The waiting is almost over.

In little over 24 hours, EH11 will be the epicentre of Scottish football as Heart of Midlothian kick off the 10-month 228-game Scottish Premiership shindig when they host Rangers on Saturday afternoon in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

For Hearts, it is hoped that it will be the first of at least 50 fixtures as they fight on four fronts. As well as 38 matches in the league, there will be at least eight in Europe with the hope of at least two more. Then there are, of course, the cup competitions.

Speaking to fans ahead of the Leyton Orient friendly last month, many talked of the excitement heading into pre-season and then the new campaign. A few even compared it to the summer of 2005. I think it is fair to say those feelings have been dulled ever so slightly due to results over the past few weeks.

Defeats to teams in the third and fourth tier of England were not expected but it would be foolish to read too much into pre-season results - at the same time naive not to be wary of one or two elements. The good news is that there is evidence in the past of poor pre-season results leading into a successful season. Twelve months ago for the most recent example.

The excitement should be high. Any time the team are in Europe brings a different energy. This time Hearts will encounter a new format. A format that benefits the club, no matter the competition they find themselves in. On Monday we will discover the (possible) opponents for the Europa League play-off. Opposition around the standard of FC Zurich should give the team hope of passage into UEFA's secondary tournament which will bring a further eight games with a number of very big names waiting in the league phase.

Dropping into the Conference League presents a very realistic opportunity to progress to the knockout rounds. Imagine a European knockout round match at Tynecastle Park in February. The last time Hearts played such a game after Christmas was 35 years ago. The opposition? Bayern Munich.

Domestically, it could be the last opportunity for a Scottish team outside of Celtic and Rangers to guarantee themselves league-phase football due to the issue with the country's coefficient. Doing so would be a great achievement to get back-to-back third-place finishes for the first time in two decades, reaping the financial and sporting rewards that come with it. And the chance to solidify the gap between third and the rest.

Yet, that 20-year feat does point to the club's underachievement and inconsistency. Third should be the aim. Every. Single. Year.

Read more

Even with the hectic schedule and European demands, Steven Naismith has built quite the squad. A squad that is unmatched outside of the Old Firm and could be able to grow in size with the additions of a midfielder and a Colombian international.

Not only that but consider last season. Hearts gave other sides a brilliant chance to get a head start in those opening two months. This time around there should not be such a slow start. After all, the squad has pretty much been in place since the start of pre-season. Compare it to last summer when signings didn't begin to arrive until well into July and did so in dribs and drabs. Also, the majority of the squad have now worked under the head coach for 12 months, understanding the movements, the patterns, the principles of play, a three-word phrase that has crept into the football lexicon in recent years.

The players that have been added, and could still be added, tick plenty of boxes. Whether it is filling a position identified as needing to be strengthened, bringing in players who know the league and are ready for a step up, players who can be deemed as sellable assets in the future and just exciting prospects. Who doesn't love an addition of a South or Central American? 

On paper, it has been a very productive and exciting transfer window so far with only one of last season's key players in Alex Cochrane having left and another in Lawrence Shankland still around.

Rampant speculation around a switch to Rangers which took longer than expected will only urge him on to hit the ground running. Against Rangers. Should he stay, with all current indications that he will for at least one more season, he has the chance to take that step from fan favourite and hero to legend. 

All that is left now is for the waiting to be over and the action to get underway. Hearts fans should be extremely excited. It could be a season to remember. And, who knows? Maybe the hex of the League Cup could be ended...

Four key questions ahead of the new campaign

The goalkeeping decision?

Once the January transfer window closed and transfer talks were shelved with Lawrence Shankland focus switched to the goalkeeping department. Who is No.1? How would Naismith keep both Zander Clark and Craig Gordon happy? Would both go to the Euros? Now in August, two of those three questions are set to remain.

Naismith hasn't committed to a No.1 and suggestions are that both could feature this season. How will that work? Can it work? It poses more questions than it does answers.

The Hearts boss in his early coaching career has got more right than he has wrong. He has taken the team forward over the past 12 months. But it is understandable that fans may be wary of goalkeeping rotation. This writer's preference would be for a settled goalkeeper. It may sound daft but something as little as Frankie Kent playing a pass back. Gordon's strong foot is his left, Clark's is his right. Those are things defenders will get into a habit of knowing and learning and it becomes automatic.

It is healthy competition but one where the preference for many would be the No.1 jersey is one or the other until it is not.

Balancing Europe?

Naismith has said success would be finishing third once more with the added demands of Europe. He is right. Ideally, you would want Hearts to kick on and perhaps begin to look up and close the gap to those teams in front, especially with the issues Rangers have currently. But let's at least get into a small trot or skip before running. Becoming a team that regularly finishes third is the next aim for the club. 

If you looked at Hearts in Europe under Robbie Neilson, the record after European games was good, winning four of seven. Last season it wasn't so good. Of the four games after matches in Europe, the only one they won was against Partick Thistle in the League Cup. Naismith spoke of the fatigue.

A lot of these players have now experienced the last two seasons and if you add in the depth of the squad, the team should be better placed to handle the demands. It is perhaps more of a mental fatigue than a physical one, but handle it well and it will go a long way, especially when you consider there are some tricky-looking fixtures off the back of European matches.

Adding more goals?

It took Hearts until January to score three goals in a league match and then until May to win a game by three goals in the Premiership. When you look back at the team's expected goals (xG) in the league during the 2023/24 campaign and compare it to the other team it's middling.

The 1.13xG per 90 minutes was behind Celtic and Rangers, understandably. But also behind Aberdeen and Hibs, perhaps aided by both clubs' finishing in the bottom six. Dig deeper, the xG per shot of 0.08 was one of the worst in the league. It just meant Hearts weren't creating the quality of chance you would expect from a team who finished third so comfortably.

Hearts were helped, of course, by Lawrence Shankland. No other player was as capable of scoring out of nothing or netting, on paper, a low-quality chance. 

The good news is that there were encouraging signs towards the end of the season with Hearts scoring four against Livi, two against St Mirren twice and three times against both Dundee and Rangers in their final eight matches.

In addition to that improvement, Naismith has added two of the most creative players in the league last season. In terms of key passes (ones that lead to a shot) and xG assisted, Blair Spittal and Yan Dhanda recorded figures higher than any of the current Hearts squad.

Then there is the hope other players will up their productivity with Barrie McKay returning from injury and Kenneth Vargas primed for a big season.

Injuries?

Last season's success was all the more impressive considering you could make the argument that Naismith didn't have his strongest XI available at one point in the season. Certainly not the full complement of players. Hearts Standard asked him about the situation following the season's end. 

"At the end of every season we have a review of everything," he said. "I think the way we have worked with players there have been times where players have been 50/50 and they could potentially play and they have not. I’m very much against that.

"I’m very much of going back to what we have as a group. If somebody is not 100 per cent then I will go to the next guy. It is not a case of wheeling someone out to gamble they will be fit and 10 minutes in they break down. I think that has been a big positive for us this season that we are not forcing anyone back, we’re not risking anyone."

With the added games there will be extra strain and fatigue so players will likely have spells on the sidelines or be rested over longer periods perhaps. But equally, because of the number of games the need for the squad to stay fit increases. Unfortunately, it has not got off to the best of starts with Beni Baningime, Calem Nieuwenhof and Stephen Kingsley. If that is as serious as the injury situation gets then it will be a huge positive.