Hearts head coach Derek McInnes has set his sights on a European spot and a cup final while acknowledging the club “have a lot to do to make up for last season”.
The Tynecastle side failed to make it to a final last season, finished seventh in the table, and parted ways with both Steven Naismith and Neil Critchley during a turbulent term.
However, McInnes’ arrival has brought four wins from four in the Premier Sports Cup before the Premiership kicks off this weekend.
“As a club, we never really got to what we wanted,” he said.
“It was obviously the extra demand of European football. But domestically, not to get to the cup final and not even get top six. We’ve got a lot to do to make up for last season.
“Going into any campaign, if we do our work right at Hearts, utilise the budget that’s afforded to us, you get a bit of fortune, as every team needs, we’d like to think that we can be searching and striving for European football in among those places.
“And try to get to Hampden. And be 90 minutes away lifting silverware, that’s got to be the aim.”
The 54-year-old moved to Tynecastle in May after three years as Kilmarnock manager, and he is no stranger to pressure in the dugout.
As well as getting the Rugby Park side promoted, during his time with Aberdeen he steered them to a League Cup and kept them consistently in the hunt for European places.
“We’re not here to mess about,” said McInnes.
“We’re not going to shout our mouths off, saying we’re going to do this and we’re going to do that. On the back of last season there’s work to be done.
“We’re riding a wee wave of optimism at the minute. There’s a lot of encouragement, there’s a lot of feelgood factor, a lot of hope for something better this season.”
Meanwhile, McInnes is patiently waiting on good news regarding a couple of players he’s hoping to bring in to the club.
Hearts are still waiting on a work permit for Landry Kabore, who is set to complete a move from Estonian side JK Narva Trans.
And McInnes is hopeful midfielder Tomas Magnusson, the Icelandic midfielder currently with Valur Reykjavik, could be in place to face Aberdeen in Hearts’ season opener on Monday.
“We’re quite well down the line with the process of that,” he said. “But we’re not there yet, and if we do tick all the boxes between now and Monday, then we have a chance maybe to get him for Monday night.”
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