Hearts have reportedly turned down the chance to host Barcelona this summer in another pre-season friendly.
The Catalan giants were in town last year at the same time and helped to attract the considerable turnout of more than 58,000 to Murrayfield for the match.
However although it was great to get the chance to see some of the world’s top footballers at close quarters (or as close as you can get at Murrayfield!), the event ended up being something of a damp squib as far as a football match was concerned – almost a glorified training exercise if we’re honest about it.
You’d think that the main incentive to play a team like Barca would be the amount of money that could be raked in from a match against such attractive opposition, but I’m told that Hearts were required to pay a considerable fee to even get them to come over here. I’m not sure if that completely offset all of the profits made from ticket sales and merchandise on the day or not, but apparently the figure Hearts paid was a seven figure one, so it would probably have been close!
Regardless though, apparently Hearts were not satisfied with the way that their pre-season went as a whole last year and want to organise something completely different this time around, so I’d say that was fair enough. As I said it was nice to see the likes of Eto’o and Henry in the flesh, but it’s more important that Hearts get a good pre-season to prepare for doing the business when it matters – in competitive football.
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I’m pleasantly surprsied to hear this news tonight. The Barca game was over-hyped – with good reason, since UNICEF were a big benefactor – but the actual football occasion was poor. And coming on the back of a 4 week tour, the whole preparation for the season was totally unsuitable. I wonder whether it was the football people (Frail, Korabochka) who said no this time, or the money men. Maybe things are starting to look up, at long last
It’s a sign that they are looking at the whole process of improving the team for next season, and not just a tinkering job or a matter of a new bunch of players or coaches. The whole playing structure is messed up and needs rebuilding. I have to disagree with you though SH on the football occasion – the Barca game last July was a fantastic experience and one I won’t ever forget. But the real goal has to be getting the club into the position where we can face the likes of Barca in a real competitive game, not just a showboating charity match. For that, I think turning them down is a good thing – provided they have something more productive up their sleeves instead.
I think this makes sense, face it no extra money would go toward the team from it and we don’t need our players getting done over prior to a new season beginning. (We should really leave that to unknown Austrian and German sides… Haha)