Hearts striker Andrius Velicka has reportedly played his last game for the club.
Norwegian side FK Viking Stavanger have apparently had a bid in excess of £1 million accepted by Vladimir Romanov, and Velicka would now appear to be on his way out of Tynecastle.
This news will come as yet another blow to a Hearts support already hacked off by the way that their team continues to be managed. The striking department is the one area that has suffered the most under Romanov’s dictatorship and Andrius Velicka, despite his critics, has been the one shining light in that department this season. So it’s a bit of a kick in the teeth that seemingly the only player at Hearts capable of scoring goals regularly is being moved on.
Some fans are criticising the timing of this move though, and I think that’s probably about the only thing that the club haven’t got wrong here. Let’s face it, Hearts’ season is pretty much finished if we’re going to be realistic. OK, if we get complacent there is still the outside threat of relegation, but you’d like to think that Gretna will save us from that fate this year! As for us going on the sort of run we’d need to in order to qualify for Europe, well, it is possible but can anyone honestly see it happening? So weakening the side now is not perhaps going to be the big deal that it would have been had we been seriously challenging for….er…..anything!
However I sincerely hope that our esteemed owners have a gem up their sleeve to compensate for this before next year’s season-tickets go on sale, otherwise I fear we’ll be seeing an alarming drop in the interest that the club worked so hard to generate in the first place. We’ll just have to wait and see, but once again I find myself overwhelmed with pessimism on this front….
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Looks like we will find out if Velicka was indeed hindering Hearts just like you article last week Mr H. Personally I couldn’t bring myself to buying as season ticket and haven’t for a number of years now. I wont believe in a ‘future’ for Hearts until the new stadium opens and the team runs out on the pitch for the first time. I do agree though that there is nothing left to play for so really nothing lost. Surely around this time we get the usual glut of nonsense about stadium and a five year plan to win the Champions League? (Stalinistic I know)
We should have known something unexpected was lurking around the corner. Things have been too quiet of late.Shame we wont see a penny of the transfer fee seeing as he belongs to Kaunus, not that we see a penny when our own players are sold anyway. Lets just hope this is just Vlad clearing the decks to make way for a “new” team of quality signings in the summer. *cough
Strange club for Velicka to go to though isn’t it? Can’t imagine the Norwegian league being any stronger than ours – you’d think he might have a bit more ambition than that given that his stock is fairly high at the moment.
maybe he just wanted to go ssomewhere like lithuania but with a ok football league
Apparently he hasn’t agreed wages yet with Viking – or perhaps he’s deliberately holding out, hoping that an English team comes in for him on a “pre-contract” ? I agree with you, Mr. H, that the timing isn’t a disaster due to this season being a write-off. However its amazing how often a team loses its star man (although its debateable if you would call Velicka our “star man”) only to become a more resilient team the following season. For example, Motherwell after McFadden or Hibs after O’Connor/Riordan. So your article last week questioning the value of Velicka within the team may be very appropriate. And we have both agreed recently that proper coaching for the forwards is desparately needed – now more than ever. Lets hope that Stevie Frail is bold enough to try some of the U-19 forwards over the next 10 weeks, instead of persevering with Elliott in every game.
I’d re-emphasise my hope that they have someone decent lined up to come in, because they really do need it.
This marks either the beginning of the end, or the beginning of a new era come the summer transfer window.