I went to Hearts' latest AGM and noticed these three key things about atmosphere

When Andrew McKinlay entered the media suite at Tynecastle after Wednesday’s Annual General Meeting their was a clear sense of relief about the Hearts’ Chief Executive Officer.

He admitted as much to the gathered press, saying that he had hoped he would never have to stand before an AGM at a time when the Jambos were bottom of the league. As members of the press we are privileged to try and represent the interests of the fans on a weekly basis when we get the opportunity to questions coaches, players and occasionally boardroom level officials but for the supporters, who are also shareholders, this is often the one time of the year they will get to pose questions directly to the custodians of their club.

It would therefore be understandable, especially given the current league position of the men’s first team, that temperatures may run a little high. However, as McKinlay himself said, the questions coming from the floor were “sensible and understandable” and, in this reporter’s opinion, entirely fair for the most part.

READ MORE: EVERY SIGNLE QUESTIONS ASKED BY HEARTS SUPPORTERS AT 2024 AGM AND THE ANSWERS GIVEN

“The shareholders are entitled obviously to have the meeting and to ask those questions,” said McKinlay. “I hoped I would never stand before an AGM at a time when we were bottom of the league. It's not what you want to go into an AGM with. I think hopefully we gave a good narrative around maybe explaining some things where the club is both on and off field and in particular from the financial perspective which hopefully gave a bit of comfort to people as to why we are where we are and how we see the future developing.”

Here are three things I noticed about the atmosphere at the 2024 Hearts AGM:

Supporters seem confident first team will turn season around

As I said previously, with the men’s first team bottom of the Scottish Premiership the atmosphere at the meeting could have been very different. While the board certainly weren’t given an easy ride by the supporters who asked them questions we were in no way close to raised voices, verbal attacks or even chair throws and storm outs.

For me, this is perhaps testament to the improvement on the pitch since the arrival of Neil Critchley as head coach. They may still be bottom of the table but fans have seen enough to be confident they won’t still be in that position come the business end of the season. There is an identity about the men’s first team now and with a difficult run of fixtures out of the way the mood seems generally positive for now.

That overall mood extended to the AGM floor. There were plenty of issues that supporters wanted answers too including the January transfer window, the failure to sign a striker last summer and the contract status of club captain Lawrence Shankland but, on the whole, the answers given seemed satisfactory to the crowd.

I don’t know exactly what I was expecting going in, it was the first time I had attended the Hearts AGM although not the first time I had sat in on a football club’s AGM. Ultimately, the word that came to mind at the close of proceedings was ‘uneventful’ and that is probably as good an outcome as the board of directors could have hoped for.

Love in the room for unheralded backroom figure

One person who could leave the meeting more than just satisfied with proceedings is Financial Director Jacqui Duncan. After a decade of hard work behind the scenes this will be her last Hearts AGM as she retires from her role at the end of the current season.

Duncan was of course tasked with presenting the yearly financial figures for the 2023/24 campaign and, although the club ultimately made a loss, the growth in the businesses’ financial position since coming out of administration was clear which is a testament to the work she has done.

And the meeting made sure to let her know that as she was applauded multiple times throughout proceedings. We don’t need to go through all the details but, suffice to say, her contribution to the club in her time as FD was acknowledged and greatly received by the shareholders and rightly so.

As McKinlay said after the meeting, she will be a ‘hard act to replace’ at Tynecastle. Seeing what the club has been able to achieve over the past decade from the completion of the main stand and all the other developments that have made Hearts’ facilities the envy of most other top flight sides definitely added to the overall contentment amongst the shareholders, again, despite the current league position of the men’s first team.

Optimism for the future

The optimism obviously wasn’t just around the men’s first team looking to start climbing up the league table and, hopefully, competing in Europe but also further down the line as the club continues to work with Jamestown Analytics. While they couldn’t comment too much on Tony Bloom’s further involvement down the line there is no bigger advocate of what Hearts can achieve with his companies services at their disposal than McKinlay.

It’s more than fair to say that the Hearts’ supporters have bought into this. Talk of future title challenges were addressed but those are some way down the road if they do materialise. Now it is about the next 18 months, securing safety and a respectable finish this season and then seeing what can be achieved with a head coach that has access to these analytics to recruit players next month and in the summer and how the team can kick on from there.

This was perhaps the biggest contributor to the overall positive atmosphere in the Gorgie Suite on the day. The supporter shareholders wouldn’t be there if the club hadn’t previously been mismanaged and it clearly appears that although they don’t always agree with everything the current board of directors says and does that there is confidence that the club has and will continue to move in the right direction.