Joe Savage left Hearts in the summer with a decent recruitment record.
While there is much more to a sporting director’s role, transfers are a major part and also generally what fans will judge them on.
There are always going to be misses and Savage had some of his own.
But for every Gervane Kastaneer there was a Lawrence Shankland, Beni Baningime and Frankie Kent, to name just a few.
Savage moved on from his role earlier this year and has already opened up on his exit and his reasons for making that decision.
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Joe Savage on Hearts missing out on Oh and McCowan
The 40-year-old, who has since launched his own footballing consultancy firm, has been speaking again.
He has given a wide-ranging interview but what Jambos fans will most likely find interesting is some of the transfer misses.
And Savage has openly discussed some of the transfer targets his old club missed out on during his time.
There is a Celtic pair, one current and one who has since moved on, who could have ended up at Tynecastle.
Hibs were interested in Luke McCowan before he ended up at the champions but Hearts were also taking a look.
Savage told the Open Goal podcast: “McCowan, he was one we were watching at Hearts thinking we might have had a sniff and a chance.
“[Hearts didn’t see him] Probably because we heard that Celtic were hovering. We heard that they were in and around it. Considering it and not considering it.
“Then, in the end, we felt, I wouldn’t say our midfield three were better than Luke because I think Luke’s a good player. It probably cost us a lot of money as well. I think he ended up being like £1m. We can’t afford that at Hearts, certainly at the time.”
Oh Hyeon-gyu was another and he added: “Remember Oh? The South Korean centre-forward that went to Celtic. We had him and he was interested in coming over.
“I spoke to his agent because we wanted a powerful nine to replace Ellis Simms when he left. We had him, that was one we thought we had a chance with.
“But I started speaking to his agent about numbers and we thought ‘that’s going to be too much for us.’ I think Celtic paid about £2million for him.”
Savage confident Hearts could have signed Aberdeen’s Nicky Devlin
Aberdeen right-back Nicky Devlin is one Savage confident they could have snuck in ahead of the Dons for.
Robbie Neilson was interested in taking him from Livingston but was then sacked and the Pittodrie men snuck in before Steven Naismith could assess what he wanted.
Savage added: “That’s a regret of ours, we should have signed Nicky at Hearts. I’m going on record here, but I am confident in saying that he would have came to us because of the location. Aberdeen is far away but they are a massive club. Robbie (Neilson) was all over him and wanted him.
“It’s not that Steven (Naismith) didn’t want him, but we just didn’t react quick enough. Robbie left and Steven came in and wanted time to work with the team and see how he wanted to play. And then bang, it was announced that Aberdeen had signed him (Devlin) on a pre-contract.”