Well I was wrong, Hearts couldn’t even make the top six. Too many gutless displays against teams that in the past we have proven should beat. No shots on goal against Falkirk, nothing to play for now. And lets face it we don’t deserve to achieve anything from our season. At home we have lost in Inverness, St Mirren and failed to beat Gretna twice who have only managed seven points all season.
Now we have five meaningless games against fellow members of the bottom six. I’d be surprised if these overpaid players will have the gumption to win all of these games. The glorious cup winning sides of 98 and 06 would have disposed of these teams. And the team we have now should have no excuses. They are on huge wages compared to all the team that on this seasons results are our equals. Outside the Old Firm we spend the most money on wages so it should be accepted that the least the fans deserve is third place and a run in the cup.
It has to asked have Hearts got value for money since Romanov came in. The answer is no. A prime example of this is Mirsad Beslija, apparently the fastest player in Belgium when we signed him two years ago. So much trust was put in this player that then manager Graham Rix forked out a record transfer fee for Hearts of £850,000. Since this bog money move the player has spent more time on the treatment table than on the pitch playing just four games including four minutes against Livingston and 24 against Dunfermiline. He has spent this season on loan to Sint-Truidense, a team which are currently sitting 17th out of 18 teams in the Belgian league. Money well spent then.
This is not the only example of Hearts being bad with money. It was announced recently that the debt had risen from £28 million to £38 million over the past year which can be put down to some bad signings and high wages.
It hasn’t all been bad as Hearts have managed to recoup money from Czech Republic internationalists Roman Bednar and Rudi Skacel. Both of these players were currant Scotland manager, George Burley signings, one of the best managers Hearts have ever had although he only stayed for 11 games of which Hearts won eight, drew two, and lost only one. Rudi Skacel, who scored in seven consecutive games and scored a goal and a penalty in the cup final win against Gretna was signed for free and sold for £1.6 million. While fellow Czech, who had less of an impact on Tynecastle is set to make the club £2.5 million after impressing on a loan spell to West Brom. Another excellent piece of business was the signing of highly rated Ghanean internationalist Lareyea Kingston who Hearts signed for an undisclosed fee thought to be around £500,000.
We have acquired from six different managers since Romonov era and they have brought with them more players than you can count on two hands. Graham Rix brought eleven players in during his short spell at the club of which only Jose Goncalves and Bruno Aguair have made an impact. Whereas players such as Chris Hackett and Martin Petras played very few games and disappeared at the end of the 2005/06 campaign. Ludek Straceny a signing made at in the final minutes of January 2006 transfer window made just one appearance for the Tynecastle outfit were he was brought on as a substitute only to be substituted minutes later as it was clear he was not good enough for the SPL.
Romanov needs to leave the signings to the manager. He is there to bankroll the club, not to pick the team. Out of Romanov’s many signings none have had the impact that the fans or the he would have liked. Would it be too much to ask for the manager to be able to choose his own players? Only time will tell.
