When a player is weighing up whether to join a new club there are so many different factors that come into play. From the obvious, such as money and location, to the less considered, such as transport links and schools.
Heart of Midlothian have plenty going for them in terms of the city, the stadium and the hotel. Prospective signings are shown a video of what to expect and why joining Hearts is such an enticing prospect.
Within it all, players will also want to know what they can expect on a daily basis, notably the training ground where they spend so much of their time. Steven Naismith, having played in the Premier League for five seasons understands the importance it plays, the facilities on offer and the general working conditions and atmosphere.
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It is why so much stock has been placed on improving the infrastructure at the Oriam. Last year it was the Bistro, an exclusive space at the club's training base where the squad are fed and can mingle away from students, parents and kids going about their daily business.
This year a big focus is on the standard of the training pitches as well as creating some increased privacy with one of the main pitches in use out in the open, making tactical and set-piece work more difficult.
With Hearts having confirmed at least eight games in European competition it has allowed for such investment. An investment that is hoped will make the club more attractive to possible recruits.
"We’ve wanted it to be more exclusive and cut off," Steven Naismith told Hearts Standard of the plans for the pitch improvement. "That just gives us control.
"As we’ve grown, the quality of player that is coming in [has grown]. I came from Norwich and being in the Premier League [previously] to Hearts and it was a stark contrast. I had an understanding of what I was going to but I can understand if we are trying to attract players near enough every team in England has got a good training facility or the players we want to attract have a decent training facility that you spend 75 per cent of your time in and that becomes an expectation.
"Your working environment will play a big part in whether or not a player is interested [in joining] and we have got to maximise that as much as possible short, medium and long-term. Everyone realises that and are working really hard going forward to move that forward."
Naismith believes that in the past the quality of the pitches "hasn’t been looked at enough" but that it is now very rare for a pitch to be "horrendous or in really bad condition". Still, it can be better. The coaching staff and club don't want to stand still.
The aim? Replicating the surface the team play on every other week at Tynecastle. Hearts will have their own ground staff working on the pitches they use at the Oriam.
"We need to be training on what we are playing on most of the time especially for us as a team that are going to have the ball for most of the game and trying to cause teams problems," Naismith explained.
"If you go onto a training pitch and it’s not of good enough quality… we rely so much on that day-to-day work on the pitch.
"As daft as it sounds but if the pitch isn’t watered in the summer months and it’s dry and sticky then it is not going to give you a true reflection on what the game is going to be like on a Saturday when they are watered and cut tight and they are firm. That’s been something we’ve looked to improve."
The topic of the club's training base is something that is going to become a key discussion point over the next few years. Hearts currently have a lease at Oriam, which is Scotland's sports performance centre, that runs until 2029.
What the future looks like beyond that is unclear. Earlier this year, the club's chief executive Andrew McKinlay described it as the "next big project". Initial discussions have already taken place and the club have been looking at alternative sites as they explore all possibilities.
Whatever the future looks like, Naismith believes "something needs to change" with the club having "grown massively" and "come a long, long way from where it has been" over the last five years.
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"Fundamentally and fortunately the agreement with the Oriam is coming to the point where it needs to be renegotiated or something needs to change because in the longer term, we can’t go on the way we are currently at," he explained.
"Last summer we did some things, this summer we are doing some things. By the end of the summer, looking at the short-term until the lease is up, we’ll have maximised everything we can do at the training facility. The medical area is the last part inside the building that I think we can really change which is going to help us short term. The other thing was pitches and the setup of them.
"Obviously they signed this contract a good while ago and over the years there are going to be these areas or as a club, we want to change or make better.
"Over this season especially, I think the relationship with the Oriam has grown because there are loads of frustrations at those times where what we expect from a football point of view and what’s in the contract or what Oriam’s level of expectation is different.
"It is tough but we are definitely in a much better place, hence why we have put the investment in that will basically have pitches that are stitched and hopefully give us a good surface all year round and the maintenance and process of that as well which will help."
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