Aberdeen Players+Manager To Hearts?

This is the time of year when rumours are aplenty and range from reasonable to ridiculous, but there does seem to be a lot of growing speculation linking Hearts with perhaps one or several individuals
currently employed by Aberdeen FC.

Several of their players have allegedly knocked back new contracts and could be looking for employment elsewhere ASAP if Aberdeen decide it’s in their best interests to cash in on them now. But rumours are also doing the rounds that Aberdeen’s manager Jimmy Calderwood could also be set to leave the club as a result of what he perceives as a considerable weakening of a squad he already feels is short of where he’d like it to be. For the record the players in question here are Barry Nicholson, Michael Hart and Chris Clark, with Zander Diamond also said to be thinking along the same lines. Hearts are strongly being linked with Nicholson and Hart at the moment if various speculative reports are to be believed.

When something like this happens then clubs like Hearts are always linked with potential moves for the players concerned, but because we are also on the lookout for a manager, then Calderwood’s name is now being touted as a possibility for Tynecastle. I have to say that despite Calderwood’s decent record in the SPL (it’s much better than many people would think, at both Dunfermline and Aberdeen), I really would not be in favour of such a move. I simply do not think that Calderwood has the necessary qualities to take Hearts to where we want to be, but that’s just a personal hunch rather than based on anything of substance. There are many Jambos who would welcome such a move.

My attitude tends to be that if the man can’t string a proper sentence together when speaking to the media then he shouldn’t be manager of a big club, but I suppose some would counter that by saying that this doesn’t matter a jot if he’s doing the business with the team. That would be a fair point, but Calderwood’s success in Scotland has been with teams who have had extremely low expectations: Dunfermline had always struggled to fight relegation until he took over so finishing 4th with them and getting to a cup final was considered a great achievement, whereas although Aberdeen’s fans were used to success in the ’80s and early ’90s, they had been in the doldrums for years and so similar results with them as to what Calderwood achieved at the Pars was also considered a success. Rightly or wrongly, finishing 4th with Hearts would not be considered a success, (even if we are currently 11th at the moment!) so in that respect Calderwood does not have the proven record of success that Hearts would be looking for. But then…….who has who is likely to be within our budget? It’s a difficult decision.

As for the Aberdeen players, I haven’t seen to much of Clark, but Hart and Nicholson are decent SPL players. It’s often said that the Old Firm have achieved success over the years by systematically weakening the squads of their rivals – if Hearts were to nick a couple of these guys then that would be exactly the same sort of thing, although whether or not they would significantly strengthen the current Hearts side is open to debate. I saw a fair bit of Nicholson when he was with Dunfermline and always thought he was a decent enough player, but perhaps a bit inconsistent to truly make it at the top level. But then again, you could perhaps have said the same about Paul Hartley when he was with Hibs and St Johnstone and he made the grade, so sometimes it’s a case of a player finding the right club.

We’ll see how it pans out…..