Gary Mackay: Why Hearts must avoid past mistakes to build a better future

Former Hearts manager Craig Levein and owner Ann Budge.

Whether Hearts get a second opportunity to stay in the Premiership or they end up relegated, we have to make sure we actually build a better base than previously.

We can't have a repeat of what has happened over the last few seasons, particularly with regards to some of the decision-making around the first-team squad.

Coming out of administration in 2014, there was the sense of a clean slate and a real opportunity to develop the club. That initially seemed to happen, but the last couple of seasons have seen us slip backwards on the field of play.

The stability the club had was actually when we were in the Championship and then that first season in the Premiership. Robbie Neilson put a squad together, which achieved promotion in record-breaking fashion, then came up and qualified for Europe.

Things looked really promising at that stage as Hearts seemed to be going from strength to strength. There was progress off the park and that has come to fruition in the shape of the new main stand at Tynecastle Park.

However, there seemed to be a turning point round about then. The squad was changed around, Robbie decided to move on, and from there it was a downward spiral. We have brought in Daniel Stendel to try to change that and, like everyone else, he has no idea where we are going to be next year.

We need to wait to see if league reconstruction can happen to spare us relegation, or if the club will indeed find themselves back in the Championship where all of this first started under Ann Budge.

If we do get relegated, there will be more questions to be answered. I don't think we had a forward plan when Craig Levein was sacked because it took such a long time to get the new manager in.

The SPFL didn't have a forward plan for something out of the blue like this but we also have to be critical of our own club for the lack of forward planning.

We were supposed to have this plan and it was just lip service to the supporters, if I'm being honest. We can't have that. It will be interesting to see what the immediate future holds for Hearts because nothing is certain at this precise moment in time.