Although i was all bitter and twisted about the whole debacle of last Monday night, as you may have picked up from the last ramshackle effort ( honestly i could hardly string two coherent thoughts together ) if you read it, I still new the season was virginal and the team was still to start.
So by the end of the week i was up again, dying for the Aberdeen game to come round.
Craig Gordon - The only downside to this that i can see is that he has not immediately got his move to one of the big 4 in the Premiership. For all his talent, he is playing for Sunderland, there is the distinct possibility that he could find himself in a real battle to beat the drop, worse find himself relegated into the championship and swallowed up in the huge machine that is English football. This could cost him his rightful place at the top of the game. On the other hand he could prove to be worth 15 points to them which may be just enough, after a storming season to take them into Europe and maybe a great run in the FA Cup. Lets hope so.
From my perspective, Hearts ( Vlad ) has done exactly the right thing. This is a stonking amount of money for him. Selling earlier and we would have got less, later and clubs would have started to look at the length of his contract remaining and begun to calculate based on that. This was exactly the right time to sell for all parties concerned.
No matter what any of the anti Vlad brigade ( Jambo or otherwise ) can say, there is absolutely no way we would have commanded anything like that kind of money for CG if it were not for Vlad's financial clout. He would most probably have been a Celtic player for the last 3 years, and we would have spent the £450,000 we got for him on servicing an unmanageable debt.
I hope he goes on to have the career we all think he is capable of and i hope as he suggested, he comes back and plays for us again -
- When he is 38 and in the twilight of his phenomenal career, full of misty eyed nostalgia for his beloved Hearts he must finish his playing career in the beautiful maroon and white.
or
- When Hearts are the most successful team in Scotland and he sees us as his best chance at winning a European trophy, we can buy him back for £20M which will be small potatoes for us.
whichever comes first.
Bum Bump? is that the sound of me landing back on Terra Firma?
Rant time - here goes
I can't remember which paper or writer, don't care!
The write up went something like -
John Collin's is brilliant because the minute it was clear that Whittaker was off he immediately pulled him from pre-season and prepared for life without him. Vlad on the other hand is a madman because he continued to play Craig Gordon throughout pre-season which is clearly stupid for a player you are intending to sell. Is it? Now what if, the reason CG was played was because Vlad was putting up the appearance that he was quite happy for him to stay with the club ( i am no hurry mate ), this being part of Vlad's bargaining position. Eminently sensible as far as i can see. The sale of both players was a coup for both of the Edinburgh clubs, why find a reason to knock one and hurrah the other. The only addition i will add is i don't think JC would have had much to do with the sale of Whittaker, and he seems the petulant sort to me so his dropping the player could be as much to do with that attitude as any shrewd tactical nous. My point is ... Media - shut up with the blindly pointless anti Hearts bollocks, there are plenty of occasions when Vlad puts us in a position of naked ridicule, so just stick to that instead of making it up when it doesn't exist.
So with The Riccarton Arms binned for the clearly unforgivable favouring the Blue nose v Chelsea nonsense over the Hearts v Barcelona game, i was struggling for a venue to watch the Aberdeen v Hearts match this weekend. I had heard that you can buy Setanta on a month by month basis from Sky these days so i phoned up the VirginMedia people and asked if i can do the same. I kind of can by simply cancelling the subscription at any time. So Setanta is the answer to the crap pub scenario.
Feet up, beer in hand and Heart on sleeve, I nervously settle down (if you can do such a thing) to watch the match. Surprise! but Hearts start the match looking confident and assured, passing is crisp and neat. Ball retention is therefore high and we look easily the better team. This can only be down to the fact that we are playing midfielders in midfield - 'i mean who'd ah thunk it'
Palazuelo and Eggert Jonsson in central midfield alongside Michael Stuart made a huge difference to the balance of the team. We were however still lacking fairly dismally in the last third of the field. Still we were well in control when Eggert made his mistake, a young lad and hopefully he will learn from it but he really should have just melted it out the park when he had the opportunity. The winger stole the ball from Eggert instead and cut back for Nicholson to dispatch the goal and the second time of asking.
Aberdeen 1
Hearts 0
Unsurprisingly this time. Hearts all but collapsed into their Monday night malaise after the shock of the goal against the run of play. Aberdeen took pretty much complete control of the game and my gills were becoming greener as each minute of the first half passed. The mental scar open again and weeping deep burgundy red.
We won this fixture last year, 3 - 1 i recall, Panilla scored a peach of a goal, but before we took the lead Aberdeen played us off the park, they oozed style and class for pretty much all of the first half in that game until we got them in a strangle hold. In this encounter however for all Hearts punch drunk performance after the loss of the opener, Aberdeen did not have the same quality at their disposal. It is early days in the season for them too i guess. With not much happening outside a constricted central third of the park and half time fast approaching, the single moment of clear quality arose to settle the match. A scramble for the ball on the edge of the box, it fell to Iveskivicius, a neat ball played into the path of Michael Stuart who clipped a great ball over the keeper and into the back of the net. Craig Gordon would have saved it mind you ! ( free now from reality we can loft him as high as we care to dream onto the highest pedestal )
Half Time
Aberdeen 1
Hearts 1
Bolstered by the equaliser at exactly the right time, Hearts went on to take control of the second half. Ksanavicius came on for Driver who had not done too much in the first half. It may be that Ksanavicius may take Drivers place in the team, he looks decent enough out there, provided a bit more penetration down the left flank.
Miko came on for Iveskivicius. This is easily the best way to play Miko, he seems to come on the park carrying much more urgency when brought on from the bench. He was even seen producing a couple of early crosses into the box!
Eggert Jonsson recovered well from his early mistake to put in an assured shift alongside Palazuelo who worked hard enough i guess but the jury is still out on him. He overcooked a couple of diagonal balls designed to drop in just behind the full backs - devastating if they come off, maybe he just needs to find his range.
The game never really looked like finding a winner and a draw was certainly the correct result, a tad more quality needed from both teams i think but neither should be too disappointed.
For Hearts we have a chance to build a bit of confidence and pick up 3 points next week against Gretna ( they threw away a 2 goal lead against Hibs - good grief ).
For Aberdeen, i couldn't give a proverbial mate.
HOOOOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
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