There was plenty to be positive about for Hearts fans after their 6-2 win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle. New signings got a chance to stake a claim and plenty delivered, with Ugandan winger Rogers Mato and French midfielder Tom Renaud impressing. But one of the best showings came from a player who was already at the club last season.
Well, for half of it anyway. After returning from a loan spell at Tottenham Hotspur, where he made no first-team appearances after joining in January, James Wilson looks to have a future at Hearts. But where does the 19-year-old striker fit in Wouter Vrancken's plans?
Wilson made his breakthrough as a 17-year-old in the 2024-25 season, scoring six goals across 32 first-team appearances. Not only did he help stave off a relegation threat, he made his Scotland debut in March 2025 to become his country's youngest ever player. That summer, head coach Derek McInnes arrived and Wilson featured heavily in the League Cup group stage.
However, as the league started and Hearts began to mount an early title push, the teenager found minutes increasingly hard to come by. He would only start one league game, a 3-3 draw against Motherwell, and come off the bench a further five times. Spurs came in on deadline day, beating rivals Arsenal to his signature, and it was perhaps no surprise Wilson's head was turned.
Wilson would be named on the first-team bench twice but only played under-21 football for Spurs, who did not trigger the option to buy Wilson. "I've seen a lot of people question it at the time, but for me, I got the experience of training with arguably a top-six club in England," Wilson said of his time in London. "There's some world-class players in that training group.
Getting to train with the first team, using the facilities and getting the experience of being on the bench - the learning that I got made me a better player. "So, hopefully I'm coming back here to show that." Wilson was left on the bench in each of Vrancken's first four games - all of which ended in defeat, but he has now featured in three successive matches and nabbed a goal against Inverness, nodding in a rebound from close range. "He did good," Vrancken said after the match.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
