2 days ago
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Transfermarkt Exclusive
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Alexander Schwolow will openly admit that he perhaps didn’t know what he was letting himself in for when he swapped Berlin for Edinburgh this summer. After five years in the German capital with Hertha Berlin and then Union Berlin, the 33-year-old shot-stopper made the move to Hearts in the Scottish Premiership on a free transfer. And, to his and the rest of the league’s surprise, things have gone better than anyone could have hoped for. After six games between the posts for the Jam Tarts, Schwolow has yet to taste defeat on Scottish soil and his team don’t look like they’ve got any intentions of slowing down in their surprising and entirely unexpected title challenge.
“Honestly, I didn’t have a clear idea of the club or the league beforehand,” said the German keeper in an exclusive interview with Transfermarkt, when asked about how his move to Hearts first came about. “After the first contact, my agent was full of praise for the facilities, the fans and the stadium. So I said I’ll go and have a look for myself. Hearts are a big traditional club in Scotland, and I quickly realised the kind of power behind it. During my time at Schalke, I also had teammates like Moritz Jenz, who spoke about his positive experiences in Scotland and the incredible atmosphere.” However, it didn’t take long for Schwolow to realise just how quick Scottish football was in comparison to the Bundesliga.
“It’s more of a transition game here. There's a big focus on quick turnovers. It goes end-to-end, and long balls play an important role,” noted the 33-year-old talent. “If I had to sum it up, I’d say football in Germany is more tactical and controlled. There’s more play through midfield or teams sit back more. Here, pressing is high, long balls are forced, and the game becomes faster. That’s very demanding physically for the outfield players but also for me as a goalkeeper, there are barely any moments to catch your breath, and there’s always action in the box. After my first match, I was completely done. I even nearly got cramp in the 70th minute, which had never happened to me before.”
Despite his apparent need to catch up with the speed of the Scottish top-flight, Schwolow has so far kept four clean sheets in his first six league appearances for his new club and joins an impressive group of players who joined the club in the summer and have clearly helped Derek McInnes’ side make the step up to title challengers this season. The most obvious of these impressive new recruits have been Cláudio Braga (nine goals and assists in 10 league games for Hearts) and Alexandros Kyziridis (seven goal contributions in 10 league games), with a total of 11 new players making the move to Tynecastle under the guidance of investor Tony Bloom’s famed Jamestown Analytics operation.
“Tony Bloom himself wasn’t really a topic in the talks,” revealed Schwolow when asked about the brains behind Hearts’ impressive start to the season. ”It was more about what he’s brought in through Jamestown Analytics. That definitely underlined that the club’s management have a clear plan and vision for building the squad.” When asked about Heart’s new-look squad, the shot-stopper added: “I was very positively surprised by the quality of the squad. Training sessions are at an extremely high level. The squad is big, the competition healthy, and we’ll benefit from that as the season goes on. And of course, Cláudio Braga hit the ground running and fully deserves his own chant. ‘Kyzi’ [Kyziridis] is a fantastic player too, but aside from the football side, we just have a lot of great characters and strong team spirit. It’s a great group to be part of.
Things certainly seem to be going well for Schwolow and his new club. Hearts are not only top of the Scottish Premiership with a six-point cushion, but have clearly taken advantage of disarray at Celtic and Rangers. The current Scottish champions parted ways with manager Brendan Rodgers last weekend when Hearts beat them 3-1 and their cross-city rivals at Ibrox have just hired their fifth full-time head coach in the last four years. But the Hearts keeper is well aware of the fact that it’ll take something special for a club outside of Glasgow to win the Scottish top-flight for the first time since 1985. “The two Glasgow clubs could, if they wanted to, strengthen further in January,” noted Schwolow. “Injuries can always happen, and then it depends how well the next players step in. These are things you can’t predict. We’re aware of the strengths of the other teams, especially financially. That’s why it’s extraordinary that we’re currently at the top. But we’re very level-headed as a team.”
Although Hearts beat Celtic last weekend, the set-up of the Scottish Premiership means that the Edinburgh club will have to face their Parkhead title rivals another three times before the end of the league campaign, alongside another three clashes with a potentially revitalised Rangers side. As such, the margins between victory and defeat couldn’t be slimmer. But Schwolow believes the team he joined just two months ago has the right character and attitude to maintain the impressively high standards that have seen them go unbeaten in 10 league games to date.
“Even though we’re top of the table by six points, every week is a battle – the matches are all very tight,” said the Hearts goalkeeper. “But the team is incredibly ambitious; we haven’t lost a match since April. On Wednesday, we drew for the first time in five matches and the mood in the dressing room was honestly awful. Everyone was disappointed, but that also showed the hunger of this team - that even after coming back from two goals down in a tough away match, no one was satisfied with a draw. That’s the mentality and we take that into every match and every training session. We’re demanding, sometimes loud with each other, but always professional and focused. We concentrate on the daily work and know what’s required. That’s the spirit. Of course, the fans are allowed to dream. That’s good, and it motivates us even more.”
