven't had Europe, but take your hat off, they've been brilliant. I think if you take them out of the equation... There's some other teams that have done very well. Dundee United, Motherwell in particular. But I think with the fixtures we've got coming up, I think we've got an opportunity to start climbing the table and first get ourselves back into the top six, and then we'll see what's before us at that point.”

Lawrence Shankland is expected to leave Hearts at the end of the season. | SNS Group

How do you solve a problem like Lawrence Shankland?

A lack of goals has been Hearts’ big problem, with just 16 in their first 15 Premiership games. Only Ross County have fewer. Having scored 24 league goals in each of his first two seasons at Hearts, the expectation was that they could once again rely on Lawrence Shankland. Unfortunately, a goal drought has ensued and the club captain has just one to his name in all competitions this term.

“I don’t think any of us could have foreseen the drop off in form from Lawrence,” said McKinlay, “and from Kenneth [Vargas] and from Liam [Boyce].”

Shankland is out of contract at the end of the season and McKinlay’s gut feeling is the striker will allow the deal to run down. He was offered a new deal last January but his advisors made it clear to Hearts it fell well short of what they were looking for.

Asked whether Shankland might leave the club next month when the transfer window reopens, McKinlay added: “I have no idea. I'm struggling to answer anything more about Lawrence. I've spoken ad nauseam about Lawrence for the last four transfer windows and I genuinely am not sure what else you want me to say about it. I've put it on record that my gut has always been that he'll run down his contract. Who knows what will happen in January? But as we sit here, I will say again, we've not had any offers, we've not had any approaches, nothing, either from a third party or from his representatives. You can probably tell I'm bored of this subject but you're going to ask me about it, it's not changed.”

Hearts chief executive Andrew McKinlay during a press conference following the Hearts agm at Tynecastle. | SNS Group

New recruits coming in January

While McKinlay was reluctant to speculate on Shankland’s future, he was confident of a new striker arriving in January, with help from Jamestown Analytics, Tony Bloom’s football data analysis firm.

“There's a particular striker we're looking at, but not just one,” said McKinlay. “Often you don't get your first choice. We're looking at a few, all of who have come from Jamestown. Other positions and other things that we do, I think, might depend on what might go out. I think we're all aware that the priority would be a striker.”

The injuries sustained by defenders Stephen Kingsley and Frankie Kent means Hearts may also have to look at recruiting at the other end of the pitch. On the plus side, Calem Nieuwenhof should soon return from injury to help out in the midfield.

Group stage European football is the golden ticket

During a detailed address on the club’s accounts, finance director Jacqui Duncan stressed how important qualifying for the group stage in Europe was for the club. Hearts failed to do that last season and that was reflected in an operating loss of £1.1 million for the financial year ended June 30, 2024. The previous year, when Hearts reached the group stage of the Conference League, saw a profit of £2.9m.

Duncan, who is retiring at the end of the season after more than a decade in the post, said the differential was between £3m and £4m. Duncan’s contribution to the club earned widespread praise, and understandably so. She joined shortly after the club came out of administration in 2014. Their net assets at that stage were a mere £1m. They have since risen to £20m.

A general view of the Heart of Midlothian AGM at Tynecastle Park, on December 04, 2024, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group) | SNS Group

Donations are key to Hearts’ financial model

The Hearts directors acknowledged that they had been “incredibly fortunate” to receive millions of pounds in donations after what was termed “the devastation of administration” in 2014.

Over that 10-year period, the club have taken in £16.2m from the Foundation of Hearts, the supporters group which has a majority stake in the club and pledges money on a monthly basis. Even more eye-catching is the £29.5m Hearts have received from ‘benefactors’. Chief amongst them is James Anderson who was unsurprisingly re-elected to the board at Wednesday’s agm.

Duncan said that the money from FoH and Anderson had been used to “future proof” the club and pointed to the new main stand as the chief example. But it was also revealed that over £7m had been spent on transfer fees, the majority of it in the last three years.

“We’re in good shape,” said Budge, before adding the rejoinder: “I’m talking about the business, of course. Not what’s going on on the pitch!” It was also revealed that Budge is now finally being repaid for the Bidco loan that allowed Hearts to exit administration a decade ago.

No increase in away fans’ ticket allocation

Hibs are the only visitors to Tynecastle whose supporters are given the whole of the Roseburn Stand. The rest of the clubs are given a narrow strip amounting to 630 tickets and Hearts have no plans to change that. “We’ve sold all our season tickets and have a waiting list which means we can limit the away support and it’s something we’ll continue to do,” said McKinlay.

The chief executive did, however, urge the Hearts supporters to turn up in numbers. He said the recent games with Celtic and Aberdeen fell short of capacity by 5,000 and 3,000 respectively due in the main to ticket holders not turning up. There were extenuating circumstances for the first game in particular, given the snow, cancellation of public transport and unusual Saturday night kick-off slot. But McKinlay wants to see fewer empty seats in the home end.