Hearts AGM – Another Insult

Predictably and somewhat ominously, it would appear that the Hearts board have given us precious little in the way of answers at today’s AGM.

The general reports I’ve heard from the meeting have all pretty much told the same story – a rather sombre one that gives us very little in the way of confidence that our football team will indeed end up being managed in the way that we have a right to expect in the coming season.

Given the current mood of your average Jambo, you would like to think that today was an ideal opportunity for Vladimir Romanov to demonstrate just how important that Hearts are to his business plans for the future. Perhaps a day to reassure us all that our club is still in fact in good hands, and that the last couple of years have simply been a learning process for all concerned as Hearts gear themselves up for a major assault upon the Scottish game.

Sadly I think his non-attendance says a lot, just as the continual evasiveness of his henchmen at the AGM today also does. People like Roman Romanov and Pedro Lopez can sit there and spout all they want with their arrogant little faces in front of the cameras, but the bottom line is that these guys aren’t even talking a good game any more. Answering direct questions like ‘will the new manager be given full control over first team affairs?’ with ‘it’ll be a team effort’ is not just good enough I’m afraid. The vagueness that we’ve complained about for so long is still there in force – in fact, it’s probably now at fever pitch due to the fact that the vast majority of goodwill being shown to these people for ‘saving’ our club has gradually worn off now.

For goodness sake, tell us the truth, even if it is what we don’t want to hear. If you have no intention of giving your head coach the sort of clout that we think they should have, or appointing an experienced football manager with distinction in the game at a high level, then at least have the decency to say so. At least then we will know what we are shelling out our money for and be able to make a more educated decision about whether or not to continue doing so. It’s only fair, but then the money game rarely brings fairness into things does it?

There has been a suggestion for some time now by the more cynical amongst us that Hearts are simply being run by a group of small-time crooks who are well out of their depth. They seized control of a club that was on its knees for a relative song and thought they could come in, spend a couple of million pounds, see off all the opposition that Scotland had to offer and make a fortune out of them. The first time I heard this was quite a while ago and back then probably sounded a bit harsh to be honest – after all, despite some dodgy decisions being made by the owners (the sacking of Burley, etc), Hearts still appeared to be heading in a fairly positive direction.

However it is becoming more and more difficult with each passing week to ignore this theory, and if the ‘small-time crooks’ bit perhaps still could be a little harsh and possibly even libellous(!), then the bit about them being out of their depth would seem to be pretty unquestionable at the present moment. Let’s face it, would a board with nothing to hide and who knew what they were doing seriously be keeping their customers in the dark over such critical issues for so long? Would they be content handing over the reigns to the most important part of their core business to someone who is completely inexperienced at this level (Frail)?

You know the answers, and unfortunately they are the same as those we would have deduced when it came to questions being asked of the decisions to sack Burley and Anderton, the appointment of Frail and the insistence that Kestutis Ivaskevicius gets a game!

Not good enough.