Just a quick note to capture the win for Scotland against Georgia, yesterday.
Bloody marvelous!
I did not catch all of the game, best not to ponder too much on the why's and whatnots about that ( i was in HomeBase at Hermiston Gate looking at bathroom tiles ) Told you not to ponder!
Heard the first exhilarating ten minutes on the radio, just enough time to catch Boyd's goal, sounded like a cracker at the time and by the time i got round to seeing it, it still was.
Then i was stuck in HomeBase hell for the remainder of the first half.
My reward was to be chaffeured up to the Riccarton Arms in Currie to watch the second half.
On the way i listened to the overtly depressed, half time post mortem of Scotland's failings in the first half !! By then Arveladze had equalised for Georgia ( a fine goal itself if helped a little by some confused defending and basic auld man-ness on our right flank.
Struck me though that the rest of the first half must have been a bit of a mare judging by the tearing to bits the panel on Radio Scotland ( Gordon Smith and Willie Miller ( if i remember right )) were giving the team.
I was a tad nervous then about the second half as we drew into the car park of the pub.
The Riccarton Arms has the advantage over the standard local ( Railway in Juniper Green ) for football matches in that they let you bring your kids along. So when you have nowhere to bung them and lets face it these days you can't just tie them to the lamppost outside the pub whilst you spend the afternoon getting hammered, like you used to be able to do, at least not in Currie any roads! The Riccarton Arms lets you take them in with you.
Got the beer and colas just in time for the second half to kick off.
Now for me i did not think we were too bad, in fact i thought under the circumstances of injuries and suspensions ( McFadden, Fletcher, Pressley etc ) i thought we were pretty good.
Thought about how different the world looked from a Jambo perspective - this time last year - The spine of the Hearts team was also the spine of the Scotland team and we were in danger of strengthening that position into a bit of a monopoly. How very different things were now with Craig Gordon the only Jambo on the park.
The way things are going by the next time we play Georgia they could be fielding more Jambos than Scotland !!
I was interested to see Gogita Gogua come on for Georgia as Hearts had tried to sign him in the January transfer window - red tape being the catalyst for another round of SFA conspiracy theories amongst those who have watched too many episodes of the x-files ( me too )
He did not do much, if anything at all, though so couldn't come to any opinion either way round.
For me Scotland were undoubtedly the better team, Georgia had a couple of chances but Scotland played the more aggressive positive game and without being anything like the 16th best team in the world we did manage to create a chance or two ourselves. The best came from a cracking cross from the left by Naysmith right onto the big toe of Boyd, he should have buried it but he tried to leather it in and missed completely. Boyd was also unfortunate a few minutes earlier when he took an awkward chance to score really well, only to see it come back of the bar.
As the game moved into it's final stages i was struck with that spirit sapping feeling that we were not going to score, Boyd's back post thrash was the chance to win the game i thought.
I mentally went over the pros and cons of a draw rather than a win in terms of what that meant to Scotlands chances of qualifying - bonkers is it not! have i forgotten the football goliaths we have in our group, what chance do we have of qualification regardless of this result.
Beattie came on for Boyd and Scott Brown came on for Teale, Brown brought his energy into the midfield which lifted things a little and Beattie did his usual mostly ineffectual bustling up front.
With only minutes left and the game stumbling towards it's level end, Hartley found 2 yards to cross to Miller who headed back across the box for Beattie to collect on his chest and somehow sclaff the ball goalward, the keeper got to it but not enough to keep it out.
Scotland 2
Georgia 1
I have been in the Riccarton Arms to watch only one game before yesterdays.
Scotland 1
France 0
The pub is now my local for football games.
I stood in the same spot in the pub for both games, directly under one off their low slung oak beams. As the goal went in i ( as you do ) raised my hand in clenched fist delight and slammed my fist into the oak beam. Bust my knuckles wide open - looked like i had been in a scene of Fight Club. Done exactly the same when we scored against France as well - eejit.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
JambosForever
Folks, the blog has merged and grown, Mr_JT has worked hard over the past months to come up with the rest of the site JambosForever.net which this blog now forms part
Lots of stuff there including club history and a forum for fans discussion etc
Check it out
Lots of stuff there including club history and a forum for fans discussion etc
Check it out
The Mirror
"Some day your gonna have to face, the deep dark truthful mirror"
Elvis Costello - deep dark truthful mirror
An awful lot of people who had successfully been avoiding the inevitable view into the abyss had no choice yesterday. For most of us inside the stadium during that second half we looked long and and we looked hard into that mirror and not one of us liked what we saw.
We were a shambolic shadow of Heart of Midlothian Football Club a team in disarray and with nowhere to hide, a team imploding in on itself on and off the pitch.
Over the past year or so a number of supporters of other clubs have expressed their opinion, their consternation, at the lack dissenting voices coming from the terraces of our beloved football ground, as (from their perspective) Romanov rips the heart and soul out of our club.
"This would never happen at Ibrox ya bunch of spineless morons"
some blue nosed eejit
Well to that statement, i can reply now that the world is changing, there was a tectonic shelf shift at Tynecastle yesterday - the terrace was not placid and the dissenting voices were loud and very, very angry.
A seminal point for our club where now the numbers of non believers in the grass roots support is very close to critical mass. If the performance of the team does not improve and quickly things are about to get very ugly.
Talked to a Dundee Utd supporter on Friday, asked if he was going to the game, how he thought his team would get on etc. He replied that he would not be going because Levein has turned them into the most boring team in living memory. He was p'd off that some of their supporters are actually happy about this simply because they don't get horsed anything like as much as they used to. I can see his point but i can also see the others who are fed up of years and years of hounding's by us and just about everyone else in the league. He expected a tough, boring game that was just as likely to be 0 - 0 as anything else. Have to say i pretty much agreed with his prediction. The loss of Larry Kingston being the most important detractor to a victory for the good guys. Without Larry i just couldn't see where any of the football was going to come from. I was slightly encouraged then when it became clear that Bruno Aguair would be replacing him in central midfield. Only slightly encouraged mind you since he could hardly be match fit as he has been out for a good couple of months now and in any case he needs some mettle around him. That mettle was hardly going to come from Soli Mikoliunas, Andy Driver or the completely pointless Philibaitus!
So i fully expected a dull drawn out game that we might just squeeze a goal out of if we are lucky.
Time to look into that mirror folks, the deep dark one.
When was the last time you can remember when we did not play out a dull drawn out game where if we did squeeze out a victory it was not of the grudgingly annoying kind.
The mirror does not lie, we are rotten and have been all season.
There was a bloke phoned into James Trainor last night, an aged statesmanlike Hearts supporter who talked intelligently and lucidly about the reasons why he can no longer go along to Tynecastle to watch the team he has supported for the last 60 years. There was no malice, or vented rage or screaming spleen from this man, just a well constructed, insightful and undeniably logical argument laid forward to the listening public.
I will not go into the details of the argument other than it centred around the vanity of Vladimir Romanov as the central cause of the clubs ailments.
It was truly harrowing to hear this man talk.
The game ( or the first 70- minutes of it anyway )
Ok so the first part of this blog reads like a death march. You know what tho that game could have gone either way. There are only two problems to be dealt with - the first being the reason why the dug out did not change the shape of the team after Ibrahim Tall had been ordered off, until it was far too late? That is a question that we all need an answer to.
The second problem is the nature of the teams shambolic collapse under the weight of going behind. That is the mirrors reflection that we all see today if we are brave enough to recap that game in our heads.
The first half was off the now mechanically reconstituted standard boring crap we are forced to sit through week in week out. Very little of note in a positive sense from Hearts and the usual one or two defensive lapses that we just got away with. I was annoyed almost immediately by the referee and had decided inside of 5 minutes that he was intent on ruining any chance this game had of flowing anywhere. This annoyance, the ref eclipsed though, midway through the first half when he ordered off Ibrahim Tall for Hearts and Robertson for Utd. Handbags at dawn and no way a straight red card for both players - the ref lost the plot and made a mockery of the game. Hearts allowed this to affect them far more than it affected Dundee Utd however, basic tactical screw up on our part. The sendings off turned Dundee Utd's 4-5-1 into a 4-4-1 but Hearts allowed our shape to remain at 3-4-2 and worse we did not shift the back 3 around we just left a gaping hole down our right side?? Amazing really that it took Dundee Utd half an hour to exploit this fully.
HT
Hearts 0
Dundee Utd 0
Noticed at Half time that the concourse of Gorgie stand has been resurfaced with some non-slip, maroon coating. At least we won't slip in the rush to get out of this place i thought.
I mentioned to my dad that it would be just like the thing for these guys to score against us, that goal came in the 51st minute but my dad did not see it, he had already had enough and made for the exits.
Like i said this game could have gone either way, The goal came from a breakaway after a corner to Hearts, which concluded a period of some pressure we had exerted. They broke away though and used the vast open space that Tall had been marshaling, to advance into the box. A pass to the back post and a low drive into the net.
I don't think the Dundee Utd supporters could quite believe they had scored, it was a sleepy response from them.
Hearts immediately entered panic mode.
Jankauskas had come on at half time for Velicka who looks more like a first division player every time he plays - what happens with these guys? he seemed like a 15 goal a season player when he first got here. Jankauskas took this as his cue to start throwing himself around every time a defender came near him. More than anyone this guy for me represents the problems we have. He obviously has ( had ) talent, but he just can't be arsed he is here for a wage and nothing else. An overpaid prema-donna who is sucking the life out of our club, he has absolutely got to go in the summer!
Miko and Driver at least upped their game and made more direct runs into and around the box, one run saw Driver cut the ball back to Aguair on the edge of the box, he drove hard but the ball was always rising and missed over by a foot or two. If that had gone in, Hearts would have won the game!
Not to be within seconds a long ball forward by Utd saw their forward heading goal ward with only Goncalves in front of him. I swear i have never seen anything like it in all my born days but Goncalves actually managed to move away from the ball? he created more space for the Utd forward to move into? The gaping hole on the right was still there of course, now filled only by Utd's Robson, the pass to him was far to easy, he took it and slotted the ball home.
Now brilliantly awake the Dundee Utd support responded with much more gusto, now in belief that they were going to win against Hearts for the first time in donkeys years.
I just about got up and walked out right there and then.
Hearts entered double super panic mode.
One highlight and the only thing left for the support to cheer about was the introduction of youngster Glen who came on for Pospisil. Pospisil unlike Jankauskas has obviously no talent, he is and always has been simply an impostor who should not be allowed to wear the Hearts jersey again. He absolutely must go in the summer!
Pospisil was booed roundly as he walked off the pitch, his response was to sarcastically applaud the crowd. He has never really made it here, never become one of our favourites, for me that is the last straw for him, just get tae, that's all i can say to that.
The introduction of this 16 year old into the cataclysm of this match seemed out of order to me, what the hell were we expecting him to do about this and just what were we expecting him to learn - Look son, just so you know, this is what a team in self destruct mode looks like?
The 3rd goal was another slice through the Hearts defence with us on the back foot and all mis-shapen, i got of my seat and was heading for the exit before the ball hit the back of the net.
I did not therefore see the 4th goal but i will eat my hat if it wasn't just like the rest.
As i walked down from my seat there was a bloke who had climbed over and onto the pitch, he was screaming abuse at the Hearts dug out. He had his young kid on the pitch with him, the wee guy could only have been 5 or 6. He was screaming, very upset, trying desperately to haul is enraged father off the pitch. It was a shameful sight, i hope he regrets his actions today, he will no doubt get plenty of time to regret them because he threw his season ticket book onto the pitch as he finally left.
We go down to Easter Road in a couple of weeks. They will now be buoyant after their well deserved League Cup win today. If we have not got our act together by then ( somehow ) we could be on for a desperate afternoon that could blow our EUFA hopes completely out of the water.
So if not for anything other than a desperate plea to the sporting gods
HOOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
Just love football
After yesterdays riotous shambles at Tynecastle, i was in no mood whatsoever to go watch another game of football, especially given that winter had returned to Edinburgh with a vengeance.
Got to go watch the youngest play for Currie Star though and i am glad i did! A cracking game in the chill at Kingsknowe early this morning.
There were snow flurries and a strong north westerly for the youngsters to deal with and i will say now - each and every one of those boys playing in the cold this morning had more spirit and determination and love for the game than any one of those, for want of a better term 'bloody imposters' that pulled on a Hearts shirt yesterday.
Currie Star had the wind advantage in the first half and just like last week i was concerned and sure we would need a 2 goal lead to take into the second half. The lads used the wind in their favour to the full, pressing Beachwood hard back into their own half. The visitors were limited to breakaways, however those breaks carried a threat with their forward players running strongly with the ball. The ganme was poised for an engrossing affair.
First and second blood came to Currie Star, the first being a particularly well worked and finished goal - 4 or 5 passes moving up the park a slip inside and beautiful lob over the keeper - these lads are ten years old folks. It makes your heart sing to see it come together.
One of the Beachwood breaks came off and they brought the deficit back to one before Currie Star extended again just before half time.
HT
Currie Star 3
Beachwood 1
So the required 2 goal advantage was there ( just ), the game was very much there for the taking though so it was great to see Currie Star belie the tougher task ahead of them in the second half by stretching their lead to 4 - 1 early after the restart.
A period of give and take between the two teams then for the next 10 or 15 minutes where the game could have been killed off or brought right back to life concluded with Currie Star leading 5 - 2.
A victory looked assured and my spirit was renewed in love of the beautiful game.
To their credit Beachwood never gave up and brought the game back to 5 - 4 and just ran out of time to get the equaliser.
Great game today and a great win for Currie Star.
Got to go watch the youngest play for Currie Star though and i am glad i did! A cracking game in the chill at Kingsknowe early this morning.
There were snow flurries and a strong north westerly for the youngsters to deal with and i will say now - each and every one of those boys playing in the cold this morning had more spirit and determination and love for the game than any one of those, for want of a better term 'bloody imposters' that pulled on a Hearts shirt yesterday.
Currie Star had the wind advantage in the first half and just like last week i was concerned and sure we would need a 2 goal lead to take into the second half. The lads used the wind in their favour to the full, pressing Beachwood hard back into their own half. The visitors were limited to breakaways, however those breaks carried a threat with their forward players running strongly with the ball. The ganme was poised for an engrossing affair.
First and second blood came to Currie Star, the first being a particularly well worked and finished goal - 4 or 5 passes moving up the park a slip inside and beautiful lob over the keeper - these lads are ten years old folks. It makes your heart sing to see it come together.
One of the Beachwood breaks came off and they brought the deficit back to one before Currie Star extended again just before half time.
HT
Currie Star 3
Beachwood 1
So the required 2 goal advantage was there ( just ), the game was very much there for the taking though so it was great to see Currie Star belie the tougher task ahead of them in the second half by stretching their lead to 4 - 1 early after the restart.
A period of give and take between the two teams then for the next 10 or 15 minutes where the game could have been killed off or brought right back to life concluded with Currie Star leading 5 - 2.
A victory looked assured and my spirit was renewed in love of the beautiful game.
To their credit Beachwood never gave up and brought the game back to 5 - 4 and just ran out of time to get the equaliser.
Great game today and a great win for Currie Star.
Monday, March 12, 2007
At the dentist
Hearts made great strides forward this weekend in securing their route into European football next season.
The InterTattie cup it is then.
Results went against Hearts with a defeat to Aberdeen, our likely rivals for 3rd and the Eufa cup spot for real. Rangers pulled of a great win ( for them ) defeating the other half of the ugly sisterhood at Parkhead.
All roads to Europe that Hearts have attempted to navigate this year have had diversion signs put up, firmly blocking our path to some sort of measure of success for this season. Last time it was Dunfermline in the Scottish cup ( a result which caused the first mention of the embarrassing InterToto from Tynecastle ( mind you do i think Newcastle care about that right now, nope i don't! )) . Now it is Aberdeen firmly slamming the door in our faces with a vital win for them.
This leaves Hearts 3 points behind Aberdeen ( they have a game in hand against Motherwell at Fir Park on Tuesday ) and 7 now behind Rangers ( they also have a game in hand ).
So most likely outcome for the end of the season now is -
Rangers keep 2nd and champions league qualification is theirs
Aberdeen keep 3rd and take the Eufa cup spot from their league position
Unfortunate for them but i suspect Hibs get beat in the cup final to Celtic and get their Eufa cup spot because Celtic have obviously won the league ( although by then it may have been so long that they might have forgotten all about it ).
Plenty of time to catch Aberdeen actually so should not be too disheartened but just now it seems like.
Last year was like being at the fair, going for a ride on the fastest, scariest roller coaster without being strapped in, and your naked!
This year is like being at the dentist, going for root canal work by Steve Martin and he took the drugs, and your naked!
Hearts turned up with Philibaitis ( isn't that some kind of skin complaint ) and Iveskivicius in the makeshift midfield - neither of these guys look up to the job. They appear to be part of the vast array of mediocrity that sits just under the surface of the Hearts squad and serves only to inflate the squad numbers. Here is a question though, we do have injuries this is true but these guys have surfaced along with Korobochka's reign in the boiling hot seat that is head coach at Tynecastle.
I think this is an indication that Vlad does not control the team selection as much as some of us think he does - these guys are Korobochka's choice not Vlads or Valdas's either way round they are the wrong choice.
Actually Hearts didn't really turn up at all.
Aberdeen got of to a good start with a well struck goal early in the game and seemed comfortable from that point on. Not that they really looked as though they had any more goals themselves but it was all too easy for them.
Notable however was Larry Kingston, he came to Tynecastle with a reputation for two things - He was a decent player and he had a reputation. A reputation for poor discipline, he has received a couple of six match bans in his time for losing the plot. From the minute Hearts went behind it seemed that every tackle he made was a foul, it was innevitable that he would get booked. With 20-20 hindsight you would say he should have been hooked after his booking but such is the dearth of playmaking capability in the Hearts team just now i guess we couldn't afford to take him off. Whatever he carried on just as before with his 1 to 1 ratio of tackle to foul and was sent off after the hour. Not to be curtailed by trivial matters like being red carded Larry went for the double red by accusing the referee of being a racist!
So in my excitement surrounding Larry, last week i stated the only problem i could see with Larry at tynecastle was if he got fed up with all the nonsense surrounding the place. Completely forgot about the fact that he might just be a head case.
We have had our problems bringing players into Tynecastle for the last 2 transfer windows, i have suspected that it has had a lot to do with how stressful and precarious it must look from the outside world to come to Hearts. Thats why we end up with so many Lithuanians on loan these guys are the fall back for failed attempts to bring in the guys we want. Or is there a policy that you have to be a certified nutter with paranoid tendancies before you get a gig with us.
It became apparent this week also that Valdas has not been sent to the salt mines afterall, he has in fact been so fantastic at his job as head scape goat that he has been promoted to Director of Football Bureaucracy in the Romanov Politburo. This all makes perfect sense? it is like watching some nineteenth century, moustache twirling illusionist at his mercurial best. It's all just smoke and mirrors folks.
The InterTattie cup it is then.
Results went against Hearts with a defeat to Aberdeen, our likely rivals for 3rd and the Eufa cup spot for real. Rangers pulled of a great win ( for them ) defeating the other half of the ugly sisterhood at Parkhead.
All roads to Europe that Hearts have attempted to navigate this year have had diversion signs put up, firmly blocking our path to some sort of measure of success for this season. Last time it was Dunfermline in the Scottish cup ( a result which caused the first mention of the embarrassing InterToto from Tynecastle ( mind you do i think Newcastle care about that right now, nope i don't! )) . Now it is Aberdeen firmly slamming the door in our faces with a vital win for them.
This leaves Hearts 3 points behind Aberdeen ( they have a game in hand against Motherwell at Fir Park on Tuesday ) and 7 now behind Rangers ( they also have a game in hand ).
So most likely outcome for the end of the season now is -
Rangers keep 2nd and champions league qualification is theirs
Aberdeen keep 3rd and take the Eufa cup spot from their league position
Unfortunate for them but i suspect Hibs get beat in the cup final to Celtic and get their Eufa cup spot because Celtic have obviously won the league ( although by then it may have been so long that they might have forgotten all about it ).
Plenty of time to catch Aberdeen actually so should not be too disheartened but just now it seems like.
Last year was like being at the fair, going for a ride on the fastest, scariest roller coaster without being strapped in, and your naked!
This year is like being at the dentist, going for root canal work by Steve Martin and he took the drugs, and your naked!
Hearts turned up with Philibaitis ( isn't that some kind of skin complaint ) and Iveskivicius in the makeshift midfield - neither of these guys look up to the job. They appear to be part of the vast array of mediocrity that sits just under the surface of the Hearts squad and serves only to inflate the squad numbers. Here is a question though, we do have injuries this is true but these guys have surfaced along with Korobochka's reign in the boiling hot seat that is head coach at Tynecastle.
I think this is an indication that Vlad does not control the team selection as much as some of us think he does - these guys are Korobochka's choice not Vlads or Valdas's either way round they are the wrong choice.
Actually Hearts didn't really turn up at all.
Aberdeen got of to a good start with a well struck goal early in the game and seemed comfortable from that point on. Not that they really looked as though they had any more goals themselves but it was all too easy for them.
Notable however was Larry Kingston, he came to Tynecastle with a reputation for two things - He was a decent player and he had a reputation. A reputation for poor discipline, he has received a couple of six match bans in his time for losing the plot. From the minute Hearts went behind it seemed that every tackle he made was a foul, it was innevitable that he would get booked. With 20-20 hindsight you would say he should have been hooked after his booking but such is the dearth of playmaking capability in the Hearts team just now i guess we couldn't afford to take him off. Whatever he carried on just as before with his 1 to 1 ratio of tackle to foul and was sent off after the hour. Not to be curtailed by trivial matters like being red carded Larry went for the double red by accusing the referee of being a racist!
So in my excitement surrounding Larry, last week i stated the only problem i could see with Larry at tynecastle was if he got fed up with all the nonsense surrounding the place. Completely forgot about the fact that he might just be a head case.
We have had our problems bringing players into Tynecastle for the last 2 transfer windows, i have suspected that it has had a lot to do with how stressful and precarious it must look from the outside world to come to Hearts. Thats why we end up with so many Lithuanians on loan these guys are the fall back for failed attempts to bring in the guys we want. Or is there a policy that you have to be a certified nutter with paranoid tendancies before you get a gig with us.
It became apparent this week also that Valdas has not been sent to the salt mines afterall, he has in fact been so fantastic at his job as head scape goat that he has been promoted to Director of Football Bureaucracy in the Romanov Politburo. This all makes perfect sense? it is like watching some nineteenth century, moustache twirling illusionist at his mercurial best. It's all just smoke and mirrors folks.
Fine fair
Blustery and rainy start to Currie Star's latest outing at Kingsknowe this week, it felt like winter folks!
Warmed up nicely and quickly though as the game burst into action from the off. The game then succeeded in serving up highly enjoyable fair to the faithfull dozen or so souls who braved the weather.
Currie Star started positively using the wind at their backs to full advantage, hemming East Craigs into their own half for much of the opening period.
The goal for Currie was on the cards and came after 15 minutes, a welcome goal indeed but it could have been 3 or 4 at that point and i was worried. We needed to be 2 up at half time to stand a chance given the strength of the wind in our favour.
East Craigs found a gear and some space though and started to cause a few problems for the Star defence. They turned their efforts into 2 goals in quick succession to go into the break with a 2 - 1 advantage.
With the wind at their backs and confidence in their sails East Craigs kicked on quickly in the second half and forced their way into a 4 - 1 lead within 5 minutes of the restart. A real shame for the Currie Star lads as they had played well in a keenly contested and evenly fought match.
To their credit Currie Star did not fold under the weight of the defecit and played out the remainder of the game with creditable spirit. The lads were rewarded with a second goal with the last kick of the game.
A defeat to East Craigs but a great effort from the boys nonetheless.
I have been hunting around looking for the club crest on the net, found this during my ( as yet in vain ) efforts.
Looks well worth promoting
http://www.unitetheclubs.co.uk/Supporters/Clubs.htm
Warmed up nicely and quickly though as the game burst into action from the off. The game then succeeded in serving up highly enjoyable fair to the faithfull dozen or so souls who braved the weather.
Currie Star started positively using the wind at their backs to full advantage, hemming East Craigs into their own half for much of the opening period.
The goal for Currie was on the cards and came after 15 minutes, a welcome goal indeed but it could have been 3 or 4 at that point and i was worried. We needed to be 2 up at half time to stand a chance given the strength of the wind in our favour.
East Craigs found a gear and some space though and started to cause a few problems for the Star defence. They turned their efforts into 2 goals in quick succession to go into the break with a 2 - 1 advantage.
With the wind at their backs and confidence in their sails East Craigs kicked on quickly in the second half and forced their way into a 4 - 1 lead within 5 minutes of the restart. A real shame for the Currie Star lads as they had played well in a keenly contested and evenly fought match.
To their credit Currie Star did not fold under the weight of the defecit and played out the remainder of the game with creditable spirit. The lads were rewarded with a second goal with the last kick of the game.
A defeat to East Craigs but a great effort from the boys nonetheless.
I have been hunting around looking for the club crest on the net, found this during my ( as yet in vain ) efforts.
Looks well worth promoting
http://www.unitetheclubs.co.uk/Supporters/Clubs.htm
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
All we need is strobe lighting
Seemed like ages since Hearts last played, the interim period being littered as usual with more of the same disruption. Valdas has again departed, for? how long this time? who knows.
Initial speculation for his replacement came in the form of some complete nobody called Letiso? Have to say that petrified me. I have been working on this theory for a good few weeks now, that Hearts will be a better team team next year than we are this year.
"Whit!" is the response i have been getting from the non Jambo punters at work, to this unfounded proclamation "Where the hell do you get that from?". In truth my theory is quite flimsy, based almost completely on two ideas -
The person with his finger on the strobe switch was once again Larry Kingston, fast becoming the main man for the Jambos.
His near post corner midway through the first half was met by Tall for the opening goal. This was eclipsed by his effort in the second half to finish the game. Somehow he found himself on the right wing, scampered down to the byeline and crossed a peach to the front post where Elliott was screaming in. The header came from the defender but such was the cross and the pressure from Elliott the ball crashed into the net.
Could have been very different, earlier in the first half, Motherwell could have taken the lead when their striker was straight through on goal, he chose (wrongly) to try to round Gordon but under pressure overran the byeline.
Other than that this game was completely forgettable. To sum it up Hearts did to Motherwell what others have been doing to Hearts all season at Tynecastle, mugged!
Much more interesting is where this leaves things.
8 points ahead of Hibs, open water really.
Level on points with Aberdeen who we play at Pittodrie at the weekend
Rangers away to Celtic the same weekend
With maximum points from a Hearts perspective and spring in the air the chase for 2nd place could be well and truly on by Sunday afternoon.
HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
Initial speculation for his replacement came in the form of some complete nobody called Letiso? Have to say that petrified me. I have been working on this theory for a good few weeks now, that Hearts will be a better team team next year than we are this year.
"Whit!" is the response i have been getting from the non Jambo punters at work, to this unfounded proclamation "Where the hell do you get that from?". In truth my theory is quite flimsy, based almost completely on two ideas -
- This season has been pretty dire really so can't get much worse.
- The turmoil at least in part has been connected with now departed / departing old guard. So regardless of on the park merits of any of these guys the fact that they are no longer here means there can be no more disruption between them and the Vlad. In short those that are left are Vlads boys, if not they are gone.
This guy though, can't even remember if that is his name, seemed so bad, so lacking in any kind of pedigree that i was convinced he would be a disaster to eclipse Malofeev. Coaching league teams in the Faroes for gods sake, get beat 15 - 0, 2 months in charge of Lithuania, it all sounded like Staneyburn Juniors to me and my theory was shot.
So although we are still in disarray, having one of our backroom guys instead seems much the lesser of two evils, Korabochka gets the job for a few weeks, until - he makes an arse of it a Valdas comes back in for the rest of the season.
Another rant :-
I have had it reading the comments section on the Scotsman online, have you ever tried it? There is a core of about 20 individuals who regular as the day is long comment on the articles presented by the paper. Its mental, i am mental for reading them but to be honest they are much more informative and entertaining than the articles themselves. Anyroads there are a bunch of Hibees who are so bereft of anything to read associated with their own team that they feel compelled to read articles about Hearts and then comment about it, obviously in the negative. This rant is dedicated to those sad little individuals.
Right now and for the record i am going to dispel the myth, all the speculation that has surrounded the club shall be laid to rest. All the lies, half truths and exaggerations i am going to cast in stony grey granite fact. The most outrageous of outlandish claims to emanate from the Scottish sporting media concerning the team it's past, present and future merits, i will bring back to earth. I will staple them to the deck with a huge great restraining bolt to keep them down here so we can all see the reality of the situation safe from floating around in a fantastic, nightmarish dream. The spectrum of opinion shall be aggregated and integrated so that we can know the truth because that's what counts and here it is -
Hibs are NOT the flair team!
They just aren't and they are not the custodians of the beautiful game in Scotland, neither are they particularly young or particularly Scottish. Right now they are a bit crap actually, about the only thing they have a flair for is playing crap keepers.
Rant over.
Those of you who have read much of this blog will know that my relationship with Hibs is maybe not the norm for a Jambo, normally i prefer to see them win against the gruesome twosome for instance and i genuinely support them on the odd occasion when they play in Europe. By way of confession then i have to say i wanted Rangers to win against Hibs at the weekend, right now i wish i had had the confidence to think they other way round. Basically i feared Hibs catching Hearts more than i felt confident that Hearts could catch Rangers and steal 2nd place.
You are right i should be flogged for that treason.
The game
Away to Motherwell, last time Hearts were there we were at a low ebb and really really needed the confidence of a win, we managed it and it helped us to stumble along for another few weeks. We needed the same again, this time though to keep the pressure on Aberdeen and a distant Rangers and to put distance between ourselves and the above not so wondrous green Brazil.
There are times when you watch football that all you see is activity in front of you, no focus or direction or even apparent aim, just activity lots of it. To be honest most of the pointless activity was coming from Motherwell. But then just every now and then something clicks, a fleeting touch of quality, the opportunity arises and is dispatched. Exhilarating for a split second and then we are back in our seats and back to the whirling jig.
It's like this movie here, taken at Chambers St museum at the weekend, you have no idea what this is, it is all just whirling activity until all of a sudden the strobe light is switched on and it all makes sense, for a bit.
The person with his finger on the strobe switch was once again Larry Kingston, fast becoming the main man for the Jambos.
His near post corner midway through the first half was met by Tall for the opening goal. This was eclipsed by his effort in the second half to finish the game. Somehow he found himself on the right wing, scampered down to the byeline and crossed a peach to the front post where Elliott was screaming in. The header came from the defender but such was the cross and the pressure from Elliott the ball crashed into the net.
Could have been very different, earlier in the first half, Motherwell could have taken the lead when their striker was straight through on goal, he chose (wrongly) to try to round Gordon but under pressure overran the byeline.
Other than that this game was completely forgettable. To sum it up Hearts did to Motherwell what others have been doing to Hearts all season at Tynecastle, mugged!
Much more interesting is where this leaves things.
8 points ahead of Hibs, open water really.
Level on points with Aberdeen who we play at Pittodrie at the weekend
Rangers away to Celtic the same weekend
With maximum points from a Hearts perspective and spring in the air the chase for 2nd place could be well and truly on by Sunday afternoon.
HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
Sunday, February 25, 2007
ooo-be-doo
No game to report on this week, as Hearts were dumped out of the Scottish Cup by Dunfermline a few weeks back.
The only thing to talk about this week then is vlad's continuing rant ravaged war with the Scottish sporting media.
Vlad posted another certifiably insane haver on the Hearts official website on Thursday.
This time round i am actually getting a bit worried for his sanity, i mean really i am.
Here is the transcript from the Hearts website :-
Haver
It is futile to attempt to pick some sense out of this wondrous tirade of complexities, red herrings and trawler following seagulls.
References to Mowgli here, from The Jungle Book?
It is confused ofcourse but is Mowgli the Scottish public who Vlad seems to think are childlike in some way! requiring of some teaching. I think i am a bit insulted by this.
I guess it is common for the clinically bonkers to harbour a superiority complex. Some of this reads as if it were the thoughts of Chairman Moa TseTung, to be gratefully consumed on a daily basis by the mass proletariat at the start of each glorious working day. From the wests perspective it did appear as though the old communist block treated it's people as children to be taught and controlled as such. Is this what he thinks of us lowly punters? Are you insulted by this?
Back to Mowgli, King of the Swingers thats what i read out of this, that song from The Jungle Book, here it is here ...
Mowgli here represents the Scottish football watching public ( children ), and the Orangutang here is the Media or perhaps the Old Firm, confusing and corrupting poor Mowgli in order to acheive some self serving agenda. Obvious flaws in all of this - Orangutangs are apes not monkeys for a kick off but hey in the land of the stark raving space cadets we can let that one slide.
Who then is Vlad, is he Baloo? the noble bear ( obvious Russian connections there ) coming to Mowgli's rescue. Or is he the black panther here, who knows. May be that Baloo is Steven Pressley who in this scene is caste under the spell of the mischevious Ape and his devil music, the Jazz.
My head hurts.
I thought of hunting through You Tube for a clip to represent "the woman who gives herself without love" but hey this is a family blog!
On the upside it looks like Tom Pontin's crusade against the deal which will allow Hearts to purchase the necessary land to build the new stand has failed. Obviously we are all delighted about that. This stupid, pathetic, narrow minded, short sighted little man and his crusade for notoriety should be ignored as soon as possible.
The only thing to talk about this week then is vlad's continuing rant ravaged war with the Scottish sporting media.
Vlad posted another certifiably insane haver on the Hearts official website on Thursday.
This time round i am actually getting a bit worried for his sanity, i mean really i am.
Here is the transcript from the Hearts website :-
Haver
It is futile to attempt to pick some sense out of this wondrous tirade of complexities, red herrings and trawler following seagulls.
References to Mowgli here, from The Jungle Book?
It is confused ofcourse but is Mowgli the Scottish public who Vlad seems to think are childlike in some way! requiring of some teaching. I think i am a bit insulted by this.
I guess it is common for the clinically bonkers to harbour a superiority complex. Some of this reads as if it were the thoughts of Chairman Moa TseTung, to be gratefully consumed on a daily basis by the mass proletariat at the start of each glorious working day. From the wests perspective it did appear as though the old communist block treated it's people as children to be taught and controlled as such. Is this what he thinks of us lowly punters? Are you insulted by this?
Back to Mowgli, King of the Swingers thats what i read out of this, that song from The Jungle Book, here it is here ...
Mowgli here represents the Scottish football watching public ( children ), and the Orangutang here is the Media or perhaps the Old Firm, confusing and corrupting poor Mowgli in order to acheive some self serving agenda. Obvious flaws in all of this - Orangutangs are apes not monkeys for a kick off but hey in the land of the stark raving space cadets we can let that one slide.
Who then is Vlad, is he Baloo? the noble bear ( obvious Russian connections there ) coming to Mowgli's rescue. Or is he the black panther here, who knows. May be that Baloo is Steven Pressley who in this scene is caste under the spell of the mischevious Ape and his devil music, the Jazz.
My head hurts.
I thought of hunting through You Tube for a clip to represent "the woman who gives herself without love" but hey this is a family blog!
On the upside it looks like Tom Pontin's crusade against the deal which will allow Hearts to purchase the necessary land to build the new stand has failed. Obviously we are all delighted about that. This stupid, pathetic, narrow minded, short sighted little man and his crusade for notoriety should be ignored as soon as possible.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
In the land of the blind, Larry is King
This week served up another predictable tragi-drama from Romanov's big top circus, opera house and pantomime pantaloons.
This week i am sick of it, can't take much more.
Everything about it is just waring me down.
This culminated in my experience at Tynecastle yesterday - this game was the most annoying & frustrating, badly scripted, amateurishly directed and poorly acted dross i have witnessed all season - it probably wasn't but that's how it felt, i was in a stinking mood by the time the game was over.
I spent a load of the game venting vitriol at variety of victims, my language and general demeanor not for me to be proud off. Why do we do it to ourselves!
Breath in ... and rest.
Vladimir Romanov has once again plunged himself and the club into disarray and ignominy with his paranoid ravings, which appear to this time be full on - libellous. Essentially Vlad has stated in an interview to Russian sports magazine Futbal that the old firm are in some way corrupting Scottish Football, players and referees.
Here is a bit of the translated transcript -
Q. When you took over you declared that Hearts would in a few months be mounting a real challenge to Rangers and Celtic and would be battling for the title. Nobody took you seriously then but you soon returned the club to long forgotten heights. What was the secret of your success?
A. Celtic and Rangers? Even Kaunas are a match for them on the pitch. The thing is they've turned football into a type of show business with their underhand games. They buy off players and referees. When it comes to weaker teams then nobody can help but if two opponents are equally matched, then the referees can have a real influence on the outcome.
Seems pretty conclusive to me, if this is a legitimate translation ( Vlad in an official statement on Hearts web site has back tracked from this) Vlad has accused both Rangers and Celtic of 'buying off' referees.
Given what has gone on in Italy at the end of last season, what it has cost some of the clubs over there. This must be dealt with seriously, will it? i don't think so. Half of me wants one or both of the gruesome twosome to take it as far as they can, drive a legal stake into the heart of Vlad and his death grip on our club. The other half is petrified that the 'camel that breaks the straws back' may well be that long drawn out and acrimonious legal battle. Vlad gives up and walks away.
There are some other statements from the interview that do read like an exit strategy is being sought -
Q. Things have got that bad in Britain?
A. That's not the word for it. I went there with the hope that I'd be able to avoid all the dirty stuff that we've all grown used to here. I thought that there everything was clean, ideal, (that I would be dealing) with gentlemen. But it turned out that there everything is even worse.
Q. Worse than here?
A. Yes, by some way.
Q. In what way is that visible?
A. They have a different mentality. A different culture, or to be more precise, lack of culture. What do I mean by that? Here, for example, I can say to German (Tkachenko, the Russian football magnate who runs the agency that represents players such as Laryea Kingston and who was sitting next to him during the interview): 'Why are you trying to deceive me?' (German Tkachenko interjects: 'And I would feel ashamed'.) A And he would feel ashamed. But if I say that to a British person, they give you an innocent look and say, 'Me? Deceive you? I'll see you in court!' That's the difference.What we would call base behaviour is the norm for them. It's normal for them to betray one's own club and conduct talks with another club behind their back or not to give their team everything on the pitch because someone has seduced them by waving the shirt of another club at them.But fans there deserve something much more. They are not like the tiffosi in Italy. British supporters are well-versed, they understand everything, they live for football. But they are being served up a rotten product, even if it is well packaged.
A couple of thoughts here, Vlad has always had it in for untrustworthy agents, a lot of his actions and over-reactions over his time here has i believe been caused by players and agents not playing the game Vlad's way. It is pretty clear that Vlad also feels the same way about players who also do not play the game exactly as he sees it. Any decent is taken as a betrayal, a personal betrayal to be dealt with, with utmost severity.
Pretty clear that it is Vlad's way or it is the highway.
Vlad came here because he wanted an even playing field where everyone adhered to his view of how football business should be conducted. He can't get that in Russia/Lithuania which is why he came here, now he seems convinced that it is worse here?? Where else can he go, how about South America bet it is nice and clean and tidy over there. I am not so sure that this is an indication of the exit strategy being sought. But i do think the exit may seek him out much quicker than he expects. All i will say about Vlad and his apparent madness is that, behind all of this is a long term goal. That goal being to get a foothold over here for his bank UKIO-BANKAS, and to expand that business. This dwarfs any ripple caused by his ownership of this football club. He owns this club in order to grease the wheels toward that goal. Vlad has and is however making so many mistakes that that goal is looking further away by the hour. Right this moment in time how many people do you think would open an account at the George St branch of UKIO-BANKAS A failed bank venture would surely see him go as cold as ice to Hearts, Edinburgh and Scotland. For an awful lot of people that would be good riddance and bugger the consequences.
One of the most disappointing aspects of all of this is the divisions it is building into the Hearts support. The talk shows and web sites are crammed full of anti Vlad versus pro Vlad battles, everyone is entitled to their opinion obviously but lately it reminds me of that scene in 'Life of Brian' where Brian thinks that he and the rest of The Peoples Popular Front of Judia are about to strike a blow against the oppressive Romans only to discover that they are happier to battle it out with their mortal enemy The Judian Popular Peoples Front.
Seems to me that some people spend their entire lives in perpetual disgust at their clubs chairman and board, like it is their job or something. I just can't be arsed with that.
Where do i stand on all of this?
I hate the term 'Romanov apologist', mostly bandied around by the above malcontents.
I do not apologise for Romanov, he has made a hundred thousand mistakes in the last 2 years. He is most probably President of the United Wards of BonkersVille!
But here is what i believe right now, having sumpt up all the lines which are to to be read between, over the piece -
I believe, the new stand and the building of it remains the acid test of his intentions for our club.
I believe, Hearts will be a better team next season than we are this season.
Is anything else required really, think i have nailed my colours to the mast there. I remain a supporter of the Romanov revolution, with all the baggage that entails. However failure of either of those statements for me will be the tipping point from support to rejection.
It all started so well as well. An absolutely beautiful day in Edinburgh for the visit of St Mirren. We are all no doubt aware of the all too obvious effects ( beneficial? ) of global warming. As i sat awaiting the kick off i was struck with the idea that the day felt like April in every way but the aroma of spring bloom. I was a bit surprised that the Hearts support were in much finer fettle than last week, galvanised once again by the knowledge that we are the most hated and ridiculed team in the history of evil and stupid teams. A snappy rendition of The Monkeys self titled anthem set and lightened the scene.
The first seeds of disgruntlement in my gut was as the team was announced, we were playing Neil McCann in the middle with Laryea Kingston. That pairing against St Mirren just wouldn't cut it for me. They are a nasty team who play the game on the edge of a foul, Larry needed more than just Nelly in there with him especially given they would no doubt play 5 across the middle. Why not Brellier in there protecting Larry and the back 4.
Another rant - St Mirren drive me nuts, i hate playing against them, is it just me? They have honed to a fine art the ability to nudge their mark just a tiny bit just a split second before the aerial challenge, just enough to make the edge but not enough for a foul. They are experts at it, all of them, the whole game yesterday. Drove me to distraction.
Another rant - During this game the referee MacDonald seemed to experiment with a new interpretation of the rules. That rule which states that obstruction is a foul unless you are the defender and you are attempting to shepherd the ball over your own byeline. For the whole game he modified this rule so that it became obstruction is a foul unless you are the defender and you are attempting to shepherd the ball over your own bye line OR you are a Hearts player!
Drove me to distraction.
Another rant - If that little bugger McCann fann*es about with the ball again when he is last man 20 yards out with nobody near him other than the opposing forward bearing down on him, i swear i will walk on the park and hoof the ball up field myself. Anyone who was at the game will know what i mean.
Drove me absolutely mental.
Hearts started the game pretty well, the crowd were happy and expecting, Larry played some good passes over the top out to Driver on the left wing, driver making good progress and getting the crosses in. Best effort in the early stages was a 30 yard raking volley hit perfectly by Velicka, the keeper doing really well to tip over.
The StMirren goal then came against the run of play then? For the most part, however a couple of moments before it came a very similar opening appeared for them. Worryingly a clipped ball onto the penalty spot from deep allowed their forward in on goal with not a centre half in sight. I had been growing in my confidence of the Berra/Zaliukas partnership but that was a shocker. He took it really well tho so can't take anything away from him.
That was it, even if we are not the most hated and ridiculed team in the history of evil and stupid teams, we are about the most frail.
Hearts spent the rest of the game chasing their tails with no leadership, or coherence.
Grudging respect to St Mirren i guess, their game plan paid off and they stuck to their task well, competed for everything blah, blah.
It is just as well we have uncovered a potential gem in Larry Kingston ( this goes part of the way to my belief that we will be a better team next season, another couple of players of his ilk and things could start to cook once again ).
Some media pundit mentioned in today's press that whilst Larry had a decent game he was in no way a replacement for Paul Hartley, that pundit has not been to Tynecastle much in the first half of this season! I dare say Hartley will get a new lease of life now that he is at his beloved Celtic.
Hearts goal came from a dubious free kick ( i don't believe the corruption or bias jibe i just think the ref is an idiot ) 20 yards out on the right side of the box. Expertly lofted over the wall and into the far corner. Thank Christ for that.
This week i am sick of it, can't take much more.
Everything about it is just waring me down.
This culminated in my experience at Tynecastle yesterday - this game was the most annoying & frustrating, badly scripted, amateurishly directed and poorly acted dross i have witnessed all season - it probably wasn't but that's how it felt, i was in a stinking mood by the time the game was over.
I spent a load of the game venting vitriol at variety of victims, my language and general demeanor not for me to be proud off. Why do we do it to ourselves!
Breath in ... and rest.
Vladimir Romanov has once again plunged himself and the club into disarray and ignominy with his paranoid ravings, which appear to this time be full on - libellous. Essentially Vlad has stated in an interview to Russian sports magazine Futbal that the old firm are in some way corrupting Scottish Football, players and referees.
Here is a bit of the translated transcript -
Q. When you took over you declared that Hearts would in a few months be mounting a real challenge to Rangers and Celtic and would be battling for the title. Nobody took you seriously then but you soon returned the club to long forgotten heights. What was the secret of your success?
A. Celtic and Rangers? Even Kaunas are a match for them on the pitch. The thing is they've turned football into a type of show business with their underhand games. They buy off players and referees. When it comes to weaker teams then nobody can help but if two opponents are equally matched, then the referees can have a real influence on the outcome.
Seems pretty conclusive to me, if this is a legitimate translation ( Vlad in an official statement on Hearts web site has back tracked from this) Vlad has accused both Rangers and Celtic of 'buying off' referees.
Given what has gone on in Italy at the end of last season, what it has cost some of the clubs over there. This must be dealt with seriously, will it? i don't think so. Half of me wants one or both of the gruesome twosome to take it as far as they can, drive a legal stake into the heart of Vlad and his death grip on our club. The other half is petrified that the 'camel that breaks the straws back' may well be that long drawn out and acrimonious legal battle. Vlad gives up and walks away.
There are some other statements from the interview that do read like an exit strategy is being sought -
Q. Things have got that bad in Britain?
A. That's not the word for it. I went there with the hope that I'd be able to avoid all the dirty stuff that we've all grown used to here. I thought that there everything was clean, ideal, (that I would be dealing) with gentlemen. But it turned out that there everything is even worse.
Q. Worse than here?
A. Yes, by some way.
Q. In what way is that visible?
A. They have a different mentality. A different culture, or to be more precise, lack of culture. What do I mean by that? Here, for example, I can say to German (Tkachenko, the Russian football magnate who runs the agency that represents players such as Laryea Kingston and who was sitting next to him during the interview): 'Why are you trying to deceive me?' (German Tkachenko interjects: 'And I would feel ashamed'.) A And he would feel ashamed. But if I say that to a British person, they give you an innocent look and say, 'Me? Deceive you? I'll see you in court!' That's the difference.What we would call base behaviour is the norm for them. It's normal for them to betray one's own club and conduct talks with another club behind their back or not to give their team everything on the pitch because someone has seduced them by waving the shirt of another club at them.But fans there deserve something much more. They are not like the tiffosi in Italy. British supporters are well-versed, they understand everything, they live for football. But they are being served up a rotten product, even if it is well packaged.
A couple of thoughts here, Vlad has always had it in for untrustworthy agents, a lot of his actions and over-reactions over his time here has i believe been caused by players and agents not playing the game Vlad's way. It is pretty clear that Vlad also feels the same way about players who also do not play the game exactly as he sees it. Any decent is taken as a betrayal, a personal betrayal to be dealt with, with utmost severity.
Pretty clear that it is Vlad's way or it is the highway.
Vlad came here because he wanted an even playing field where everyone adhered to his view of how football business should be conducted. He can't get that in Russia/Lithuania which is why he came here, now he seems convinced that it is worse here?? Where else can he go, how about South America bet it is nice and clean and tidy over there. I am not so sure that this is an indication of the exit strategy being sought. But i do think the exit may seek him out much quicker than he expects. All i will say about Vlad and his apparent madness is that, behind all of this is a long term goal. That goal being to get a foothold over here for his bank UKIO-BANKAS, and to expand that business. This dwarfs any ripple caused by his ownership of this football club. He owns this club in order to grease the wheels toward that goal. Vlad has and is however making so many mistakes that that goal is looking further away by the hour. Right this moment in time how many people do you think would open an account at the George St branch of UKIO-BANKAS A failed bank venture would surely see him go as cold as ice to Hearts, Edinburgh and Scotland. For an awful lot of people that would be good riddance and bugger the consequences.
One of the most disappointing aspects of all of this is the divisions it is building into the Hearts support. The talk shows and web sites are crammed full of anti Vlad versus pro Vlad battles, everyone is entitled to their opinion obviously but lately it reminds me of that scene in 'Life of Brian' where Brian thinks that he and the rest of The Peoples Popular Front of Judia are about to strike a blow against the oppressive Romans only to discover that they are happier to battle it out with their mortal enemy The Judian Popular Peoples Front.
Seems to me that some people spend their entire lives in perpetual disgust at their clubs chairman and board, like it is their job or something. I just can't be arsed with that.
Where do i stand on all of this?
I hate the term 'Romanov apologist', mostly bandied around by the above malcontents.
I do not apologise for Romanov, he has made a hundred thousand mistakes in the last 2 years. He is most probably President of the United Wards of BonkersVille!
But here is what i believe right now, having sumpt up all the lines which are to to be read between, over the piece -
I believe, the new stand and the building of it remains the acid test of his intentions for our club.
I believe, Hearts will be a better team next season than we are this season.
Is anything else required really, think i have nailed my colours to the mast there. I remain a supporter of the Romanov revolution, with all the baggage that entails. However failure of either of those statements for me will be the tipping point from support to rejection.
It all started so well as well. An absolutely beautiful day in Edinburgh for the visit of St Mirren. We are all no doubt aware of the all too obvious effects ( beneficial? ) of global warming. As i sat awaiting the kick off i was struck with the idea that the day felt like April in every way but the aroma of spring bloom. I was a bit surprised that the Hearts support were in much finer fettle than last week, galvanised once again by the knowledge that we are the most hated and ridiculed team in the history of evil and stupid teams. A snappy rendition of The Monkeys self titled anthem set and lightened the scene.
The first seeds of disgruntlement in my gut was as the team was announced, we were playing Neil McCann in the middle with Laryea Kingston. That pairing against St Mirren just wouldn't cut it for me. They are a nasty team who play the game on the edge of a foul, Larry needed more than just Nelly in there with him especially given they would no doubt play 5 across the middle. Why not Brellier in there protecting Larry and the back 4.
Another rant - St Mirren drive me nuts, i hate playing against them, is it just me? They have honed to a fine art the ability to nudge their mark just a tiny bit just a split second before the aerial challenge, just enough to make the edge but not enough for a foul. They are experts at it, all of them, the whole game yesterday. Drove me to distraction.
Another rant - During this game the referee MacDonald seemed to experiment with a new interpretation of the rules. That rule which states that obstruction is a foul unless you are the defender and you are attempting to shepherd the ball over your own byeline. For the whole game he modified this rule so that it became obstruction is a foul unless you are the defender and you are attempting to shepherd the ball over your own bye line OR you are a Hearts player!
Drove me to distraction.
Another rant - If that little bugger McCann fann*es about with the ball again when he is last man 20 yards out with nobody near him other than the opposing forward bearing down on him, i swear i will walk on the park and hoof the ball up field myself. Anyone who was at the game will know what i mean.
Drove me absolutely mental.
Hearts started the game pretty well, the crowd were happy and expecting, Larry played some good passes over the top out to Driver on the left wing, driver making good progress and getting the crosses in. Best effort in the early stages was a 30 yard raking volley hit perfectly by Velicka, the keeper doing really well to tip over.
The StMirren goal then came against the run of play then? For the most part, however a couple of moments before it came a very similar opening appeared for them. Worryingly a clipped ball onto the penalty spot from deep allowed their forward in on goal with not a centre half in sight. I had been growing in my confidence of the Berra/Zaliukas partnership but that was a shocker. He took it really well tho so can't take anything away from him.
That was it, even if we are not the most hated and ridiculed team in the history of evil and stupid teams, we are about the most frail.
Hearts spent the rest of the game chasing their tails with no leadership, or coherence.
Grudging respect to St Mirren i guess, their game plan paid off and they stuck to their task well, competed for everything blah, blah.
It is just as well we have uncovered a potential gem in Larry Kingston ( this goes part of the way to my belief that we will be a better team next season, another couple of players of his ilk and things could start to cook once again ).
Some media pundit mentioned in today's press that whilst Larry had a decent game he was in no way a replacement for Paul Hartley, that pundit has not been to Tynecastle much in the first half of this season! I dare say Hartley will get a new lease of life now that he is at his beloved Celtic.
Hearts goal came from a dubious free kick ( i don't believe the corruption or bias jibe i just think the ref is an idiot ) 20 yards out on the right side of the box. Expertly lofted over the wall and into the far corner. Thank Christ for that.
Vlad responded to the trouble he had gotten himself in, by releasing a statement on the club website. In the statement he stated that 'thank God he had not come across any conspiracies' in this country - an open reversal of his reported statements to the Russian mag.
Just couldn't help himself though, if there is one thing Vlad hates more than dodgy agents and mutinous players it is the media. Here is how Vlad visualises the Scottish media..
Rip Ding WOOOO
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Breaking all the rules
It was a troubled week for Hearts on the run up to the game against Inverness Caledonian Thistle. This was mostly down to the statement regarding the debt that the club now finds itself in - a monstrous figure of £28.4M huge scary number i am sure you will agree.
The general feeling of depression was not helped by the dismal exit from the Scottish Cup to Dunfermline last weekend.
I am no financial guru and that's a fact, all i can see at the moment is that the people who own the club are the people who are paying the interest on the debt to the people who own the club - so right now Vladimir Romanov is taking money out of one pocket and putting it in the other and in doing so some numbers are moved around on various company accounts - HMFC & UKIO Bankas
The only beneficiaries would seem to be the players in our vastly over inflated first team squad, who are picking up their weekly thousands whilst getting no where near the first team. Surely Hearts will have a drastic cull at the end of this season?
That is at present to the detriment of HMFC a detriment that will have a cataclysmic effect when and only when
The general feeling of depression was not helped by the dismal exit from the Scottish Cup to Dunfermline last weekend.
I am no financial guru and that's a fact, all i can see at the moment is that the people who own the club are the people who are paying the interest on the debt to the people who own the club - so right now Vladimir Romanov is taking money out of one pocket and putting it in the other and in doing so some numbers are moved around on various company accounts - HMFC & UKIO Bankas
The only beneficiaries would seem to be the players in our vastly over inflated first team squad, who are picking up their weekly thousands whilst getting no where near the first team. Surely Hearts will have a drastic cull at the end of this season?
That is at present to the detriment of HMFC a detriment that will have a cataclysmic effect when and only when
- Romanov ceases to be Sugar Daddy (gets bored or decides he can't do it with provincial Hearts and moves for a bigger club at which point Hearts become Kaunas #2 ) or
- HMFC finances become so outrageous that it puts UKIO Bankas in danger and Vlad gets toppled from his position there, or
- Romanov empire collapses due to any myriad of financial dodgy dealings ( stress here that none are known this is pure speculation ) Romanov is jailed.
- Some bigger bank simply buys UKIO Bankas, the tap is switched off and the debt called in.
At this moment as has been at all moments in the last couple of years the outcome for HMFC is as clear as tar. Most likely for me is number 4 here, given that big banks buy small banks all the time. We all know that the Romanov era will end at some point, sooner or later. The evidence ( announced debt ) and media comment from this week all indicate, suggest and warn that the Romanov era will end at best with HMFC in a worse position than when he took over and at worst mortally wounded.
The only comment i have on that is - Heart of Midlothian Football Club were mortally wounded when he ( Romanov ) took the reigns it would be almost impossible for him to leave us in a worse state. Going bankrupt £20M in debt is as far as i can see is no different from going bankrupt £100M in debt. Like i say i am no financial mind so comments on that statement are more than welcome. All would be lost under either scenario.
Where would we be right now if he had not taken over, most likely scenario is ...
In administration, playing St Johnstone at Murrayfield in front of 4,000 die hard supporters.
Regardless of how crazy he is he is still very much our saviour, even if in 5 years the scenario above is exactly where we are.
The continuing Craig Gordon saga has also served to depress the Tynecastle faithful, our greatest on field asset and in many ways only remaining favourite son appears now to be banished from the team for good. He will be sold in the summer and if we see him in a Hearts jersey before then we will be surprised. It is just as well that Stevie Banks is a decent keeper or the depression would be bubbling in to the manic for a lot of us Jambos. Stevie Banks is a decent keeper, better than decent in fact and i have no concerns about him taking up the mantle as 1st choice #1 what bothers me is the waste of Craig Gordon for all concerned.
Hopefully the game at Tynecastle yesterday was the conclusion to our depression and not some marker on a continuing decent into the abyss. For many reasons it was certainly a marker, all Jambos online were were sent e-mails from the club informing them that there were tickets left ( so hurry up and pick them up ) for the game. This is the first time the club has had to do this since the start of the 2005 - 06 season and indeed the game was the first non home gate sell out since then. A clear indication of the faithfuls disgruntlement. The atmosphere was subdued and tetchy, not helped by the 300 or so ICT fans who themselves seemed bored and depressed. Their favourite jibe was the obvious twisting of the Hibs favourite .. "Vladimir Romanov, he s**ks Paul Hartley off" into "Vladimir Romanov, he f**ked Paul Hartley off".
The atmosphere on the run up to the kick off was further dishevelled ( correct me if i am wrong because i was not in a good position to be certain ) by the unveiling of the huge Hearts jersey that had previously been unfurled down the height of the Wheatfield Stand, this time directly over my head down the centre of the Gorgie Stand. We all became aware that the bloody thing was upside down!
To keep with the upside down theme then i will summarise the game before i get into the nitty gritty. So if you are already bored with this blog entry you can just read the next paragraph and be done with it -
My parting comment as we split to take our seats in the stand before kick off was "We better put in a performance or it is going to feel cold out there today" by the end of the game i was bloody freezing!
Banks was called into action early in the game, the first ICT attack in fact, a throw in from the right was flicked on and landed for Graham Bayne to knock goal ward, a little awkward to take and the effort was a tad weak but a good save from Banks nonetheless. Once again for all of Hearts mighty big squad, a couple of injuries and we struggled badly for cover - no Bruno Aguair or Salius Mikoliunas and Hearts had to re-invent Callum Elliot as a right midfielder and play with Julien Brellier and Laryea Kingston in the centre. Looked to me as though Kingston and Brellier are too similar and a combination of Kingston or Brellier with Aguair may be a better blend. Not too surprising then that the team had a makeshift feel to it however we seemed to play the ball on the deck more than we have done of late, not that that would be too difficult. Driver playing left midfield had the beating of the ICT defence every time until they realised the threat and started to double up on him. This is a good sign but one which we need to recognise and use to our advantage. If they need to double up on the flanks we should be able to move the ball around with a bit more freedom deeper infield looking for that telling pass, a bit of patience maybe required. Lets face it though Hearts are quite far away from a patient, probing outfit with excellent ball retention capabilities.
Arkadiusz Klimek started the game quite well, with a 25 yard shot always rising but a decent effort nonetheless and a neat back heel to put Jankauskas through on goal. As the game progressed however a decent start turned into a dismal conclusion. The Hearts support had decided fairly quickly that anything less than brilliant by any of the new players was to be vilified immediately. A bit unfair i thought bu Klimek did not help himself really, a good move playing him through from midfield early in the second half wasted by him with a ludicrous scoop to the back post when a cut back to Kingston screaming towards the penalty spot was a much better option. Lack of fitness may have crept in but from that point on Klimek struggled with the basics required to make any impact on the game.
Edgaras Jankauskas on the other hand started the game badly and just got worse, he seemed to be penalised every time the ball went near him, can't all have been victimisation. The neat back heel from Klimek was wasted by Jankauskas as he tried to fend of the defender ( fouling him in the process ) rather than just having a shot at goal. Jankauskas is looking more like a waste of space every time he trots on to the park and at a time when our finances are under a great deal of scrutiny he can be seen as nothing more than an unnecessary drain on the club.
Focus on Laryea ( Larry ) Kingston.
Bonkers hair cut.
On the whole i was pretty encouraged by his performance. He played some really good balls through to the front players both on the ground and over the top. He played the ball into the box early when he got the opportunity, this is something we have missed badly and something Miko should take note of. Larry looked as though he wanted a split second longer on the ball than he was being allowed, caught in possession a couple of times and forced into a pass he didn't want to do a couple of others. Just seemed like the fabled pace of the British game and something i am sure he will adapt to. Most telling really that when Larry got moved out to the right of midfield when Elliot ( out of position and having a 2nd half shocker ) was replaced by Eggert Johanson, the midfield lost a lot and crosses started coming in from the right. On the whole a good home debut. About the only thing i can see that can go wrong with Larry's Tynecastle career would be if our rotation policy just p*sses him off and he switches off.
ICT had forced a good few corners and they always looked quite dangerous although that seemed to be more down to our back four than their attack. No idea how Hearts have managed so many clean sheets of late but if it keeps up it is a statistic that will soon start to count big time. Banks also came to our rescue a couple of times especially in the fist half, this concluded in turning a ball round the post that deceptively swirled towards the bottom right corner.
Hearts were frustrated that they just couldn't get a stranglehold on the game and it seemed all to easy for ICT to break things up in midfield. Hearts then had to settle with playing well in elusive flashes throughout the first half and most of the second. However those flashes were pretty good when they came mostly coming from Driver and or Kingston or when Fyassas ventured forward. Our biggest problem was a completely ineffectual front two, this has been a problem all season and if you think about it last season as well ( remember the vast majority of Hearts goals came from midfield last year, that well has run dry ). For all our multitude of strikers we look toothless up there. Bednar came on for Jankauskas and looked a bit livelier, Kingston put him through but he just couldn't get enough behind it to beat the keeper. He then succeedded in twisting himself in knots on the left wing before dropping out of the game for good.
Michael Pospisil then came on for the by then dejected looking Klimek and with his first touch of the ball settled our nerves and the game. Driver on the left once again covered by 2 or 3 ICT players could not make for the byline so he cut inside and knocked a back post cross in with his right. Pospisil rose at the back post to head the ball back across the keeper and into the net for a text book finish. So that is how easy it is. A fairly grudging roar of relief from the crowd was as good as the goal received. The Hearts support remain unconvinced and nervous by the goings on of the last few weeks.
Another home game next week, another win and an improved performance, as spring is looms around the corner, is a must if HMFC and their supporters are to get the spring back in their step.
HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
Monday, February 05, 2007
Obesity
This is going to be a struggle isn't it.
Here goes.
I did not catch much of the game at Dunfermline on Saturday. This was largely down to this weekend being one of those big 6 nations days where my interest and loyalties are always stretched and divided.
It was a bad weekend for sport all round then, this is how it panned out.
I did make some effort to catch the cup game against Dunfermline on the radio, but i could only get coverage online and i had stuff i had to be doing so i had to keep moving around and couldn't keep track on the proceedings - either that or the game in the first half was so diabolical that my brain rejected the coverage.
At 4 the rugby started and my attention was diverted to the TV. After an initial pounding by England which we seemed to have weathered without losing too much, Scotland took the lead. Short lived, very short lived and for the rest of the first half Scotland hung on valiantly.
Every now and then during this first half i would be checking the score in the Hearts game, a not totally unsurprising 0 - 0 each time i checked.
Pretty soon into the second half it became blatantly obvious that Scotland were going to get beat in this game, so my interest switched to the Hearts result, back to the radio to pick the bones out of the the nil - nil. Within seconds of switching on the radio it is clear that nil - nil was not the result and Hearts had taken a sore 1 - 0 defeat, a goal 4 minutes into injury time.
Disgusted i switched the radio off and back to the TV.
Within a couple of minutes it was clear that Scotland were on for a bit of a tanking from Jonny boy Wilkinson and the rest of the auld enemy. Disgusted i switched the telly off and turned back to the radio.
By now i am pretty disconsolate, the sporting weekend is shot.
The radio is turned back on just in time for me to hear Valdas Ivanauskas's post match interview on Radio Scotland.
Incredulous as well as totally disgusted the radio was switched off for good.
If you did not hear the interview it was awful a disgrace to our club really.
There is no excuse, no cultural or language barrier can excuse Valdas's complete lack of acceptance of any blame ( him, his tactics or the players ) for the fact that we had just been dumped out of the cup.
All he could come up with when pressed for 'Valdas what went wrong?'
was
'some pe er peepl they think arts is a a dive arts is a diving club, is not goot for arts, er Roman'
For the above nonsense read - Hearts are again victimised by everyone on the planet it is really not our fault, toys oot the pram.
I did not listen to the whole of the interview i was so totally p'd off by his attitude that i walked away in ...... you guest it in disgust!
I am floundering whilst i write this, i can't get the words out to express just how f**k*ng angry that b*ll*cks made me.
That quite simply is just not good enough, Valdas needs to be in a position where you can explain what went wrong and what went right, with some semblance of logic and dignity, respect and decorum.
Feels to me like the season is toast and in a way i am glad all this sh*te has been exhausting. Of course it is not, there are still games against Hibs and the rest of them to be negotiated and i guess there is a European place to be fought for - Celtic beat Hibs in the Scottish Cup Final to free up a UEFA cup spot for Hearts to take, that's about as good as it feels we can expect right now.
Right now it feels like we need to skulk into a corner and lick our wounds and to build some kind of team spirit out of the broken wheel we currently have. I would be happy just to see some evidence of that before the season ends.
The worst thing is it all seems so self inflicted, the latest episodes of Vlad's strategic and tactical self harming has sent many Hearts supporters over the edge ( again ). I am teetering i have to say.
Hartley sold to Celtic feels like Vlad is certifiable in his megalomania - It is as if he would rather see Hearts burst and finished as a football team than have us reach any level of success if means a decision of his is not followed to the letter.
So the Riccarton 3 go! Gordon currently ostracised and will go in the summer, would have went in January if anyone was really interested. That's fair enough if there is descent, no player is bigger than the club blah blah but Vlad's handling of the situation probably couldn't have been worse - i would not be surprised if Vlad ends up making an arse of things with Gordon such that we get next to b*gger all for him and his career is set back years. All this so Vlad can impose his obese ego on any deviation from the party line. Where is Vlad's mum, if she is still with us we should call her - maybe she can give him a clip round the ear, strap him back in his pram.
Talk today of takeover bids £45M from an Icelandic billionaire in consortium with some others, Scottish and middle eastern. £45m is pretty much the value of the land plus taking on the debt, does that mean it is a good deal?
Any roads apologies for this rubbish post but it is the best i can do under these adverse circumstances.
Come on now folks
HOOOO On The Jambos
Here goes.
I did not catch much of the game at Dunfermline on Saturday. This was largely down to this weekend being one of those big 6 nations days where my interest and loyalties are always stretched and divided.
It was a bad weekend for sport all round then, this is how it panned out.
I did make some effort to catch the cup game against Dunfermline on the radio, but i could only get coverage online and i had stuff i had to be doing so i had to keep moving around and couldn't keep track on the proceedings - either that or the game in the first half was so diabolical that my brain rejected the coverage.
At 4 the rugby started and my attention was diverted to the TV. After an initial pounding by England which we seemed to have weathered without losing too much, Scotland took the lead. Short lived, very short lived and for the rest of the first half Scotland hung on valiantly.
Every now and then during this first half i would be checking the score in the Hearts game, a not totally unsurprising 0 - 0 each time i checked.
Pretty soon into the second half it became blatantly obvious that Scotland were going to get beat in this game, so my interest switched to the Hearts result, back to the radio to pick the bones out of the the nil - nil. Within seconds of switching on the radio it is clear that nil - nil was not the result and Hearts had taken a sore 1 - 0 defeat, a goal 4 minutes into injury time.
Disgusted i switched the radio off and back to the TV.
Within a couple of minutes it was clear that Scotland were on for a bit of a tanking from Jonny boy Wilkinson and the rest of the auld enemy. Disgusted i switched the telly off and turned back to the radio.
By now i am pretty disconsolate, the sporting weekend is shot.
The radio is turned back on just in time for me to hear Valdas Ivanauskas's post match interview on Radio Scotland.
Incredulous as well as totally disgusted the radio was switched off for good.
If you did not hear the interview it was awful a disgrace to our club really.
There is no excuse, no cultural or language barrier can excuse Valdas's complete lack of acceptance of any blame ( him, his tactics or the players ) for the fact that we had just been dumped out of the cup.
All he could come up with when pressed for 'Valdas what went wrong?'
was
'some pe er peepl they think arts is a a dive arts is a diving club, is not goot for arts, er Roman'
For the above nonsense read - Hearts are again victimised by everyone on the planet it is really not our fault, toys oot the pram.
I did not listen to the whole of the interview i was so totally p'd off by his attitude that i walked away in ...... you guest it in disgust!
I am floundering whilst i write this, i can't get the words out to express just how f**k*ng angry that b*ll*cks made me.
That quite simply is just not good enough, Valdas needs to be in a position where you can explain what went wrong and what went right, with some semblance of logic and dignity, respect and decorum.
Feels to me like the season is toast and in a way i am glad all this sh*te has been exhausting. Of course it is not, there are still games against Hibs and the rest of them to be negotiated and i guess there is a European place to be fought for - Celtic beat Hibs in the Scottish Cup Final to free up a UEFA cup spot for Hearts to take, that's about as good as it feels we can expect right now.
Right now it feels like we need to skulk into a corner and lick our wounds and to build some kind of team spirit out of the broken wheel we currently have. I would be happy just to see some evidence of that before the season ends.
The worst thing is it all seems so self inflicted, the latest episodes of Vlad's strategic and tactical self harming has sent many Hearts supporters over the edge ( again ). I am teetering i have to say.
Hartley sold to Celtic feels like Vlad is certifiable in his megalomania - It is as if he would rather see Hearts burst and finished as a football team than have us reach any level of success if means a decision of his is not followed to the letter.
So the Riccarton 3 go! Gordon currently ostracised and will go in the summer, would have went in January if anyone was really interested. That's fair enough if there is descent, no player is bigger than the club blah blah but Vlad's handling of the situation probably couldn't have been worse - i would not be surprised if Vlad ends up making an arse of things with Gordon such that we get next to b*gger all for him and his career is set back years. All this so Vlad can impose his obese ego on any deviation from the party line. Where is Vlad's mum, if she is still with us we should call her - maybe she can give him a clip round the ear, strap him back in his pram.
Talk today of takeover bids £45M from an Icelandic billionaire in consortium with some others, Scottish and middle eastern. £45m is pretty much the value of the land plus taking on the debt, does that mean it is a good deal?
Any roads apologies for this rubbish post but it is the best i can do under these adverse circumstances.
Come on now folks
HOOOO On The Jambos
Sunday, January 28, 2007
The Vlad giveth and the Vlad taketh away
The last few weeks have been nothing but positivity and stability, all relative of course but none the less, positive and stable. Since the home defeat to Celtic, Hearts have been turning in fairly solid, completely uninspiring mind you but solid performances.
Clean sheets all the way! I for one will never argue with that, get your defence sorted out and solid and mean and the midfield/attack will feed from that - confidence in a solid defensive setup will lead to fluency and expression in midfield and the strikers will start banging them in. Well if you have got the players who can of course, the jury is out.
When i was a kid, Liverpool were my English team, no doubt seduced by the outrageous success, never going to get that from Hearts! Some time in the late eighties however i got bored with their machine like prowess and switched my allegiance to Arsenal. "1 nil to the Arsenal" suits me just fine when the need arises. I would be happy enough with 1 nil victories for Hearts between now and the end of the season, who of us would not?
The transfer window until very recently has been quietly positive, a couple of what look like decent signings coming in on the - now familiar 6 month loan first refusal on a longer contract if it works out. I wonder how many other teams adopt a similar signing policy, it is certainly not common in Scotland or as far as i can see the rest of the UK. From the word go, before the start of 2005 - 2006 season i saw this as a sensible even wily and astute policy. It strikes me that it is an almost zero risk means of bringing a number of new players into an inevitably volatile environment, selecting those who make it and dismissing those that don't with no real repercussions. This has worked for Hearts, with a good few players who have moved from the loan to the contract ( and those contracts tend to be long ) best example would be Roman Bednar. I would imagine Zaliukas, possibly Velicka will also move onto the longer term deal. Others who haven't made it are moved on, Tiago Costa etc.
Then came the long awaited and fantastic news that planning permission for the new 12,000 seater main stand has moved onto the next stage, with Hearts given permission to buy the required land to go ahead with the development.
We have waited a while now, this really has been the acid tests of Vlad's sincerity, his goals and ultimate plans and ambitions for our team. Back at the start of the season when things were once again going from frying pan to roundabout, Hearts made an official statement that plans for the new stand would be in by February. For me at least i have been accepting almost anything that has gone on at Tynecastle so long as that statement became reality. Close to the wire but this week saw us draw ever closer to the goal of a revamped Tynecastle park a home for our team for another 100 hundred years - i can't think of anything more important for the team.
One of the pics i have seen of what we may be looking forward to in a few years -
I don't hold with the argument that there is no point having a stadium if the team is crap, we will always be able to build a decent team and i am absolutely certain that we will have a better chance of realising our ambitions when we are playing in a stadium that lives up to those ambitions. This pic looks like the 30,000 seater stadium with the new stand and the corners filled in either side of the Roseburn stand. With a realistic head on that is where i would pitch my ambitions, 40,000 just seems too much of a leap to me - ask me again in 5 years.
In any case we should hopefully have heard the last of "flats flats glorious flats" for a while.
Things have been going in the right direction for so long now that the word "Believe" has once again entered the Jambo vocabulary. Long being the Hearts long ofcourse, which is nothing like anyone elses long and is a bit more like "a tiny wee short time".
So this week has been stable and positive on the run up to the seminal game at Ibrox on Saturday. It was with no surprise then that we shot ourselves in the both feet on Friday.
Valdas Ivanauskas admits that there are a number of Hearts players who have been attracting interest from others and that Hearts are in negotiations with those parties. Paul Hartley and Craig Gordon were then dropped for the game at Ibrox - with reports of football politics or football business as the reason, standard garbled English from Hearts.
It is not clear why Gordon was dropped, he has made it quite clear that he would be happy to stay at Tynecastle for now at least, so if Hearts are looking to cash in on his value it should not have affected his ability to play for the team. Hartley is a different story in that he may himself be Ibrox bound, so his not playing at Ibrox is no surprise. Selling Hartley to either of the gruesome twosome will upset and disturb many Hearts supporters. We have all believed that one of the major plus points of having Vlad around is his dislike for the Old Firm, their duopoly! Hence he gives the impression at least that he would not wish to do business with them. Selling one of our best players then to Rangers will signal a reversal of this stance and serve to reduce our belief in his oft stated lofty ambitions. If the deal goes through with Rangers, Hearts will have offloaded two of the Riccarton 3, one each to the ugly sisters. Regardless of anything else this can only be seen as battles lost by Vlad and Hearts in their war against the dominance of the Old Firm. More, from an objective viewpoint it can be seen as not much other than strategic errors on the part of General Romanov.
That said, Hearts have had the best years of Paul Hartley and i am not against selling him if the money is right, would much rather it was to an English outfit however. We shall see.
So with the media frenzy aiming it's sights firmly in the direction of the Tynecastle circus, hearts turned up at Ibrox for a game which would go a very long way to deciding the rest of the season for Hearts at least. A win for Rangers would provide them 8 points of clear water over Hearts in the race for 2nd place and the Champions League spot. A win for hearts reducing that to 2 points and game on.
It is a completely different Rangers team ofcourse, however it is perhaps telling that they now have instilled in their ranks two of the stalwarts of their nine-in-a-row years. Walter Smith back at the helm and Ally McMoist as his 2nd in command. During those years, Rangers regularly killed off Celtics challenges by drawing with them when Celtic really needed the win.
For Rangers then 5 points ahead of Hearts, a draw is much more useful than it is to Hearts. That said after a fairly dominant 2nd half by the home team Hearts were definitely the happier to leave Ibrox with the point gained and no ground lost, to Rangers at least. Both Hibs and Aberdeen winning has brought the 4 tighter than they have been for a good few weeks now.
The game itself is not worth dwelling on, a fairly even first half where quality was low and efforts relatively few and far between was replaced by a 2nd half of dominance by Rangers and rearguard action supplemented by hit on the break tactics by Hearts.
Rangers had the ball in the back of the net but Barry Ferguson's effort was chalked off for offside.
A couple of other efforts by Rangers came close but really i prefer to see this one as further evidence of Hearts meanness in defence than anything else.
Scottish cup next week, away to Dunfermline - i have a funny feeling!
HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
Clean sheets all the way! I for one will never argue with that, get your defence sorted out and solid and mean and the midfield/attack will feed from that - confidence in a solid defensive setup will lead to fluency and expression in midfield and the strikers will start banging them in. Well if you have got the players who can of course, the jury is out.
When i was a kid, Liverpool were my English team, no doubt seduced by the outrageous success, never going to get that from Hearts! Some time in the late eighties however i got bored with their machine like prowess and switched my allegiance to Arsenal. "1 nil to the Arsenal" suits me just fine when the need arises. I would be happy enough with 1 nil victories for Hearts between now and the end of the season, who of us would not?
The transfer window until very recently has been quietly positive, a couple of what look like decent signings coming in on the - now familiar 6 month loan first refusal on a longer contract if it works out. I wonder how many other teams adopt a similar signing policy, it is certainly not common in Scotland or as far as i can see the rest of the UK. From the word go, before the start of 2005 - 2006 season i saw this as a sensible even wily and astute policy. It strikes me that it is an almost zero risk means of bringing a number of new players into an inevitably volatile environment, selecting those who make it and dismissing those that don't with no real repercussions. This has worked for Hearts, with a good few players who have moved from the loan to the contract ( and those contracts tend to be long ) best example would be Roman Bednar. I would imagine Zaliukas, possibly Velicka will also move onto the longer term deal. Others who haven't made it are moved on, Tiago Costa etc.
Then came the long awaited and fantastic news that planning permission for the new 12,000 seater main stand has moved onto the next stage, with Hearts given permission to buy the required land to go ahead with the development.
We have waited a while now, this really has been the acid tests of Vlad's sincerity, his goals and ultimate plans and ambitions for our team. Back at the start of the season when things were once again going from frying pan to roundabout, Hearts made an official statement that plans for the new stand would be in by February. For me at least i have been accepting almost anything that has gone on at Tynecastle so long as that statement became reality. Close to the wire but this week saw us draw ever closer to the goal of a revamped Tynecastle park a home for our team for another 100 hundred years - i can't think of anything more important for the team.
One of the pics i have seen of what we may be looking forward to in a few years -
I don't hold with the argument that there is no point having a stadium if the team is crap, we will always be able to build a decent team and i am absolutely certain that we will have a better chance of realising our ambitions when we are playing in a stadium that lives up to those ambitions. This pic looks like the 30,000 seater stadium with the new stand and the corners filled in either side of the Roseburn stand. With a realistic head on that is where i would pitch my ambitions, 40,000 just seems too much of a leap to me - ask me again in 5 years.
In any case we should hopefully have heard the last of "flats flats glorious flats" for a while.
Things have been going in the right direction for so long now that the word "Believe" has once again entered the Jambo vocabulary. Long being the Hearts long ofcourse, which is nothing like anyone elses long and is a bit more like "a tiny wee short time".
So this week has been stable and positive on the run up to the seminal game at Ibrox on Saturday. It was with no surprise then that we shot ourselves in the both feet on Friday.
Valdas Ivanauskas admits that there are a number of Hearts players who have been attracting interest from others and that Hearts are in negotiations with those parties. Paul Hartley and Craig Gordon were then dropped for the game at Ibrox - with reports of football politics or football business as the reason, standard garbled English from Hearts.
It is not clear why Gordon was dropped, he has made it quite clear that he would be happy to stay at Tynecastle for now at least, so if Hearts are looking to cash in on his value it should not have affected his ability to play for the team. Hartley is a different story in that he may himself be Ibrox bound, so his not playing at Ibrox is no surprise. Selling Hartley to either of the gruesome twosome will upset and disturb many Hearts supporters. We have all believed that one of the major plus points of having Vlad around is his dislike for the Old Firm, their duopoly! Hence he gives the impression at least that he would not wish to do business with them. Selling one of our best players then to Rangers will signal a reversal of this stance and serve to reduce our belief in his oft stated lofty ambitions. If the deal goes through with Rangers, Hearts will have offloaded two of the Riccarton 3, one each to the ugly sisters. Regardless of anything else this can only be seen as battles lost by Vlad and Hearts in their war against the dominance of the Old Firm. More, from an objective viewpoint it can be seen as not much other than strategic errors on the part of General Romanov.
That said, Hearts have had the best years of Paul Hartley and i am not against selling him if the money is right, would much rather it was to an English outfit however. We shall see.
So with the media frenzy aiming it's sights firmly in the direction of the Tynecastle circus, hearts turned up at Ibrox for a game which would go a very long way to deciding the rest of the season for Hearts at least. A win for Rangers would provide them 8 points of clear water over Hearts in the race for 2nd place and the Champions League spot. A win for hearts reducing that to 2 points and game on.
It is a completely different Rangers team ofcourse, however it is perhaps telling that they now have instilled in their ranks two of the stalwarts of their nine-in-a-row years. Walter Smith back at the helm and Ally McMoist as his 2nd in command. During those years, Rangers regularly killed off Celtics challenges by drawing with them when Celtic really needed the win.
For Rangers then 5 points ahead of Hearts, a draw is much more useful than it is to Hearts. That said after a fairly dominant 2nd half by the home team Hearts were definitely the happier to leave Ibrox with the point gained and no ground lost, to Rangers at least. Both Hibs and Aberdeen winning has brought the 4 tighter than they have been for a good few weeks now.
The game itself is not worth dwelling on, a fairly even first half where quality was low and efforts relatively few and far between was replaced by a 2nd half of dominance by Rangers and rearguard action supplemented by hit on the break tactics by Hearts.
Rangers had the ball in the back of the net but Barry Ferguson's effort was chalked off for offside.
A couple of other efforts by Rangers came close but really i prefer to see this one as further evidence of Hearts meanness in defence than anything else.
Scottish cup next week, away to Dunfermline - i have a funny feeling!
HOOOO ON THE JAMBOS
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