Craig Wighton, Zdenek Zlamal, Steven MacLean, Steven Naismith, Olly Lee, Oliver Bozanic, Ryan Edwards, Ben Garuccio, Jake Mulraney, Uche Ikpeazu, Colin Doyle, Bobby Burns, Kevin Silva, Jimmy Dunne, Sean Clare and Peter Haring.

Across four months in the summer of 2018, Craig Levein completely overhauled the Heart of Midlothian squad that finished sixth the previous season. Sixteen players would arrive or return to the club. A mixed bag was the result.

Yet, for four months of the season, it was a team that had the fans believing. Of the first 17 fixtures, Hearts lost just once.

This new-look squad started with a trip to the Balmoral Stadium to face Cove Rangers in the League Cup. Eight of the summer signings would make their debut with a further two unused substitutes. One of those was an unknown Austrian signed from the second tier in his homeland. Someone who can be regarded as the most successful of those 16, certainly on the pitch.

Signed as a centre-back, Peter Haring was initially viewed as being part of a back three alongside Christophe Berra and John Souttar. It was a role that would last just 180 minutes before he was moved into anchoring the midfield. 

"I didn't think he was a centre-back!," Hearts head coach Naismith laughed at his first impression of Haring the player. "But being good on the ball, having a calmness, willing to take the ball and he very quickly moved into the middle of the park which I think suited him really well."

There may not have been a more influential individual that season for Heats than a midfield-dominating Peter Haring, who will leave the club at the end of his contract after six years. His skill set seemed to have been moulded specifically for the Scottish football arena. Think of the Coliseum in Gladiator but with less sand and more artificial surface. Fewer lions and chariots, more Alan Power and Alan Campbell. He was big, strong and mobile. He possessed composure, intelligence and awareness. It allowed him to control matches, drive forward with the ball, switch play effectively and, one of the greatest assets a midfielder in Scotland can have, react quickly to loose balls. Then there was the threat he posed in the air from set pieces and the threat he snuffed out from open play and dead balls.

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Haring quickly became one of the leaders in the team. And quickly became a fan favourite. He made team-mates better. He made the team better.

As one player after another began to suffer from injury he would step up to become captain for a run of games due to the absence of Berra, Souttar and Naismith. But he too would be brought down by injury. An injury that proved to be debilitating, certainly in the sense that Hearts simply couldn't replace him.

Entering the top six that season in fifth place, six points behind Aberdeen and Kilmarnock, Hearts earned just a point in their five games, slipping to sixth. Haring was absent for all five. But he was brought back for the Scottish Cup final against Celtic. 

Hearts were excellent against a Brendan Rodgers' side chasing a second treble. Haring was excellent.

He lasted 81 minutes. Celtic scored the winner in the 82nd.

Watch Odsonne Edouard's winning goal again. He was played through after Berra had moved ahead of his defenders to engage for a long ball. It was the type of situation where Haring would have likely dealt with it, allowing Berra to drop off and protect against the threat in behind.

Haring's influence that day was huge. Levein knew that beforehand. Therefore, it was completely understandable why he was so keen to play him despite a pelvic issue.

"I don't know if that's a direct consequence," Levein would say of the injury. "But it certainly couldn't have helped so I've got to take some responsibility for that. It was a risk and reward thing because when he was out the team, we struggled a little bit to fill that gap."

Would Hearts have gone on to win the 2019 Scottish Cup final if he was fully fit? Perhaps. Would the club have found themselves consigned to the Championship 12 months later if he was fit? Not a chance.

"As much as his performances on the pitch, getting to cup final in that period, he was really important, it was when he got injured we missed him the most," Naismith admitted. "That played a big part in the club being bottom of the league when Covid came in because Pete was out the team. It showed his value."

A variety of issues contributed to Hearts finding themselves in the Championship at the start of the 2020/21 campaign, from the season being cut short due to Covid to goalkeeping performances that still prompt fans to wake during the night in a cold sweat. Missing Haring's leadership, direction and game reading was another. 

He wouldn't play again until the summer of 2020.

It has never been quite the same since that pelvic injury. With six years of service, you expect a player to play upward of 200 games. He has been limited to 129. In the last five seasons, he has made more than 22 appearances in a single season just once, in 2021/22, when he once again took on an influential role in the middle of the park, helping Hearts to the Scottish Cup final and third place. Fans fell in love with him all over again. The club couldn't not extend his deal. But since then he has started just 19 games in two seasons.

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His departure, therefore was expected. That doesn't necessarily make it any easier but it does lead to the question of: what if he had not had those injury issues? Perhaps he could have become a Scottish Cup winner. A club legend.

"I think he could have [had an even bigger impact if not for injury]," Naismith said. "The main pelvic injury was one that really set him back. It has definitely made him mentally tougher but that unknown of how to fix it is the worst thing for a player. If you hurt your ankle, you get an operation and it is fixed, perfect, you move on. There was an uncertainty there he lost a lot of time with.

"That's probably the biggest frustration but fair play to him. He fought it and came back, came back strong. As a professional he was really good and maximised what he got out of the game, that's why I think he will go on to have a longer career than maybe some expect."

Ask around at Tynecastle and it will be incredibly difficult, possibly impossible, to find someone with a bad word to say about Haring. A hugely popular figure, well put together and someone who got it, both Hearts and the way of life in Scotland, adding a Scottish twang to his accent. There are few better placed to provide an insight into the player than Naismith. The Hearts boss considers Haring a friend having been a team-mate then his coach.

"As a team-mate, first of all, he was a good honest person, player, trainer," he said. "As he got on a bit he got a bit more moany. I couldn't complain about that!

"He was 100 per cent in in the club. He wanted to win, he wanted to do well, he was willing to play through injury, he was willing to put his body on the line when the club needed him.

"To coach, it was harder because he probably didn't get as many opportunities as he would have liked but having a good relationship with him we didn't agree on things but we understood each others' point of view.

"I have a great relationship with him and class him as a friend now. It is a hard situation as every decision like this in football is but the biggest thing I learned in my career is that over time you really do appreciate these good connections you have and Pete definitely had that at Hearts."

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Naturally, conversations have been had during the season. The relationship they enjoy may not have made them easier but it did allow for an openness.

"Pete understood this season his opportunities were limited," Naismith said. "With him being out injured changed the dynamic a wee bit but he understood that's football. He's really honest, really understanding. He understands football, he understands the dynamics of any situation. He understood it, he maybe didn't agree with it at times through the season but the relationship we had we could be honest with each other."

His six-year stay will end on Saturday afternoon when his team-mates give him a guard of honour and he takes one last loop of the pitch to say goodbye to the fans who have grown to have a strong connection, fondness, attachment and appreciation with and of a player and person from a small city in the west of Austria. And, as of the expiry of his deal, Haring will become a supporter himself, watching from afar. But that connection will always remain.