Viennese thrill has catapulted Hearts out of their title gloom and opened the door to exciting new dreams

There's always been a strange kind of paradox at play in football which most supporters will readily relate to.

Everyone wants to see their side over-achieve. Just not to the point where it invites crushing disappointment to arrive as a result of heightened hopes and expectations.

Last season, Hearts provided a perfect case in point. Splitting the Old Firm and securing a spot in the Champions League qualifiers would have been the stuff of dreams for anyone of the Gorgie persuasion before a ball was kicked.

Had they come from behind to achieve it, joy would have been unconfined. It was the fact that scenario played out after Derek McInnes’ men had come within three minutes of winning the title which made it feel rather worthless at the end.

The Tynecastle men shot for the moon and still landed in the stars. It just didn’t feel like something worth celebrating at the time because the seemingly impossible was within their grasp.

While the entire club was entitled to dream for as long as it lasted, the fact remains that a title challenge at that juncture was always well ahead of schedule.

As Tony Bloom promised to ‘disrupt’ Scottish football when he and his Jamestown Analytics company arrived on the scene over a year back, he claimed a second-place finish would be the team’s ceiling last term. And so it proved.

A summer of significant disruption unquestionably added to the air of doom and gloom which descended on the club after coming within a hair’s breadth of a miraculous triumph.

McInnes left for Rangers and was soon followed by skipper Lawrence Shankland and Cammy Devlin, the beating heart of the side’s midfield. Set-piece coach Ross Grant also moved to Celtic.

With the squad and the backroom staff being torn apart, rival fans even produced AI-generated images of Colin Chisholm swapping a maroon scarf for one coloured red, white and blue.

While the man who belted out ‘The Hearts Song’ with such gusto before home games last season remains ensconced in his spiritual home, you can well understand the merciless ribbing.

Having seen them come so close to reaching the pinnacle of the Scottish game, Hearts’ detractors were going to savour every second of the fall back to earth.

There was certainly plenty for them to relish in the early weeks of the new season.

Shorn of last season’s two best outfield performers as well as goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow, new manager Wouter Vrancken faced an inordinately difficult task in quickly getting his preferred style of play across.

Drawing Sturm Graz in the Champions League qualifier was hard enough and ended in a six-goal aggregate loss. Being paired with Benfica in the Europa League was simply wretched luck.

But while Vrancken’s side were outclassed in Portugal, losing 6-1, they bounced back admirably to defeat Dundee United 4-0 the following weekend.

While that scoreline may have flattered them, it felt like their just deserts after playing well and losing at Aberdeen on the opening day.

With a commendable score draw at home to Benfica building confidence further, Hearts saw off Inverness 6-2 in the League Cup to set up a clash with Stenhousemuir.

And then came Rapid Vienna. Still in contention in the tie despite being stung by a late equaliser in Edinburgh, Vrancken’s men lost a goal and a man in Tomas Magnusson in Austria on Wednesday.

Normally the cue for Scottish sides on the road to crumble, Vrancken’s men came of age and refused to bow to the seemingly inevitable.

Pierre Landry Kabore’s equaliser took the game to extra time before Calvin Miller’s superb strike gave the visitors the lead.

When Rapid equalised for a second time in the 119th minute, there was a sense of foreboding about the penalty shoot-out. Misplaced, as it turned out.

After Oisin McEntee failed to convert match point, Beau Reus’ second save from 12 yards sealed one of Hearts’ greatest ever European results.

Three months on from seeing their side come up just short in the Premiership, and after all the jokes and jibes they’d had to endure across the summer, the delight among Hearts supporters was unbridled.

Any lingering hangover from that day at Celtic Park has surely been washed away by the prospect of Conference League group stage football.

Vrancken didn’t have his critics to seek in the early weeks after he arrived in the capital but Wednesday felt like the moment when it all came together for him. His side were utterly heroic in the face of adversity.

The passion and desire with which his players performed against such an established European name was mirrored in a dressing room speech which quickly went viral.

‘I’m so f****** proud,’ he said. ‘Like I said before the penalties, the game you played going down to 10 men but coming back, this is a team that will be unbeatable if you always play like this.’

If Vrancken’s success in Belgium – winning the cup with Mechelen, taking Genk to second and Sint-Truiden to third – were the reasons why the 47-year-old came onto Jamestown’s radar, then it would have been his infectious personality which convinced Hearts that he was the right man.

And so, he and his players will await today’s draw to see what further continental adventures await them. While the six extra matches and the Thursday-Sunday schedule are clearly challenges, they won’t catch the club unaware.

‘They’ve got people ready to come if they’re needed,’ said Allan Preston, Hearts fan and BBC pundit. ‘They are ready. They don’t wait until things happen. They already do things.

‘If they need to, they’ll be pushing the button before the transfer window closes. They will get better, they’ll produce better.’

Seeking to steadily improve the quality of the squad through data-led recruitment and aggressive transfer dealings? Irrespective of how last season turned out, this was always going to be the way forward.

They have a plan. And, come what may, they will adhere rigidly to it. In the fullness of time, they believe it will ultimately lead them to the summit they were so close to reaching in May.