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Heart of Midlothian Football Club, commonly known as Hearts, is a professional football club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The team competes in the Scottish Professional Football League. Hearts, the oldest and most successful football club in the Scottish capital,[3] was formed in 1874, its name influenced by Walter Scott's novel The Heart of Midlothian.[4] The club crest is based on the Heart of Midlothian mosaic on the city's Royal Mile; the team's colours are maroon and white.[4]

Hearts have played home matches at Tynecastle Park since 1886.[5] After converting the ground into an all-seater stadium in 1990, it now has a capacity of 19,852[1] following the completion of a rebuilt main stand in 2017. They have training facilities at the Oriam, Scotland's national performance centre for sport, where they also run their youth academy.[6]

Heart of Midlothian have won the Scottish league championship four times, most recently in 1959–60, when they also retained the Scottish League Cup to complete a League and League Cup double – the only club outside of the Old Firm to achieve such a feat.

The club's most successful period was under former player turned manager Tommy Walker from the early 1950s to mid 1960s. Between 1954 and 1962 they won two league titles, one Scottish Cup, and four Scottish League Cups, and also finished inside the league's top four positions for 11 consecutive seasons between 1949–50 and 1959–60. Jimmy Wardhaugh, Willie Bauld and Alfie Conn Sr., known as the Terrible Trio, were forwards at the start of this period with wing half linchpins Dave Mackay and John Cumming. Wardhaugh was part of another notable Hearts attacking trinity in the 1957–58 league winning side. Along with Jimmy Murray and Alex Young,[7] they set the record for the number of goals scored in a Scottish league winning campaign (132). In doing so, they also became the only side to finish a season with a goal difference exceeding 100 (+103).

Hearts have also won the Scottish Cup eight times, most recently in 2012 after a 5–1 victory over Hibernian, their local rivals.[8] All four of Hearts' Scottish League Cup triumphs came under Walker, most recently a 1–0 victory against Kilmarnock in 1962. Their most recent Scottish League Cup Final appearance was in 2013, where they lost 3–2 to St Mirren.

In 1958, Heart of Midlothian became the third Scottish and fifth British team to compete in European competition. The club reached the quarter-finals of the 1988–89 UEFA Cup, losing to Bayern Munich 2–1 on aggregate.

Heart of Midlothian are one of two full-time professional football clubs in Edinburgh, the capital and second largest city in Scotland.[185] Hearts' average attendance during the 2019–20 season was 16,750.[186] Important matches, particularly the Edinburgh derby, European fixtures and games against the Old Firm, always see Tynecastle at or very close to full capacity.[184]

The Hearts Song was written and performed by Scottish comedian Hector Nicol, a St Mirren fan. A new modern Hearts Song, performed by "Colin Chisholm & The Glasgow Branch", has been played before matches at Tynecastle in recent seasons, though the original version returned for the 2019–2020 season. In 2020–2021 the modern version once again replaced the oldest.

The folk-anthem "There will always be Heart of Midlothian" by songwriter Neil Grant has been played regularly at Tynecastle Park since 2018. At the request of the Foundation of Hearts, Neil performed the rousing track live at Tynecastle during the Ladbrokes Premiership match against St Johnstone on 26 January 2019. The track gained additional exposure after being played on the BBC's popular Off the Ball radio series.[citation needed]

Hearts have many celebrity fans including Stephen Hendry, the late Ronnie Corbett, Ken Stott, Alex Salmond, Sir Chris Hoy, Wattie Buchan, Eilidh Doyle, Lee McGregor, Andrew Oldcorn, Gavin Hastings, Martin Geissler, Nicky Campbell, Grant Hutchison and the late Scott Hutchison.[187][188][189][190][191]

Hearts were featured in the second season of Succession, where the team is bought by the character Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) who, in an attempt to impress his father Logan (Brian Cox), mistakenly buys the Edinburgh rival of Logan's actual favourite team, Hibs.

MANAGER

Robbie Neilson

Coaching career
Hearts
On 31 August 2013, Neilson returned to Hearts as their development team (under-20s) manager.[33] The side lost the Scottish Youth Cup final to Rangers on penalties in 2014.[34]

New club owner Ann Budge promoted Neilson to the head coach position, working for director of football Craig Levein in May 2014.[35] Neilson's first official match in charge was a 3–1 home defeat of Annan Athletic in the Scottish Challenge Cup on 26 July.[36] Hearts began the 2014–15 Scottish Championship with five straight wins, including victories against Rangers and Hibernian.[37][38] His team remained undefeated for their first 20 leagues matches until a 3–2 home defeat to Falkirk ended their run on 24 January 2015.[39]

Neilson won the Championship manager of the month awards for August,[40] October,[41] November[42] and March.[43] Hearts clinched the league championship and promotion to the Scottish Premiership, at the first attempt, on 22 March.[44] They finished the season 21 points ahead of nearest challengers, city rivals Hibernian, and 24 points ahead of third-placed Rangers. Neilson was shortlisted for PFA Scotland Manager of the Year,[45] but lost out to John Hughes of Inverness CT.[46]

Hearts finished third in the 2015–16 Scottish Premiership, qualifying for the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League.[citation needed] In November 2016, it was reported that Neilson had agreed to move to Football League One club Milton Keynes Dons, subject to a compensation agreement between the clubs.[47]

Milton Keynes Dons
On 2 December 2016, Milton Keynes Dons confirmed that Neilson had been appointed as manager, as well as his assistant manager at Hearts, Stevie Crawford. The club confirmed Neilson would take charge following the club's FA Cup game against Charlton Athletic.[48] In his first league game in charge of Milton Keynes Dons, he recorded a 1–0 home win against AFC Wimbledon.[49]

After a run of one win in 11 league games, Neilson left Milton Keynes Dons by mutual consent on 20 January 2018.[50] The team had fallen into 21st place, inside the relegation zone.[50]

Dundee United
Neilson was appointed head coach of Scottish Championship club Dundee United in October 2018 with a contract running until the end of the 2019–20 season.[51][52] Neilson expressed confidence that he could repeat his achievement at Hearts and lead Dundee United to promotion to the Scottish Premiership.[52] Dundee United's chairman Mike Martin stated that Neilson was the "outstanding candidate" to emerge from "a long list of impressive applications" for the post and expressed delight at his accepting the offer to take up the post.[52] Neilson's first match in charge saw United defeat Partick Thistle 2–1 at Firhill.[53] At the end of Neilson's first season, United missed out on promotion to the Premiership after losing to St Mirren in the play-off final.[54] He led the side to the Scottish Championship title the following season, which was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[55]

Hearts (second spell)
Neilson returned to Hearts, who had been relegated to the Scottish Championship after the curtailed 2019–20 season, in June 2020. He signed a three-year deal.[55] On 31 October he led them to the 2019-20 Scottish Cup Final after 2–1 victory over rivals Hibernian, thus making them finalists for the second consecutive season;[56] the final was lost on penalties to Celtic on 20 December after a 3–3 draw.[57]

Neilson's team secured the Championship title with three games remaining on 10 April 2021 after contenders Raith Rovers and Dundee drew.[58] He was the division's Manager of the Month in December and April.[59]

Neilson led hearts to an opening day victory over Celtic in the 2021-22 Scottish premiership. Hearts would follow this up with a 2-1 away win over St Mirren, their first win at St Mirren Stadium in the league for over a decade.[60] Hearts early season league form would continue with a 2-0 victory over Dundee United at Tannadice on matchday 4 [61] seeing Neilson named Scottish Premiership manager of the month for August. A last gasp equaliser at Ibrox against Rangers would see Hearts stretch their unbeaten run in top flight games to 9 games.[62] Neilson's Hearts were eventually beaten 2-1 away from home by Aberdeen on Saturday 30th October [63] having managed to go unbeaten for the full first round of fixtures for the first time since the 2005–06 season.

Neilson would once again lead hearts to a Scottish Cup Semi-Final against rivals Hibernian for the 2nd time in 3 seasons following a 4-2 win over St Mirren at Tynecastle[64] in the Quarter Finals. Hearts would defeat Hibernian 3-1 at Tynecastle in the final League game before the split, cementing 3rd place in the league in their first season following promotion for the 2nd time under Neilson while condemning their Rivals to the bottom 6.[65] Just 7 days later, Hearts would once again defeat Hibernian 2-1 in the Scottish Cup Semi-Final[66] at Hampden Park for the 2nd time in 18 months, setting up a 2nd Scottish Cup Final appearance since Neilson's return, this coupled with their league position guaranteeing a return to European group stage football for the first time since the 2004-05 season, a campaign in which Neilson played.




Still no signings first visit to the venue of broken dreams this season