As if no-one predicted that this morning several Hearts players would be linked with moves to Old Firm clubs, eh? Deary dear these guys are predictable, and the scariest thing is that the majority of fans who buy rags like the Ranger and the Currant Bun will probably believe it all!
Today it’s Hearts captain Christophe Berra and team-mate Andy Driver, both of whom have played a big part in the recent good performances against both Old Firm clubs, who are being linked with a
move to, surprise surprise, Rangers. Yes Rangers, the only club in the country who would appear to be even worse off than our own in terms of finance. They’re talking about £4million for the two of them, and even if that would sound pretty typical of the paltry amounts that tend to be offered by these clubs to their SPL counterparts when approaching promising young players, just where are Rangers even going to find cash like that to spend on two relatively untested talents? They just aren’t going to are they? In fact, the stories I’ve read on this subject practically admit as such when you get a few paragraphs down, but because half of their readers only ever get as far as the headlines, it hardly matters!
We’ve been discussing here over the past few days why it is that the press always seem to do their utmost to unsettle non-Old Firm clubs when they’re on a decent run of form, but so far we haven’t really been able to establish what the main motive is. Is it simply the fact that the vast majority in this country who buy these illiterate comics tend to support Rangers or Celtic, and hence every single story published there has to focus on them? Possibly, but if that really is the case then these editors can’t be the sharpest tools in the box can they? (although they are certainly tools of some description). Can’t they see that having a more competitive league would actually benefit their favourite teams due to the consistent tests they would face in order to win trophies domestically?
As one of our regular posters from Vital Celtic pointed out yesterday, the last time that Scotland’s clubs were a force to be reckoned with in Europe was back in a time when the SPL was as competitive as it has probably ever been, back in the early to mid 1980s. Then we had the era of the so-called ‘New Firm’ (Aberdeen and Dundee United), who were able to regularly win trophies and do extremely well in European competition too. We also had Hearts doing reasonably well back then for a spell too, and that only gave our league greater strength in depth, even if it did ultimately mean that the Old Firm clubs weren’t getting their hands on the big money that Europe’s top competition had to offer every year. Then when Graeme Souness and David Murray arrived at Ibrox everything changed – the competition gradually died down and minus a few one-off challenges from the likes of Aberdeen and Hearts over the years, it’s remained like that pretty much ever since. Scotland’s clubs have only very occasionally put runs together in Europe that we could be proud of, but nothing in comparison to what was achieved in the 80s and before. If we get back to anything like those days then Scottish football would be given a new lease of life – fans of all clubs really should be able to see that.
So….Berra and Driver to Rangers today. What will it be tomorrow I wonder? Kingston to Celtic? Romanov’s bank to go bust again perhaps? Personally I’d love it if clubs like Hearts and Dundee United started turning the tables a little and put a few derisory offers in for some of Rangers and Celtic’s better players. How about a £350K offer for Barry Ferguson and a direct swap deal proposal to Celtic -Scott Brown + £1million for Cesnauskis – now that would be worth reading about!
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We should really be trying to adopt a “no sale to the OF” policy. Nothing underhand here but why on earth do we weaken our team to the advantage of rivals? I would also suggest that both Berra and Driver’s future prospects would be better served by staying put and being (almost) guaranteed a start each week rather than, as history points to, warming the bench at the other end of the M8.
“Rome is not armies, language or riches. It’s not even merely a city. Rome is the mob.” someone once said. These “journalists” are simply playing to that mob. It only grants them power if people take heed of them. Luckily, nobody at Hearts seems to read these rags so their fantasy football signings are falling on deaf ears.
good article although 1 point there are negative stories about celtic players all the time just watch the nonsence next week before the celtic/rangers game anyway focus on the positives these daft stories would not be in the papers if hearts were not playing well?
selling our best players to the old firm should not be an option, fair enough rumour has it that we are in desperate need of funds quickly, but selling our top players to rival clubas, no way… i honestly think if we finished 3rd in league and maybe win the scottish cup, that should bring in a bit of funding towards the club, and this would also make berra and driver commit further to the club, as we would be in uefa cup, if hearts a got a lucky run in that competition like rangers did, surely there would be enough funds from that to tie us over, but getting rid of our best players will only make us struggle in league and cups in the future
davec the scottsh cup & league cups dont generate that much funds rangers probably made a loss winning them both last season the only way i could see hearts generating good funds through winning the scottish cup would be to beat celtic/rangers away aberdeen @ tynecastle hibs semi @ hampden & most of the games being live on tv
surely the games at home wud bring more money to the club, and being shown live on setanta, we are away to hibs in scottish cup and its on setanta so its a good start anyways, danny im just trying to find reasons for money rather than it being from selling best players to old firm.. aguiar could be gone in january with his contract running out in summer, he wud be a big loss aswell, i heard a rumour rangers were going to offer cash plus dailly, but that was only from a friend
dave when you play cup games the funds generated are split 50/50 after overheads are deducted hence the reason it would be better to draw celtic or rangers away unless you drew them @ home & decided to play @ murrayfield but then again all depends on what the rugby boys charge for use
aye i understand ya now mate, well away to hibs this round, get through that and hope for celts away then gers away and hope we get through lol
Europe really is the only serious avenue for us to make money, and if VR had any sense he’d be doing all he could to ensure that Hearts finish a minimum of 2nd in the SPL to have another crack at the Champs League. Is that realistic? Well, I still don’t think we have a good team, but I don’t see many others in the league who are much, if any better. Btw welcome aboard davecJambo1!
thank you mrh pleasure to be aboard the jambo ship lol were the 3rd best team in the league i wud gurantee that at least, wudnt mind us slipping into 2nd place to qualify for champs league, but look at rangers they fasiled for 2nd qualifying round, at least if we finish 3rd we are guranteed uefa cup 1st round, then get an easy draw were in group stages, i think thats the way it works,
aye you’re probably right – would be nice to sneak above third again for a change though, although United are arguably more likely to do that than us this season.
Steady lads ….. we’e got 2 years of sliding standards to turn around before we should be thinking of 3rd place, never mind 2nd !! (Dalien could probably have put it more starkly). Yes… welcome aboard the Board, davecjambo1 !!
The new Europa cup for next season looks like an improvement over the old system (kinda like a mini Champions League format), and providing there’s a good TV deal in place means that if we get there (by finishing 3rd or Scottish cup) then that should bring in a few readies I think. 2nd is a step too far for us right now I think… we’d stand a better chance against clubs of our own (ahem) stature in Europe. DaveC is right (welcome also), we could easily fall out at the first hurdle like Rangers did. After all, Kaunas seem to have a habit of beating us, too…
While 2nd maybe a tall order I don’t see why we can’t aim for it. Go with me here …. 10 points behind Rangers but with a game in hand so it’s 7 points. Celtic beat them next week and we beat Aberdeen – 4 points. “All” we need to do is keep this run going and if us and Dundee Utd are sniffing about it’s Rangers who will be under a massive amount of pressure and I’m not convinced they’d be able to handle it all that well. Much may depend on what we do in January I daresay and if we flog our best then I’ll be seriously disheartened (especially to rivals). It looks like no contract talks have started with Bruno so one must assume he’s off. However, I would suggest that keeping him until the end of the season would, in the long run, be more beneficial than punting him in January for a nominal sum.
Agree with your latter point there on Bruno inm, but I think you might be being a little bit dismissive of Motherwell and Aberdeen – these are two very tough away games for us that we could easily lose. However if we DO win them both and beat United, then we’d be in a great position to challenge. If only we’d hung on Saturday at Parkhead to win – we’d have been a win over Motherwell away from being 8 points off the top!
I think you may be getting ahead of yourselves a bit… after 17 games and a goal difference of Zero. That says there is a little way to go, maybe to even hang on in 4th. Nevertheless all the best Hearts!
I sit next to a Rangers fan who a couple of weeks ago before the game was singing Velicka songs and saying he would score against Hearts and that didn’t materialise. But now he is banging on about Berra signing for them and just generally doing my head in. Hopefully this prediction is wrong too. Ultimately I know we would all prefer Berra, Kingston, Aguiar and Driver to leave for England if they have to leave at all. I am still worried by the silence from Tynecastle not defending their financial position.
A lot of rumours flying around at the moment (on JKB and elsewhere) that Hearts are for sale. The fact that they haven’t come out and defended their financial position actually pours cold water on the whole idea – since if they were, and really in serious financial difficulties, they would talk themselves up in the media ready for a sale. Hearts are a privately owned company, and as such, are not required to give details of the internal financial business except at pre-agreed times like the AGM. So taking all that into account, I think that Hearts are doing fine, and that UBIG/Romanov are simply trying to make the club more self-sufficient. I think this is why there has been an issue with wages this season – they are coming out of Hearts’ budget rather than UBIG’s, and when the money isn’t always there, UBIG has had to come to the rescue. Just speculation, mind – because as I say, Hearts are under no obligation to fill anyone (from the outside) in on the real situation.
A statement was actually released last week by a board member that seemed to pour scorn on all of these rumours, but it wasn’t overly publicised…
True SJ. Hearts don’t have to say anything. Also Romanov’s hatred of the Scottish Press is more than likely at play here. At least the hatred is returned equally.