Heartbreaking but Mercer must either pay up or sell up

James Traynor

10 May 1993

HEARTS are breaking.

This may sound like a piece of hyperbole, but recent happenings at Tynecastle offer the impression that Hearts are in serious trouble.

Their manager, Joe Jordan, who was welcomed as the man capable of leading them on to great things when he signed on two years ago, has been sacked, the chairman, Wallace Mercer, has disappeared off into the Continent, and there is talk now of players being upset over money they claim is owed to them.

Also, £5m has to be found to reconstruct the stadium if the demands of the Taylor Report are to be met.

There can be little doubt about it, Hearts, who have failed to secure the compensation of a place in next season's UEFA Cup competition, do appear to be in turmoil.

In fact, their problems might be even more serious than any of us suspect.

The club's supporters, who have suffered long and painfully for the cause, are entitled to wonder why the chairman, a man who always responded to the sight of a camera or reporter's notebook by clicking into verbal overdrive, has been keeping such a low profile these past six weeks or so.

It has been suggested his doctor advised him to take a break after having been divorced from his property group, and if it is the case that Mercer is in need of some genuine leisure time without the worry of running a club where ambition has always outstripped reality, then so be it.

Everyone at some point requires free time, if only to recharge the batteries, but the fact is Mercer is being marked absent at a critical time for his club.

Of course, knowing Mercer, he could return at any time to chastise those who have doubted or suggested his reservoir of enthusiasm has dried up and to make pronouncements with all the flamboyance and colourful bombast of a ring-master.

Remember, he saved this club from extinction once before, so perhaps he is worth the benefit of the doubt this time around.

At the very least Mercer should be given more time, but not a lot, to come up with another survival package.

It would help, though, if he should bear in mind that his club are in serious decline and that in the short space of time since the days when he was threatening to buy city rivals Hibernian circumstances have changed dramatically.

Already it has been demonstrated that Hearts' players are much too limited to ensure the degree of success required and unless money is made available to Sandy Clark, who will probably be named Jordan's successor, the club will continue to scrape around in the middle reaches of the premier division.

That would seem to be the future for Hearts, but it might be even bleaker should more players have to be sold off to appease creditors.

Dave McPherson was sold back to Rangers, but Jordan wasn't allowed to take the £1m fee and strengthen his squad, and if, as seems likely, Alan McLaren also has to be moved on there would be no point in Clark knocking on the boardroom door asking for his share.

In fact, Clark probably would not bother asking, because he has been at Tynecastle long enough to be under no illusions about the enormity of his task or the horrendous problems facing his club.

In Clark, the team have been given a leader, but recently there seems to have been a lack of leadership from within the boardroom.

Hearts are like a ship which has slipped its anchor and are drifting dangerously close to oblivion, especially now that players, who claim to be owed payments, have run out of patience.

Apparently a player has approached the Scottish Professional Footballers' Association for assistance in securing the money due from bonuses and signing-on fees, and if legal action is taken, one of the avenues could lead to sequestration.

Closure of Hearts would be the next step.

However, it is unrealistic of anyone to believe that the SPFA, who are already concerned that players will be paid off in the near future because of football's economic crisis, or any of their members would be party to a move which forced shut the doors of a club.

They are, nevertheless, still entitled to their money.

Too much is going wrong at Tynecastle and Mercer should make some kind of utterance, even if anything he might say serves only to make the fans realise things are worse than the rumours.

If they are not, then surely the chairman would have said so some time ago.

After all, he does love an audience.

Perhaps the time has arrived for fresh impetus at Tynecastle, a new face on the block.

It was felt Jordan had done all he could with limited resources and maybe Mercer has achieved all he can with the club, in which case he really has a duty to make it known he would go if the right offer was delivered.

It would pain him to go, and he would find it cold being out of the limelight, but there is more at stake here than anyone's pride.

If standing down and allowing someone else the opportunity to take the club forward is the only way around the current problems, then Mercer should go.

Taken from the Herald