Hearts legend Walter Kidd watched the squad return to Tynecastle last month and felt the crushing weight of a familiar, haunting memory.
The sight of players stepping off the team bus after losing the title in the dying moments of the season transported Kidd straight back to May 3, 1986.
That date remains one of the most painful in the club’s history, following a 2-0 defeat at Dundee that cost Hearts everything in the final game of the campaign.
Kidd, who made over 460 appearances for the Gorgie club across a career spanning three decades, knows exactly how that bus ride home feels.
As one of the senior players in Alex MacDonald’s side that year, he understood immediately that the 1986 title opportunity was gone and would not easily return.
The Graeme Souness revolution was already taking hold at Rangers, and twelve months later the Ibrox club romped to the title while Hearts finished fifth.
Kidd is adamant, however, that the current situation is fundamentally different to what greeted the club in the years following that 1986 collapse.
The presence of Tony Bloom and Jamestown Analytics gives Hearts a structural foundation that simply did not exist in previous generations of the club.
Kidd told Record Sport: “Believe me, losing the league like that is a hard thing to take. But the club is different now to 1986, no doubt about it.”
He pointed directly to recruitment as the central reason for his optimism, with Calvin Miller, Amadou Ba-Sy, Josh McPake and MJ Kamson-Kamara already arriving this summer.
Kidd said: “In football you have to keep changing, keep improving and freshening up. Obviously Rangers and Celtic are going to recruit a lot. But so are Hearts and we’re still going to be up there.”
Bloom’s long-term ambitions have also energised the fanbase, with Kidd referencing the owner’s bold public commitment to winning the league within ten years.
“Tony Bloom said we’d win the league within 10 years – and to come that close in the first year really gets you believing,” Kidd said.
The departure of Lawrence Shankland to Rangers has drawn significant attention, though Kidd was measured and generous in his assessment of the striker’s decision.
“Obviously Lawrence Shankland is a big, big miss going to Rangers. Good luck to him, he’s 30-year-old. He’s got a life as well,” Kidd said.
Kidd watched the final game at Parkhead as a supporter, feeling every blow as Daizen Maeda and Callum Osmand netted in the 87th and 98th minutes to hand Celtic the championship.
He drew a sharp distinction between 1986 and now, recalling how the older players on that coach home knew the window had shut permanently around them.
“Back in 1986, the older guys like me, Sandy Clark and Andy Watson realised THAT was our chance. Rangers weren’t a particularly good side that year. But they had Graeme Souness coming in,” Kidd said.
Players including Steinwender, Findlay, Halkett, Milne, Magnussen and Braga remain at the club, giving Derek McInnes a strong core to build upon heading into next season.
With Champions League qualifiers also on the horizon, Kidd is firmly convinced that Hearts are positioned for another serious title challenge and said simply: “I really do think they can go again.”
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