Football Season Guide

Hearts have started the season in disarray as they sacked manager Ian Cathro following an embarrassing early exit in the League Cup. The manager had been under pressure almost since the very beginning of his reign, with many inside and outside the club disliking his more modern approach to football management. It means Hearts started the league season with Jon Daly as interim boss and they suffered a heavy opening day defeat to Celtic which does not bode well. They have lost several key players from their side and it's hard to see the players brought in as improvements, with the possible exception of Kyle Lafferty up front who should be able to create a good partnership with Esmael Goncalves. The loss of Callum Paterson will be the most keenly felt as the defender was a key player not only for his defensive qualities but his forward runs and goalscoring threat. A number of other players including captain Perry Kitchen have also left. The return of Christophe Berra could be a good signing as he certainly knows the team and what it takes to survive at Hearts but he hasn't had the best of recent years. They'll need to bed in quickly under the new manager, whoever it is, and get back to winning ways if they want to avoid a league campaign fought at the wrong end of the table, especially with bitter rivals Hibs back in the league and already at winning ways.