Hearts manager Eva Olid on the club’s semi-professional status, 2023 objectives and squad satisfaction

Eva Olid is keen to emphasis that 50 per cent of her current squad are still on amateur contracts, which underlines just how much progress the Hearts manager has made since she took charge in the summer of 2021.

The progress off and on the pitch over the last six months has been remarkable. Finishing eight out of ten in the SWPL1 last May, Hearts are currently fourth in the 12-team league this season and have just taken points off reigning champions Rangers for the first time in their history. Ahead of schedule, perhaps. The club announced initial steps to becoming fully professional last spring, handing out semi-professional contracts in the summer. However, Olid is keen to point out that half of players in the squad are still amateur and it could be years until the club becomes fully professional.

“We have amateur players too”, the Spanish coach told the Edinburgh Evening News. “Fifty per cent of our squad is amateur. People think we are fully professional – no. We are not professional, I wish. Fifty per cent of our squad is amateur, but these players want to be professional, and they work hard, the same as the semi-pro and full-time professional players. It is their attitude. They arrive and acts as professionals.

“They train the exact same as the professionals. Everything is the same, but they do it for free. They understand that this is a transition. It is amazing commitment from these players. They are coming 100 per cent of the time for free and working hard. We are 50 per cent amateur. I have to emphasise that because I hear a lot of people saying we are full-time. We are on the way, but we are not a full-time professional squad yet.

Eva Olid's side are currently unbeaten at home in the league this season but she has a longer-term vision for Hearts. Picture: Mark Scates / SNS

“For all the squad to become full-time you need two years, three years. It’s a process. The club is supporting this process, but of course it is step-by-step. The club cannot do everything in one year. They are supportive of course, but they also know it’s a step-by-step process.”

One of the players currently not fully professional is goalkeeper Charlotte Parker-Smith. The 26-year-old has been one of Hearts’ star players this season, making vital saves in the Edinburgh derby and against Rangers last weekend. The former Hibs goalkeeper works as a corporate solicitor during the day before going to train in the evenings and on a Saturday morning. A change in the club’s professional status would directly affect her.

“I work full-time during the day,” Parker-Smith explained. “It varies, but last week for example I had four days training and then the game on Sunday. It’s a busy schedule. I work in an office and sometimes from home and I just about manage to fit training around it all. There are some day sessions and some evening sessions. Generally, I’m at training in the evening and then we do a Saturday preparation session for the game on Sunday.”

On the pitch the progression this season is remarkable. Hearts are five points clear of rivals Hibs and are now taking the fight to the top three teams from Glasgow who have gained an almost immortal status in the league over the past couple of seasons. Fans have also started to notice, with bigger crowds now coming to watch Hearts, who helped to break the SWPL1 attendance record in November when they took on Hibs at Easter Road. Olid, however, wants to keep her feet on the ground as her squad enter the second half of the campaign.

“For me, this season, the last five months, the objectives are the same as the beginning of the season”, she added. “Everything is a progression. Last season, we were fighting against relegation. This season, our objective is the top six. Next season we want to step forward of course. We want to sign more professional players and our objective will be more ambitious than this season. Everything is step-by-step, but we don’t stop.

“It’s a good atmosphere around the club. We know that the Oriam is a small place for home matches, but it is often full and that is nice. I think people enjoy competitive matches. That is the most important thing for the crowd that is coming to support us.

“The players and staff have been a lot of sacrifices, but the reward has been good results. Sacrifice and hard work without results would feel like things are not arriving. Of course, I feel good personally about the way things are going, but I am so proud of my players, that is the main thing.”

As January looms, many clubs across the league and in Edinburgh are looking to add to their squad to prepare for the rest of the season. Hearts last week allowed young centre-back Dion Young and Scotland Under-19 goalkeeper Lisa Rodgers to go out on loan to Dundee United and Boroughmuir Thistle respectively to aid their development. Goalkeeper Jennifer Currie, 26, has rejoined Hearts, after appearing on the bench against Rangers, with the aim of providing competition for Parker-Smith. The former Hearts youth player recently impressed the Hearts coaching staff when at Hamilton Accies, before joining Sion Swifts in Northern Ireland. “I have been a Hearts fan all my life and I grew up playing for the youth teams at the club, so this is kind of a full circle moment for me,” she said. “But if I was coming back to Scotland, then it was always going to be Hearts.”

Olid is happy with her squad going into the rest of the season. “We think that we have a good balance between young and experienced players,” she added. “In other positions, we have balance too.

“We still have a very young team and a lot of young players. We want them to develop. One opportunity is to go out on loan and we have done that with Dion and Lisa. They need game time. They will keep training with us some days, so we keep developing them, but they will get the game time they need.”