Over the weekend, the Hearts captain acknowledged that, as things stand, he will be departing Tynecastle.
Blair Spittal made his professional football debut with Queen’s Park as a late replacement for Lawrence Shankland. After being reunited with his old teammate at Hearts and making a low-key debut at Montrose over twelve years ago, the midfielder is preparing for Shankland to check out of Tynecastle.
The player of the year for Scotland publicly stated over the weekend that, given the terms of his contract, he will be departing Gorgie within the next seven months. However, Spittal maintains that his bombshell has not disturbed anyone in the Tynecastle locker room, least of all Shankland.
In 2012, the pair made their Spiders debut as undeveloped 16-year-olds. After a dozen years and more than 200 goals for Shankland, not many people at Hearts understand what makes the striker more effective than Spittal.
After an incredible 31 goals in the previous campaign, the goals have stopped coming this season. Additionally, the offer of a huge new contract that was discussed but not signed at the beginning of the year has vanished. With the transfer market only a month away, Shankland’s candour about his contract position in Gorgie might have caused some commotion on the outside, but Spittal maintains that there were no shockwaves within the team.
Not at all, he said. Nowadays, it’s typical for boys to enter the final year of their contracts in football. Lawrence and the changing room are unaffected. We simply need to focus on what we’re doing because whatever occurs happens. When that time comes, those kinds of things will take care of themselves since we have a really busy schedule coming up. Right now, Lawrence is mostly concerned with making sure he is doing well and returning to the scoresheet.
Spittal is still confident that his skipper will get back on track. He is aware of Shankland’s motivations. “I don’t think so,” he stated as Hearts are ready to board a plane to Belgium for their Europa Conference League matchup against Cercle Brugge tomorrow.
He is clearly not accustomed to it, particularly after scoring goals nonstop over the past two seasons. His efforts over the past two weeks, however, have been excellent in terms of working the entire backline. I’ve previously played with him. I am aware of Lawrence’s potential. I have faith that he will pick himself up and continue. It will turn if he continues to move into places. Letting your head drop is the last thing you can do, and Lawrence has shown no symptoms of doing so.
With a comfortable six points from their first three Conference League games, Hearts go to Belgium. The top eight teams in the league automatically go to the knockout stages, and they are tied with Fiorentina in eighth place despite sitting in 12th place.
With two games remaining, a victory at Jan Breydel Stadium tomorrow night would probably be sufficient to guarantee a postseason berth. In the Belgian premier flight, Cercle is ranked third from the bottom. However, Hearts, in eleventh place in the Premiership, are no better. And Spittal is aware that Shankland and company need to improve in front of goal if they want to have any chance tomorrow night.
The latest in a string of impressive performances marred by lost chances was Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Celtic. Within two minutes, Spittal himself missed a gilt-edged opportunity.
“You don’t want to leave games saying we played well in parts but not learning anything,” he stated. Against Celtic, we produced a lot of opportunities in the first half, including a few very good ones. In the first few minutes, the one I had for myself just bounced up awkwardly. However, you must be willing to take chances while playing elite teams like Celtic, or else you expose yourself.
It’s annoying. It will turn if we keep putting ourselves in those positions. We know we are creating chances when we leave games, but right now we aren’t taking enough of them. However, it will work out for us if we continue to put ourselves in those situations.
Two years ago, Spittal’s sole prior European experience ended abruptly and embarrassingly when they were kicked out by Sligo Rovers from Motherwell. It follows that the 28-year-old is relishing every second of Hearts’ Conference League adventure.
“It’s been good,” he stated. We began the group with two successful outcomes, and while I wouldn’t say the final performance was poor, Heidenheim did penalise us twice.
“As a player, you aspire to compete against the greatest in Europe. We should cherish it because I haven’t had many chances to do that. Motherwell and I had a brief encounter in Europe. The way that worked out was regrettable. This time around, I want to make up for it.
“Hopefully, we can surprise Cercle Brugge and achieve a favourable outcome.”
