Hearts are left searching for directions after TV cash fear

CRAIG Levein, Hearts’ head coach, revealed yesterday how uncertainty over the scale of Scottish football’s new satellite TV deal had disrupted his recruitment plans for next season.

While the previous four-year agreement with Sky was valued at around £45million, the next arrangement is expected to run for three seasons but, as yet, it’s unclear how much more the broadcasters are prepared to pay to renew the deal.

The ten SPL clubs outwith the Old Firm currently receive TV income of around £500,000 a season. In an ideal world they would have hoped this sum might have risen significantly.

Yet it remains to be seen if there will be any meaningful increase at a time when TV football contracts in general are regarded as overpriced and broadcasters are disinclined to pay over the odds.

‘The season after next I hope we’ll do really well when the likes of Andy Webster, Kevin McKenna and Stephen Simmons should have helped us mature into a young but relatively experienced side’

"Until I know exactly how much money is available for players next season then it’s very difficult for me to gauge what I can do," Levein admitted. "I also appreciate it’s difficult for Chris Robinson, our chief executive, and Stewart Fraser, our finance director, to come up with definite figures.

"At the moment, we’re looking at two different scenarios depending on which way the next TV deal goes. I’m fully aware that the club is holding no money back. I’ve seen the figures, know our income and what we can spend. Yes, I have a few targets in mind for next season but more than that I can’t say. I’m not trying to be evasive on the subject, but if things don’t work out as well as we’d hoped in a financial sense, then it’s a fact I won’t be able to bring in the No1 targets I have my eyes on."

Never one to blow his own trumpet, Levein is shrewd enough to understand that what’s been achieved at Hearts under his stewardship - simultaneously improving the team while slashing the wage bill - is worthy of high commendation.

"If you look at Hearts’ wage bill a year ago and the wage bill now, the difference is incredible," he added. "Yet we’re still in the same position in the league. Now we also have a far younger squad and are enjoying a decent run of form. To be honest, what we’ve done here is miraculous.

"But not everyone sees it that way. There are such high expectation surrounding Hearts and everyone expects us to be in the top three or four in the league. If you do well here, the expectation is that you will improve.

"So, yes, next season I do expect to do better than in this one, but it’s the one after that where I hope we’ll do really well. That’s when Andy Webster, Kevin McKenna, Stephen Simmons, Scott Severin, Alan Maybury, Gary Wales and Andy Kirk should all have helped us mature into a young but relatively experienced side."

Although Hearts’ precarious financial position is nothing new, it will still come as a disappointment to the club’s followers that even the promise of jam tomorrow may not be honoured.

"I don’t have the luxury of being able to bring new players in and add to what I have already," Levein explained. "I have to lose players before I can bring in others.

"It would be wrong of me to discuss individuals and say who is staying or who is going. Right now, I have an idea of what I want to do but that idea is not fixed. Needless to say, the way everyone performs between now and the end of the season will have a huge bearing on those decisions.

"The door is still open for everyone at this club. But it has to be remembered there’s only so much cash available and I have to work out how I plan to shuffle the money around."

While, understandably, much of the attention during Hearts’ recent revival has centred on striker Ricardo Fuller, who will leave when his loan deal expires in the summer, the form of the club’s thirtysomething midfield players has also given cause for satisfaction.

Steve Fulton, Thomas Flogel and Tommi Gronlund have formed an oustanding central unit which has given the manager pause for thought about their futures.

All three men are out of contract at the end of the season and whether Levein chooses to offer them new deals or bring in fresh faces will be decided in the months ahead.

Robert Tomaschek and Stephane Adam, both currently sidelined through injury, are also free to move on in the summer.

"That situation will take care of itself in due course," reasoned Fulton. "I would like to stay but that may be outwith my say. I’m 31 and I’d like to think I could play a few more years in the SPL. Hopefully, that will be with Hearts."

Although they’re in action at home against opposition struggling in a lower league, today’s Tennents Scottish Cup tie against Ross County at Tynecastle has an edge for Hearts since they lost to the same opponents in the CIS Cup back in September.

Given the disappointment of that set-back, it’s hardly surprising Levein intends to field his strongest team this afternoon and doesn’t expect complacency to be a problem.

"We should have won the game in extra time before losing out on penalties," recalled the coach, "but I suppose ‘should-haves’ never won anything. The defeat came during a difficult period for us when we’d gone six or seven games without a win and were getting hammered for our performances."

If that was Hearts’ worst spell of the season, the recent run of four wins and a draw has been the club’s best period in the SPL. Levein has too much respect for Neale Cooper, the manager of the First Division outfit, to expect anything other than a tight game today, but thinks he can highlight the areas where his own side have improved out of all recognition.

"It’s all about mentality and confidence," he went on. "We’re far more assured now than the last time we met Ross County. We’re prepared to take a little bit of responsibility now and pass the ball.

"But that doesn’t mean to say I expect anything other than a really difficult game. I matched up against Neale in my time with Cowdenbeath and am sure he’ll have his side really well organised for this game. He’s a much-respected coach and takes great pride in sending out his teams to do well in big matches. This helps them to compete at a level above the way they normally perform."

The coach believes his players will need to show patience in this tie and would also appreciate it if the club’s supporters adopted a similarly realistic viewpoint. Hearts may be motivated to make amends for the disappointment of going out of the CIS Cup but Levein knows there are no guarantees in cup football and thinks it would be naive to expect caution to be thrown to the wind against the visitors from Dingwall.

Taken from the Scotsman