Heart of Midlothian

Austrian midfielder Peter Haring says the opportunity to play European football for the first time in his career convinced him to extend his Hearts stay this summer despite offers from the continent. (Edinburgh Evening News), external

Read all of Saturday's Scottish Gossip here.

Image source, BBC Sport

Hearts have put up the "sold out" signs after recording their highest season ticket sales in modern times.

The club revealed they have shifted more than 15,500 briefs as excitement continues to build for the upcoming campaign.

More than 3,000 have been snapped up since the general sale began on Tuesday morning, meaning the 20,000-capacity Tynecastle is set to be close to bursting point for most matches.

A limited number of seats in the Roseburn Stand will be held back for matchday walk-ups and a season-ticket waiting list has been opened.

Hearts are also exploring options for a scheme that would enable season-ticket holders to return their brief for any games they cannot attend, allowing the club to re-sell the seat for those matches.

Image source, SNS

Hearts are "quite far down the line" with moves for Peterborough midfielder Jorge Grant and Brighton defender Alex Cochrane, says manager Robbie Neilson, who has not firmed up interest in Lawrence Shankland with a bid for the Beerschot striker. (Edinburgh Evening News), external

Premiership clubs are poised for crisis talks over Rangers' continuing sponsorship row with the SPFL amid fears that the Ibrox club - who are no longer required to participate in the agreement with car dealer cinch - may be exempt from promoting any other commercial deals secured by the league. (Daily Record), external

Read all of Friday's Scottish Gossip here.

Image source, BBC Sport

The new season can't come quickly enough for Hearts, who have smashed their season-ticket sales record with 15,000 already sold in fevered anticipation of guaranteed group-stage European football.

To get themselves in peak shape, the Europa League play-off participants will spend the last week of June training in Malaga and play Gibraltar side Europa on 30 June. A friendly away to East Fife on 5 July follows.

Robbie Neilson's side have a bye in the first round of the League Cup and will visit Tranmere Rovers and Preston North End for friendly matches on 13 and 20 July respectively.

They start their league campaign at home to Ross County on 30 July, with the first leg of their play-off on 18 August.

Image source, SNS

Aberdeen want to sign Hearts striker Liam Boyce but face competition from Ipswich Town for the 31-year-old Northern Ireland international. (Scottish Sun), external

Dundee United sporting director Tony Asghar is "very confident" that Hearts will have to pay compensation for 19-year-old defender Lewis Neilson, who left Tannadice this summer to sign a three-year deal deal at Tynecastle, with the issue set to go to an SPFL tribunal. (Scotsman), external

Midfielder Jorge Grant has verbally agreed a deal with Hearts and will become the club's next signing when he negotiates his exit from Peterborough United. (Sun), external

Image source, BBC Sport

Manager Robbie Neilson has hailed the "incredible" backing of Hearts fans after the club hit a 16-year high for season-ticket sales by surpassing the 14,000 mark.

The Tynecastle club say 1,500 were sold in the opening hours of Tuesday, the first day of general sale.

Neilson, whose squad have begun pre-season training, said: "It gives everyone here a huge lift ahead of what will be a massive season for the club.

"We've got so much to look forward to, not least European group-stage football, and I want every season-ticket holder to know we'll be working tirelessly over the coming weeks to ensure we're ready from the first whistle.

"Can we get to 15,000 before our league opener against Ross County? I certainly wouldn't bet against it. The backing from the stands at Tynecastle is incredible and I'd like to thank you all for your ongoing support."

Image source, SNS

Hearts are close to completing the permanent signing of Brighton defender Alex Cochrane, according to the Edinburgh Evening News., external

Cochrane, 22, spent last season on loan at Tynecastle - making 40 appearances and scoring three times - as Robbie Neilson's men finished third on their return to the top flight and reached the Scottish Cup final.

The lure of European group-stage football is said to be a key factor with Hearts favourites to land Cochrane despite rival interest from Coventry City and QPR.

Should they agree personal terms with the player, Hearts will pay a six-figure transfer fee to Premier League side Brighton.

Image source, SNS

Hearts will be getting a "fantastic footballer" in Peterborough midfielder Jorge Grant.

That's according to the English outfit's sporting director Barry Fry, who told the Daily Record, external a fee has been agreed between both clubs for the 27-year-old.

Hearts will continue to give Rangers and Celtic reduced ticket allocations at Tynecastle next season in order to accommodate more of their own fans.

The two Glasgow sides, along with Hibernian, used to get the entire 3,500-capacity Roseburn Stand for away matches against Hearts.

However, last season Hearts cut the Old Firm's allocation to two of the five sections of the away stand - less than 1500 seats - in order to tap into increased demand from their own support.

Hibs were the only side granted the entire Roseburn last term as part of an agreement between the two Edinburgh sides that they will both allocate each other a full stand for derby matches.

And Hearts have now confirmed the reduced Celtic and Rangers allowance will remain in place. The club say more than 12,500 season tickets have already been sold and because demand remains high, season tickets in the Roseburn Stand will go on sale to Hearts supporters from Tuesday morning and be valid for matches against all league opponents except Hibs.

Image source, SNS

Image source, Getty Images

Lawrence Shankland was a free-scoring goal machine in the Scottish Championship prior to promotion with Dundee United in 2020.

The striker's form stalled in front of goal in his first season back in the top flight, netting eight times in 32 Premiership games, and has since endured a tough time of it Belgium with Beerschot.

Should Hearts get the man they're reportedly after, the 26-year-old told BBC Scotland back in January he hopes he can hit the heights he reached in the lower leagues if he gets the chance again.

"I felt that I did my job for United," he said. "The number of goals I finished on was okay for where we were at. If I return, hopefully it's 20-plus."

Read our full interview with Shankland here.

Lawrence Shankland's proposed transfer to Heart of Midlothian is moving forward following an intense round of negotiations with Beerschot, with the Scottish Premiership club having been quoted a £500,000 transfer fee for the striker who moved from Dundee United in a £1m deal last August.

The Belgian outfit are willing to accept a lower initial payment with the remainder made up in performance-related add-ons. (Edinburgh Evening News), external

Read all Monday's Scottish gossip here.

Jim: Brilliant looking for an even better season hopefully a trophy

Kevin: Nice mix of fixtures, less winter midweek games are a good thing in general, Sunday matches selected are not the worst

Have your say here

Obviously, everyone plays each other three times before the split - but what do you make of this season’s fixtures as a Hearts fan?

Will Robbie Neilson be eyeing another third place finish now that the fixtures are out? Do you see a particularly tough run of games?

Have your say here

The European exploits of Scottish clubs often cause schedule amendments, and don't expect anything different this term.

Motherwell fans, don't be surprised to see your side's opening fixture at St Mirren nudged to the Sunday as your club are scheduled play the return leg of their second round Conference League qualifier on the Thursday prior.

Dundee United (Conference League) and Hearts (Europa League) can also anticipate changes to their calendar with Thursday night qualifiers due to be played in the early weeks of the campaign.

Ross County manager Malky Mackay says starting the Scottish Premiership season "doesn't get too much harder" than facing Heart of Midlothian away.

County visit Tynecastle on 30 July and play their first home league match of the season against champions Celtic in the first weekend of August.

"It is a tough start for us," Mackay told Ross County's Twitter page. "Hearts at Tynecastle - it doesn't get too much harder than that.

"But going to a fantastic stadium with an atmosphere - we had some real good games against them last season so looking forward to it. It would have been good to get an opener at home but you deal with the situation as it is.

"You have to play them all."

Image source, BBC/SNS

Early warning, don't leave your Christmas shopping until the day before... there's football to be played.

This season sees a full card of Christmas Eve fixtures return for the first time in 11 years. It also means there will be no Boxing Day games.

Celtic, who will be looking to retain their title, host St Johnstone that day, while rivals Rangers face a long trip to the Highlands to face Ross County.

On paper, the pick of the games is at Tannadice as Dundee United welcome Hearts, plus Kilmarnock travel to Motherwell and Livingston are at Hibernian.

Get the Santa hats and Christmas jumpers looked out...

Image source, Getty Images

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last wee while, it's all due to the controversial Qatar World Cup taking place this winter.

Given Scotland haven't qualified, the break - taking place between 12 November and 17 December - might seem a touch unnecessary now, but the Premiership shutdown will remain in effect for a variety of logistical and commercial reasons.

Chief among those is that the group stages of the European club competitions must be completed a month earlier than normal and that Celtic, Rangers and Hearts are all guaranteed to be involved.

The latter will play on Thursday evenings, so must have six Premiership matches on Sundays. Fine. But what if their domestic opponents are one of the Old Firm, who might have a European engagement the following Tuesday? It'll be the end of August before that is known - far too late to wait and see.

"Having five teams in Europe is fantastic but presents additional fixturing challenges," says SPFL company secretary Calum Beattie. "We've had to build that in, trying to avoid certain matches on certain weekends, which gets quite complicated.

"We know they will play each other at some point so there's no competition integrity issues - it just means you've got to bake that constraint into the recipe. But if you add more constraints, it throws up other things you don't like..."

Hearts begin their league campaign against Ross County before the first Edinburgh Derby of the season the following week at Easter Road.

There’s a new year Edinburgh derby on 2 January and the third is on 15 April at Easter Road, in the penultimate game before the split.

Hearts travel to face Dundee United on Christmas Eve and play their final game before the split at home against Ross County.

See Hearts' Scottish Premiersip fixtures in full here.