Ann Budge has revealed this was the first season she has been happy to splash cash on players at Hearts after landing guaranteed European group stage football.
The Jambos finished best of the rest behind Celtic and Rangers and lost out in the Scottish Cup Final to then boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst's side at Hampden meaning they landed the Europa League play-off spot that goes with the winner of the tournament. That meant a guaranteed eight games in Europe with Europa Conference League proper guaranteed.
That allowed the Tynecastle club to plan accordingly and have a real 'slackening of the purse strings' to help Robbie Neilson land the players he needed to strengthen his side and repeat the feat once again - the main goal of this season. The capital club are in Scottish Cup action on Friday night against Hamilton Accies with a quarter-final place up for grabs. They also sit third in the Premiership once again with a healthy points advantage and as long as nobody below them in the standings lifts the famous old trophy if they don't and they end best of the rest another guaranteed adventure awaits. This will also come with the financial boost they experienced this year with the aim to be in the same situation year in, year out.
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She told the BBC's Behind the Goals podcast: "Everybody has bought into the fact that getting into Europe clearly is hugely important from a financial perspective, from the fans' perspective, from the players' perspective, but just dipping in and dipping out, you are going have very limited success I would guess.
"It's now not just about getting into Europe, it's about doing what we did this time and being guaranteed group stage football because then you genuinely plan and the money does change. It makes a huge difference.
"I don't really mind saying that achieving it last year, which was fantastic, it was the first year I said, 'Right, okay we can look again at what we need on the football pitch'.
"I never forget it's a football club but we cannot throw everything at the players, no offence to anybody.
"This time it was a real slackening of the purse strings and saying, 'Okay what do we really need to make a difference and to increase our chance?'.
"We all know nothing is guaranteed. The chance of being able to do it again and then hopefully again, of being consistently in that situation."
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