Hearts: Steven Naismith sacked so who will be successor?

There has also been criticism of Hearts’ transfer business over the summer.

Left-back James Penrice and midfield duo Blair Spittal and Yan Dhanda arrived on free transfers from fellow Premiership clubs but have been unable to replicate previous form.

Musa Drammeh was signed from Sevilla’s reserves, but the striker has only made one brief appearance off the bench and has not been selected in their Conference League squad.

Loan signings Andres Salazar and Gerald Taylor have both played international football, for Colombia and Costa Rica respectively, but have made costly mistakes at the back since arriving in Gorgie – and there appears to be a lack of balance to the squad.

Hearts have held talks with Brighton & Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom about potentially using the entrepreneur’s analytical company for player recruitment in the future as they search for a higher success rate in the transfer market.

“The recruitment has been dreadful,” Preston suggested. “They have got nine central midfield players and one right-back. That’s not good enough.

“Hopefully, if Tony Bloom comes in, that will get sorted out and, equally, I want them to be involved in the recruitment of the new manager.

“If I was to pick one in Scotland, it would be Derek McInnes. He has done a great job at Kilmarnock, but I think Hearts will go down a different route.”

Former Hearts midfielder Ryan Stevenson believes it was a failure to not bring in a striker to alleviate the burden on captain Shankland.

“There is one guy who can score goals,” he told the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast. “There is a glaringly obvious hole behind Shankland and Hearts did nothing to sort it.

“Hearts needed two strikers in that window. You cannot ask one guy to score 33 goals one year and do the same again, unless it’s Ronaldo or Messi. Who made the decision to not sign other strikers? Ultimately, it falls on the board.”