by John Drake
We are all aware that being a Jambo takes you on a roller coaster ride of emotions, but I think you’ll agree that this season, more than most, has seen us go from peak to trough, from the heights of ecstasy to the depths of despair; if you could sum up Season 2004-’05 in one word, I think it could be “bittersweet”. Season 2004-2005 saw the Club play 54 competitive matches – more than any other team in Scotland. The long league campaign slowly fizzled out, as the games finally took their toll on the players, culminating in a very tired performance in Aberdeen. What was so frustrating this season was the “Jekyll and Hyde” nature of the team. At times, they played some excellent football with the best performance being arguably the 2-nil victory at Parkhead; I’m sure the yellow submariners from Villareal left Parkhead that day more impressed with some of the Hearts team rather than the home team they had come to watch. However, there were times when we also had to endure some woeful games – unhappy memories of defeats away to Motherwell and the Pars linger, while the less said about that derby collapse at Tynecastle the better. Over the season, the outstanding player was Paul Hartley, whose impressive form was rewarded by a well-deserved (if not rather belated) call-up to the national team; we can only hope that his long-term future can be secured over the summer. Aside from the replays in the Scottish Cup, the number of games we might normally play was boosted by our qualification for the Uefa Cup group stages. For everyone involved in this Season’s Euro adventure, even those of us who have been fortunate to follow Hearts to foreign climes before, it must rate as some of the best times we’ve had as Hearts supporters. Whether it was cheering Paddy’s last minute strike at Murrayfield, dancing in the fountains of Braga, doing ‘the bouncy’ on the trams outside St Jakob park, or even dodging “The Legion” in Rotterdam, this season’s European ventures have been experiences that will be difficult to top. But weren’t we all saying the same thing in Sarajevo and Bordeaux last year? Hopefully our sabbatical from European competitions is a brief one… and that our absence will be as short as the Cabbage’s participation. The European campaign also saw Murrayfield become our surrogate home, as Tynecastle had been deemed unsuitable to stage European matches. Although the games were watched by some of Hearts largest crowds for years, they couldn’t compensate for the lack of intimidating atmosphere a packed Tynecastle generates, and so we slipped to a narrow defeat to Schalke, and a disappointing loss against Ferencvaros. Furthermore, the revenue Hearts might have received from the large attendances was curtailed due to the rental agreement struck with the SRU’s then Chief Executive (can’t think where he’s ended up, can you?), that if the crowds went over a certain number, then the SRU were entitled to a larger share of the gate receipts, as well as the basic rental fee. It is a relief to hear that the new owners are already actively looking to bring Tynecastle up to scratch so that European matches can be staged there in the near future; hopefully the next time we qualify for Europe, we’ll be playing in a packed Tynecastle and not a half-full Rugby ground. However, for all our exploits on the pitch, it will perhaps be the off-field events for which this Season will be remembered for. The well-chronicled struggle between the supporters and Chris Robinson came to a head, as the former-CEO’s plan to sell Tynecastle to property developers was finally defeated at an EGM held in January, and his commanding stake in the Club was bought by Lithuanian millionaire Vladimir Romanov. By the time you read this, Heart’s bette noir will have left Tynecastle for the last time, for despite being bought out, Robinson has lingered, bizarrely being kept on to “advise” and “aid” the new regime in this transitional period. Despite his grandstand entrance to the EGM, Romanov is still an elusive figure to the Hearts support, but that has not stopped him from professing grand designs for the future of the Club. Whether we can fulfil his dreams of Hearts regularly challenging the Old Firm for the title is anyone’s guess, but we can but hope that our new benefactor proves to be as good as his word and this is the start of a prosperous period in the Club’s history. As well as a change in ownership, the Club has also gone through 2 coaching teams (3 if you include the interim pairing of Steven Pressley and John McGlynn – Charlie Nicholas’ votes for “Manager of the Year”!) in one Season. Since his arrival from Cowdenbeath, Craig Levein had performed admirably given the limited budget he had to work under, and had raised expectations amongst the support – not least by guiding us into the inaugural group stages of the revamped Uefa Cup. I think we were all a little surprised when he decided to leave Tynecastle for Leicester, especially given their recent financial woes, but we were not surprised when his successor was unveiled as John Robertson, the Club’s talismanic record goal scorer. Some questioned Robbo’s acumen as manager and, given his status as club legend, expectations were high; nevertheless, I’m sure all supporters were disappointed in the way John Robertson’s short tenure as manager of HMFC came to an end. Personally, I feel he should have been given until the end of next season before an ultimate judgement of his abilities be made. However, when John signed his contract last year, he was apparently happy to have this “review clause” in his deal, so he must have been aware of what the Board expected him to achieve. Despite losing the services of some key players – most notably Alan Maybury, one of our ‘leaders’ on the park - wins away to Basle and Celtic seemed to point to brighter times ahead for the team, but the promise of more attack-minded football did not secure a greater haul of points; nadirs of Robbo’s brief reign included 2 semi-final defeats and a home defeat to the Cabbage.
The crunch came at a Friday night Board meeting at Tynecastle, where it had been (prematurely) assumed that Robbo’s position would be rubber-stamped and his signing targets for next season approved. But this is Heart of Midlothian F.C. – nothing can be straightforward, can it? With the Board breaking up without resolution, Hearts traveled to Ibrox the next day with the nagging thought that, despite the result, Robbo’s fate had been sealed. Sure enough, on the Monday, Hearts announced that John Robertson was no longer manager of Heart of Midlothian. Despite a news conference attended by a solemn Robertson, and arranged by Phil Anderton in an attempt to clarify the situation, the rumour mill went into overdrive about potential replacements and as to why Robbo had gone; the most infuriating (if true) being that Chris Robinson’s arguments at the Friday Board meeting sealed Robertson’s removal. The King was dead, long live the King; but what of his successor? When interviewed on Radio Scotland’s 90 Minutes, George Foulkes indicated that the Club plan to introduce a "continental management system", with a Director of Football & a first team coach. All well & good, but if you get that "continental system" wrong, like we saw earlier this season at White Hart Lane, then you face problems. The club have also said we will be getting a “big name” manager – again, easier said than done. Aside from wondering who would actually want to manage us, the appointment has to be spot-on or we risk making a Vogts-esque appointment. Whoever comes in must be familiar with the Scottish game and be aware of the teams we're up against. The timing of the announcement is all the more frustrating given the fact that new season begins in July – which doesn’t give the new gaffer much time to get players signed up, let alone work on the portfolio of targets Robertson had complied, or have they all been binned too? If the Club didn't have confidence in appointing an untried coach to take the team on then one must wonder if the Romanov-regime actively sanctioned Robbo's appointment; however this decision means that they now have to spend seriously & carefully if they want to retain the fans' confidence. If they're serious about investing heavily then I fully expect to see Paul Le Guen as the new manager, Marek Jankulovski filling in at left back, Mikael Essien partnering Paul Hartley in midfield, with Zlatan and Adriano up front for us next season ;) One of the most contentious issues to befall the Club in recent years was the aborted minute’s silence for the late Pope before the SFA Cup Semi-Final. Perhaps the SFA thought by not having the silence they would be seen as pandering to bigots, but given the well-documented antagonism between the two sets of fans, and given that even the silence at the other Semi-Final was not impeccably observed, how did they ever expect there to be a respectful tribute to the Pontiff at our match?
If anything, the incident raised the question about whether we should be having a minute's "silence" at games altogether. I remember when they were just reserved for those linked with clubs, but now we seem to have a silence at every other game. If Associations want to be seen to make a tribute, would it not be enough to have the teams wear black armbands & there to be an announcement over the PA informing the crowd that the teams were wearing them as a mark of respect from the footballing world for whoever it may be? Some have suggested following the Italian example of a minute's applause, but perhaps the authorities fear that too could be easily hijacked. I'm sure most of those in Hampden who wanted to - particularly amongst the Celtic support - would have already had their tribute to or contemplated the Pope's passing, so why create an opportunity for some to desecrate a tribute in public. Unless an individual is associated with a particular club or role in football, personally I don’t think a football stadium is a proper place to have a respectful tribute to anyone anyway.
However, even taking into account the democratic right of freedom of speech, the Club actually requested that we, the fans, “observe and respect the minute of silence”. Look at the PR disaster created for the Club by the booing of the “silence” that occurred before a game which was to be beamed live on SKY across the UK and beyond. Both Radio Scotland and Radio-5-Live discussed this at length, while news agencies the world over reported how the Hearts support had interrupted the silence. We were all being tarred as a bunch of rampant bigots, whose only reason for going through was to abuse the Celtic support & desecrate the minute's silence; granted, little was made of the Celtic fan's tribute to the Pope - that traditional Irish ditty, "The Soldier's Song” – but surely we should be trying to get our own house in order first. What potential investors, or families of potential new supporters, would want to get involved in a Club whose supporters are viewed in such a bad light? Not our finest moment.
By the time of the Cup Semi-Final, we were not the most popular of Clubs with the SFA anyway, as another facet of this Season has been our continually fraught relationship with Scottish Referees. Throughout this Season, we’ve seen several teams in the SPL fall foul of the numerous cock-ups… oops, sorry, I meant “honest mistakes” made by Scotland’s whistlers, but our run-ins with Messrs Dallas, Davis, Young et al have been the most contentious, with the contribution of a certain linesman proving one of the key moments in the SPL Season. I don’t think I’d ever left a Hearts game feeling as angry as I did on that March evening, and I’m sure I wasn’t alone. No matter how many times you watched the seemingly endless TV repeats of the Greek defender’s wonderful impersonation of Greg Louganis, you couldn’t see where the “foul” was supposedly committed; David Begg described it on Radio Scotland as an “incredible decision”. Despite conceding straight after the game that he didn’t see why the penalty was given, McLeish went on to claim that, after watching the replay hundreds of times, it was a definite penalty. It was only a few weeks after the match, after weeks of the press hounding Davis whilst simultaneously castigating Hearts’ reaction to the incident, when Andy Davis revealed in an interview with The Herald that he did not flag for a foul for the incident when Kyrgiakos hit the deck, but for a tug on his shirt by Lee Miller that was not caught on camera. Regardless of what he thought he saw, Davis’ decision saw the match end in chaos, as Prso was sent off for clashing with Craig Gordon, Mikoliunas was given 2 red cards for firstly barging into Davis and then swearing at Dallas, before Ricksen scored the 94th minute penalty that gave Rangers 3 fortunate points, points that, ultimately, proved vital in securing their championship come May. But that was just the end of the beginning, for as Miko awaited his fate, Hearts held a news conference in Glasgow, where Fedotovas and Robinson announced that they had written to the SFA, calling for an official enquiry into the penalty award. From being the wronged party, any sympathy Hearts may have had in the media quickly evaporated as the Club suddenly became condemned by all and sundry. With mock outrage and disgust, the Old Firm apologists and sycophants had a field-day. Hearts had, in the eyes of one member of BBC Scotland’s employees, “super-glued themselves to sour grapes over that last minute penalty”. Another correspondent ridiculously claimed that the fall-out from the penalty showed that the Lithuanians would be a “malign presence” in Scottish Football. It must be a cardinal sin in Scottish football to challenge the status-quo, to be inexpedient, or to “rock the boat”. From being the plucky wee provincial Club, who had unluckily lost to Rangers, we were now portrayed as a petulant Club who could not accept defeat. For having the temerity to request an enquiry into this contentious issue, for even considering to ask for some transparency in the national game, Hearts were threatened with and, ultimately, convicted of having “brought the game into disrepute” by the SFA, charged £5,000 and “warned of its future conduct”. The real damage, though, came with the punishment meted out to Mikoliunas for his confrontation with Davis; accepting his culpability, the 6-game suspension denied the team of one of its most creative assets during a critical stage of the season. Some may argue that the phrasing of the call for an inquiry into the “integrity of the decision” by Hearts was possibly ill-advised, especially given as it was made on the recommendation of our erstwhile pastry purveying CEO. However, had the Club specifically called for more transparency and a change in the way Referees communicate with the players, managers, media and fans, they would have been more than justified, certainly could not have been accused of bringing the game into disrepute, if they ever did in the first place. We also could well have got the support, or at the very least the sympathy, of other SPL clubs in the matter. The SFA bigwigs like to portray themselves as a progressive organisation; well, if that is the case, then why can they not introduce a directive which allows Referees to explain contentious decisions in post-game interviews when required? If a similar system is good enough in the English Premiership, then why not adopt one here? Had there been such a mechanism in place, it is possible that the whole debacle could have been nipped in the bud; okay, I might not have liked their explanation, but had Dallas or Davis justified how and where Kyrgiakos was fouled by Miller and why the penalty was awarded then I would have, albeit reluctantly, accepted it. Their silence over the whole affair was thunderous, while Hugh Dallas’ private letter to the SFA regarding the decision merely exacerbated the sense of “us” and “them” that pervades in Scottish Football. If match officials are more than happy to be “Rent-A-Quotes” for programmes like 90 Minutes or Scotsport Ess-Pee-Ell, if they are more than happy to appear on Radio or TV shows, decrying SFA member clubs, demanding that the SFA bring them to task, then they should be more than happy to justify any contentious decisions they might have made during a game when asked. However, going by certain “top” official’s swansongs towards the end of the season, I think we can probably dispel any notions of conspiracies or jaundiced officiating and, perhaps, should merely accept the fact that our match officials are just not as good as they like to think they are. Some supporters are concerned that we’re currently in limbo, what with having no manager, or even Season Ticket prices, confirmed for next campaign and the future of several players still undecided. One can only hope that this listlessness is temporary for, given the improvement of the Sheep and the Cabbage, we’ll have to raise our game if we are to be competing again. But all we can do for now is hope: hope that the new regime lives up to its early promises, and that this Romanov dynasty proves more successful than its predecessors. I can understand peoples’ frustrations about the lack of information coming from Tynecastle, but let’s not forget that the new regime has barely got its feet under the boardroom table since the takeover deal was finally completed. Phil Anderton admitted to frustration that he was only able to take office at the end of March, meaning that he is effectively playing “catch-up” with our rivals and has much less time to finalise tickets prices, complete negotiations and prepare for next season than he might have liked. Having attended the recent Fans Forum meeting with Phil Anderton, it would appear that Hearts have – for once – employed someone who might actually be good at the job he’s being employed to do, unlike his predecessors. Speaking of Robbo’s dismissal, Anderton conceded that mistakes were made – in particular, waiting until the Monday before confirming to Robertson that he was no longer manager – and acknowledged that he will be more much cautious when talking to the football media than he was with Rugby correspondents during his tenure at the SRU. Now at Hearts, it seems as though everyone who interviews him is looking for an angle, for a chink in his story to concoct the latest weird and wonderful tale of events down Gorgie way. We’ve provided the media with some great ‘copy’ this season, so it’s in their interests to keep the waters clouded – why else do you think the ‘Venables for Hearts’ stories disappeared so quickly? Because they were, like so much that has been written about Hearts this Season (some might include this piece in that category too), total bunkum. It’ll be a relief if Hearts are able to limit their appearances in the press to stories about our onfield exploits and not the latest rumour emanating from Tynecastle, or ‘Gregg's the Bakers’! Even the occasion confirmation of a signing wouldn’t go amiss…
So what can we expect for next Season? I don’t think you can ever safely predict what trials and tribulations await HMFC, but I’ll be buying my ticket for next season; I just hope the ride’s a bit smoother.
Keep the faith.
J.D.