The agony was still fresh. Hearts had come within minutes of their first league title in 66 years, only to see it slip away on the final day. Then, nine days later, captain and top scorer Lawrence Shankland was gone – his contract's little-known clause activated by Rangers, taking him to Ibrox for free. The dust had barely settled when the head coach who had steered them to their best campaign in decades followed suit.
Derek McInnes, who spent just 12 months at Tynecastle, has left to succeed Danny Rohl at Rangers after Rohl departed for RB Salzburg. The speed of the move suggests Hearts were not caught off guard, according to former Tynecastle manager Craig Levein. He pointed to the influence of Tony Bloom's analytics firm, Jamestown. “Jamestown don't just look at players, they look at managers as well, so I'm pretty sure they'll have already started,” Levein told BBC Scotland.
“Hearts lose head coach Derek McInnes to Rangers, days after captain Lawrence Shankland's exit, sparking a crisis.”
Jamestown's involvement in player recruitment was a condition McInnes had to accept when he moved from Kilmarnock last summer. His successor will face the same requirement – a model many clubs now adopt. Yet of the 15 signings since Bloom invested in Hearts, only three have become starters. Still, Levein insisted the club has been elevated: “Hearts have been elevated by Tony Bloom's arrival,” he said, calling the near-miss “the closest any non-Old Firm team has come to winning the league in 40 years.”
But the departures are mounting. Former Hearts and Rangers centre-back Dave McPherson described losing McInnes and Shankland as “a massive blow”. Midfielder Beni Baningime has already left at the end of his contract, and fellow midfielder Cammy Devlin, currently at the World Cup with Australia, could also leave as he weighs up offers from Hearts and other clubs.
Where does that leave Hearts? A club that was minutes from glory now faces a summer of reinvention. Jamestown's analytics may have a candidate in mind, but the emotional and tactical void left by the head coach and captain is undeniable. As McPherson's words linger, the question remains: can Hearts rebuild, or is this the start of a slide?