Wallace Mercer Dies

Mercer was effectively the ‘face’ of Hearts during his time at the helm, which began in 1981 and lasted more than 13 years. Not much time ever went by without him having his face in the paper for one reason or another…very much a man who believed that all publicity was good publicity it seemed!

The club had been close to going out of business before Mercer took over and he very quickly put Hearts back on the Scottish Football map. After years of struggling at the bottom of the Premier Division and occasionally the First Division, Hearts propelled themselves back among the elite and qualified for Europe in Mercer’s first season in the top league.

After employing Alex MacDonald as manager with Sandy Jardine as playing assistant, Hearts went agonisingly close to a league and cup double in 1986, but we won’t go into the details of that as I’m sure we’ve heard enough about it!

Under Mercer’s leadership Hearts continued to be a force to be reckoned with in the late ’80s and they memorably reached the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup in 1989. They eventually went out 2-1 on aggregate to Bayern Munich, having won the first leg 1-0 in one of Tynecastle’s most memorable ever evenings. Who will ever forget Fergie’s free-kick?

Mercer will probably be most remembered however, for his controversial attempt to ‘merge’ with city rivals Hibs in 1990. Strong rumour at the time had it that his plan was really to close Hibs down and use the money from selling Hibs’ assets to strengthen Hearts. However the plan was scrapped after fierce opposition from fans of both clubs, including several MPs and high-profile players from both sides. Mercer even received death threats and the first Edinburgh derby match of the following season was marred by crowd trouble and unsavoury chants aimed at the Hearts chairman.

I don’t really think Mercer ever fully recovered from the attempted takeover and when Hearts began struggling in the early ’90s the fans turned on him. In 1994 he sold his majority shareholding to Chris Robinson and Leslie Deans.

Despite the mistakes he made and his alleged ‘dodgy dealings’, Wallace Mercer will always have a special place in Hearts’ history. The amount of publicity he created for the club was incredible – everything relating to Hearts when he was there was big news and I loved that about him. A great character.

Wallace Mercer will never be forgotten.