Hearts boss Daniel Stendel has confessed he expects the Gorgie club will be playing in the second tier when Scottish football restarts despite chairman Ann Budge's reconstruction bid.
The Jambos finished bottom of the Premiership on a points per game average and have been relegated after losing the decisive final game against St Mirren before the campaign came to an early finish due to Covid-19.
Hearts are now pinning their hopes on a new attempt by Budge to kickstart league reconstruction plans, which she hopes could yet save the capital club from relegation.
But German boss Stendel admits he's less than hopeful of that scenario.
He said: "My experience tells me that the chance of that happening is not very big.
"Voting is complicated in Scotland and if there are only one or two votes against, it won't go through.
"And as is usually the case in life, in the end, everyone looks after themselves.
"But there is still some hope.
"My wish is for a solution to be found soon so that we can get back playing football."
And Stendel, whose future remains unclear, admitted in an interview in a Frankfurt newspaper that he will forever be frustrated at how their season panned out.
He said: "We have 20,000 fans at Tynecastle and the atmosphere is better than 50,000 in Hannover.
"We beat Rangers in the league and Cup and won the prestigious derby at Hibs and you could see that a bold game plan with high pressing was implemented.
"And then we went to St Mirren and lost 1-0.
"We had serious injuries and suspensions, but I don't want to go into detail about that because it always sounds like an excuse."
