Derek McInnes' Hearts message is loud and clear after Tony Bloom meeting

McInnes met with Brighton owner Bloom on Tuesday for the first time, less than 24 hours after the opening-day Premiership 2-0 win over Aberdeen, amid growing expectation over what Hearts can achieve this season.

Bloom has made no secret of his desire to win the league with Hearts within the next ten years, with the Jamestown Analytics founder also believing that the Jambos can split the Old Firm this term.

That has ratcheted up the anticipation at Tynecastle further, but McInnes stated that while his tenure has started strongly, there is still so much more that needs done.

“I managed to get an hour or so with him in the office and just loads of encouragement,” said McInnes. “I think he certainly enjoyed the game and I think there's loads of energy coming from him that he wants to do well here and again mentioned about how he was very positive about what the future looks like for the club.

“He's delighted with the start that we've made, he's delighted with the buy-in from everybody, fostering those relationships with the key people at the club, and just trying to drive the whole thing forward. Obviously, it's going to take more than Tony, but as a club, we need to try and just keep pushing on and be as good as we can be. Just following on from what he said, we all want to be, we're all ambitious here, we're all sharing the need and desire to be successful.

‘We’ve got loads of work to do’

“But we have got work to do. I mean, we've got loads of work to do, we intend to do it well. But from the football side of it, we just need to now just knuckle down on each game, and that's important for us. There's a lot of chat about everything else, but basically, it's down to the boys getting results now. Just trying to be confident with our work, be confident we're working for a club that's ambitious and going in the right direction. And we can only affect what we want to do now, and that's hopefully trying to win games of football.”

McInnes, who feels his squad is “looking pretty strong at the minute”, has allowed 20-year-old right-back Adam Forrester to join St Johnstone on a co-operation loan.

“Adam played 30-odd games for Hearts last season, and that’s great going for him as a youngster,” said the manager. “We couldn’t guarantee that was going to be the case this time around, especially early on in the season, so we think it’s important for any young player just to keep playing. But being a co-operation loan, we have got that flexibility to bring him back.”