Hearts Women manager Eva Olid admits that when she first arrived in Gorgie, she could never have imagined she’d be heading into her fourth season at the helm, but says the new challenges she’s faced with every year have kept her motivated as she sets her sights on another successful campaign.
The Spaniard signed a two-year contract extension in the summer of 2023, having initially joined the club in July 2021 and under her guidance, the team has gone from strength to strength, culminating in a first ever Scottish Cup Final last season.
As another season approaches, Olid reflects on her Jambos journey to date and outlines the next steps for the club.
“When I arrived, I never could’ve imagined that I would be here for four seasons," she told the Official Hearts Website.
"Every season has been different, with new challenges. That keeps me motivated. This season is a new challenge again. It hasn’t felt like such a long time that I’ve been here because every season has felt different, with new objectives. That has been amazing. I could spend years like that, with new challenges every season.
“Now, I look back and can say we had hard moments, because the transition is a difficult thing to do, when your team is amateur and in three years you want to be fully professional.
“I don’t think many clubs could do that in three years. But with the support of the club, we’ve been able to achieve that. Now is where we really need to go to the next level, be ambitious and push for our objectives.”
With a total of 11 new arrivals to the capital this window, there’s a sense of the unknown about what to expect from Olid’s new-look side this season, but just like last season, expectations are set high.
“Pre-season is always good, as it gives you time to prepare and coach the team. This pre-season we’ve played some really competitive matches against English teams. They were a challenge for us, but they were so positive, as it showed us what we need to improve on to compete this season.”
It’s a trip to the new team on the block in the shape of Queen’s Park first up for Hearts this Sunday and following last season’s slip up at newly promoted side Montrose, the pre-match message is clear from the boss.
“Every week we need to perform with the same motivation and intensity, because we have that experience of Montrose last season. They were the new team in the league, and they were competing so well.
“We dropped points against them early in the season and that was a big learning experience for us. We cannot relax for a second. Everybody can compete, you can drop points against anybody and win points against everybody. That is nice for the league.
“We did our analysis on Queen’s Park, but for the first match of the league, it’s always difficult, as you don’t have a lot of matches to analyse. As the league begins, you have more matches to analyse and all these teams have signed minimum five new players, which is a big change, to how these teams might’ve played last season.
“We need to be focused on us, on everything we’ve been working on in pre-season and go in with confidence about what we can achieve."
