Hearts’ worrying transfer record compared to Scottish rivals revealed

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Brighton factor explored 

©TM/IMAGO

Aberdeen booked their place in the Scottish Cup final courtesy of Oday Dabbagh’s dramatic late winner in extra-time against nine-man Hearts. The Dons will return to Hampden for the final on May 24th for the first time since 2017 and will likely face champions Celtic. After an incredible start to the season with 13 consecutive wins under new boss Jimmy Thelin, Aberdeen’s form nosedived but they could now end the campaign with a trophy and European football next season. It was far from a classic at Hampden with any hopes for an enthralling contest ended after Michael Steinwender’s red card just before halftime. While Aberdeen have plenty to play for over the final weeks of the season, Hearts’ campaign is over after failing to secure a top six finish.

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There should, however, be plenty of optimism for the future amongst the Gorgie faithful, purely due to Tony Bloom’s pending multi-million pound investment into the Tynecastle club. While the finer details have yet to be finalised, Hearts have already entered a partnership with the 55-year-old’s company Jamestown Analytics. Bloom has transformed boyhood club Brighton from a League One club to English Premier League regulars since taking over, while Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise’s prospects have soared since his involvement. While Celtic and Rangers have enjoyed a duopoly on Scottish football across the last 40 years, Aberdeen and Hearts are two of the only three clubs realistically capable of closing the gap but there’s been a massive disparity between their transfer records across recent seasons.

The narrative around Bloom and his analytics company’s involvement at Hearts had focused on how it could revolutionise the club’s ability to identify players. Brighton have enjoyed astounding success in exploring untapped markets to unearth future stars. The Seagull’s strategy of developing younger talents before selling them for substantial profits has paid dividends with only Chelsea (€790m) and Manchester City (€600m) bringing in more than Brighton (€477m) in sales across the last five seasons. Jamestown Analytics’ ability to identify players is paramount to allow Hearts to add valuable assets to their squad but they’ve been abysmal at selling players in recent years and miles behind their rivals.

As the graphic above illustrates, Hearts have only made €4.2m from player sales since the start of the 2020/21 season. While it’s pointless comparing their record to Celtic and Rangers, Hearts have worryingly brought in less than half of fierce rivals Hibernian, while Aberdeen have generated more than five times the transfer income. There are naturally extenuating circumstances as Hearts started the 2020/21 season in the Scottish Championship after a controversial relegation. But across the last five years, Hearts have finished third twice and competed in Europe regularly but they’ve been unable to generate sufficient income through player sales.

All Scottish clubs’ business models realistically need to revolve around being able to develop and sell players for profits. Celtic have dominated for the last decade and their player trading model has been integral to their success. It’s imperative that Hearts improve dramatically in this regard and there also has to be acceptance from supporters that their best players will be sold. John Souttar left for free to Rangers when he could have been sold previously and Lawrence Shankland could depart this summer in similar circumstances. Aberdeen have made substantially more from sales in each of the last five seasons through the departures of Bojan Miovski, Sam Cosgrove, Lewis Ferguson, Calvin Ramsay and many others. There’s a huge debate in Scotland over who the third biggest club in the country is and Hearts have a strong claim to that title but they must start acting like one in the transfer market.