2007–08 Heart of Midlothian F.C. season

The 2007–08 season is the 111th season of competitive football by Heart of Midlothian. It is the 10th consecutive season of play in the Scottish Premier League in which Hearts have competed since its inauguration in 1998–99. Hearts will also compete in the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup.

Heart of Midlothian
2007–08 season
Chairman Lithuania Roman Romanov
Manager Russia Anatoliy Korobochka
Scotland Stephen Frail (from 29 January 2010)
Stadium Tynecastle Stadium
Scottish Premier League 8th
Scottish Cup Round 4 Replay
League Cup Semi Final
Top goalscorer League:
Lithuania Andrius Velicka (11)
All:
Lithuania Andrius Velicka (14)
Highest home attendance 17,131 V Hibs SPL 19 January 2008
Lowest home attendance 10,500 V Dunfermline League Cup 25 September 2007
← 2006–07 2008–09 →

League table

Pos
 Team
 Pld
 W
 D
 L
 GF
 GA
 GD
 Pts
Qualification or relegation
1 Celtic (C) 38 28 5 5 84 26+58 89 2008–09 UEFA Champions League Group stage
2 Rangers 38 27 5 6 84 33+51 86 Template:Fb round2 2008–09 UCL SQR
3 Motherwell 38 18 6 14 50 46+4 60 Template:Fb round2 2008–09 UEFA Cup R1
4 Aberdeen 38 15 8 15 50 58−8 53
5 Dundee United 38 14 10 14 53 47+6 52
6 Hibernian 38 14 10 14 49 45+4 52 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup Second round
7 Falkirk 38 13 10 15 45 49−4 49
8 Heart of Midlothian 38 13 9 16 47 55−8 48
9 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 38 13 4 21 51 62−11 43
10 St Mirren 38 10 11 17 26 54−28 41
11 Kilmarnock 38 10 10 18 39 52−13 40
12 Gretna 38 5 8 25 32 83−51 13Resigned from the Scottish Football League

Source: BBC Sport
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
Gretna: 10 points were deducted from Gretna for going into administration.[1] They subsequently resigned from the Scottish Football League because the administrator concluded that the club could not continue to run as a business.[2]
Intertoto Cup: The highest-placed team who applied for the Intertoto Cup and not in an automatic UEFA Cup spot was awarded a place in that competition, Falkirk and Hibernian were the applicants.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Matches

Pre season

For the second consecutive pre-season Hearts visited Austria, although on this occasion the side also played four tour matches in Germany. Only one pre-season match was played in Edinburgh, a "glamour friendly" against FC Barcelona at Murrayfield Stadium, which attracted Hearts' largest ever attendance for a "home" match.

Scottish Premier League

Scottish Cup

Scottish League Cup

Transfers & loans

Several Lithuanian players left the club during the close-season, while two more Audrius Ksanavičius and Ričardas Beniušis arrived on loan from FBK Kaunas. Other summer signings included Rubén Palazuelos from Gimnástica de Torrelavega and Michael Stewart, who returned to the club after two seasons with rivals Hibernian. Scottish international goalkeeper Craig Gordon moved to Sunderland for £9 million in early August. This fee meant that Gordon was the most expensive Hearts and Scottish player ever, and the most expensive goalkeeper in British football history.

Managers

Just prior to the season's commencement Anatoly Korobochka and Stephen Frail were confirmed as the club's permanent coaching team.[3]

After several other discouraging results, the Scottish media began to scrutinise why the team was not matching supporters expectations, with one particular area of interest being the coaching structure. As neither Korobochka or Bulgarian assistant coach Angel Chervenkov spoke fluent English, a translator was required to aid management and team communication, a situation Frail admitted was "frustrating" and "not ideal" after a 1–1 draw with Gretna.[4]

Stephen Frail was appointed manager on 31 December following a difficult start to the season, although it was not made clear at the time that Frail would be manager until the end of the season.

On 22 May 2008 reports came out that caretaker manager Stephen Frail was on his way out of Tynecastle as he was not part of the new managerial structure at Hearts.

Season

Hearts began the season in a disappointing manner being defeated 1 -0 in the Edinburgh Derby with Hibernian.

On 31 December 2007, Romanov announced that, following five successive defeats which saw the club fall to 10th (third bottom) place in the league, the club would be looking to appoint a 'British-style' manager who would have complete control over team affairs.[5] Since then, Stephen Frail has been the caretaker manager, although it was not made clear at the time that Frail would be manager until the end of the season.

Hearts were defeated 1–0 in the 4th round replay of the Scottish Cup by Motherwell after a 2–2 draw on 21 January 2008. Rangers defeated them 2–0 in the semi-final of the CIS Cup on 30 January at Hampden Park. Hearts then sold their top scorer, Andrius Velička, to Norwegian side Viking Stavanger on 26 February 2008. A 0–0 draw with Kilmarnock on 5 April 2008 meant that Hearts failed to make the "Top Six" of the SPL, for the first time since the split league format was introduced in 2001.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Crisis-hit Gretna facing uncertain future". The Times (UK). 13 March 2008. Retrieved 13 March 2008.
  2. ↑ "Gretna resign from Scottish Football League". The Times (UK). 2 June 2008. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
  3. ↑ "Korobochka and Frail are Hearts coaching duo". Edinburgh Evening News. 30 July 2007.
  4. ↑ "Frail slams communication issues". BBC Sport. 18 August 2007. Retrieved 5 January 2010.
  5. ↑ "Hearts launch formal search for traditional manager". Scotsman. 18 August 2007.

External links

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