Reason to believe 98 can be bettered

ANDREW SMITH

WHENEVER Hearts supporters vocalise their dreams of claiming the championship, the cynics point them to their challenge in 1998. As with now, both halves of the Old Firm were considerably weaker than they had been for a number of years. But even then, Hearts' best team in a decade could not break the Glasgow clubs' duopoly.

Yesterday's draw at Celtic Park, however, is one more reason to see distinct differences between Hearts then and now. In 1998, it took Jim Jefferies men' until the latter half of the season to avoid defeat against either half of the Old Firm. Yet, after beating Rangers on their own patch last month, they now have four points from a possible six from two matches against the only teams that can possibly stand in their way of title success.

There are closer parallels between Hearts' personnel now and the players who populated their team seven years ago than some may imagine. OK, so Jefferies could not boast a Champions League medal holder and a European Championship winner in his line-up, as can Burley in the form of Edgaras Jankauskas and Takis Fyssas. But Hearts' success this season has as much been about the contributions of their Scottish backbone than the efforts of pedigree signings.

In this respect, players such as David Weir, Paul Ritchie, Gary Naysmith and Neil McCann can be thought of in similar terms to Stephen Pressley, Andy Webster, Paul Hartley and Craig Gordon. But, unlike 1998, those around the Scottish international quartet are on a par with them. Stephane Adam and a close-to-retirement John Robertson would not be swapped for Rudi Skacel and Roman Bednar, for instance.

With seven games of the 1997-98 season remaining, Hearts, as they did yesterday, travelled to Celtic Park on a mission to make the championship one they could win. Then there were within touching distance of Wim Jansen's men, despite having failed to take more than a point off the Old Firm till that point in the season. They doubled their haul against the Glasgow leviathans with a colourless 0-0 draw that day. Thereafter, though, they completely ran out of steam. In the six league games that followed, the Tynecastle failed to register a win, a run forgiven when they claimed the club's first trophy in 40 years with a Scottish Cup final victory over Rangers.

It perhaps says how expectations have risen that Hearts fans would probably be disappointed if a third-place finish and a Scottish Cup represented the sum total of their spoils this season. Back then, this was considered as much a return as could be expected before a £4m cash injection from SMG that supplanted the financing by ambitious powerbrokers Chris Robinson in Leslie Deans, who at one stage sanctioned a £5,000-a-week deal for Adam.

The figures being bandied around these days have more noughts on them and in Romanov the club have a majority shareholder whose estimated fortune of £260m allows him to consider any previous investment in Hearts as little more than pin money. "I could spend £500m and beat Chelsea but any fool could win by spending that," Hearts' major shareholder said this week. "But by spending a tenth of that amount? Then you've got something to talk about."

And the Lithuanian businessman - intent on further strengthening the side in the January transfer window - is talking big in a way that no-one who has invested in a team outside of the Old Firm ever has before. "Our goal has to be champions of Europe," Romanov has said. "I want us to be at the stage where to do anything else, to come back without the trophy, would be shameful. I'd like to think we'd do it quicker. Nobody believes us. That's fine. Three years should suffice."

Within three years of Hearts' 1998 challenge, the team down Gorgie way had begun to be broken up to pay for the debts that had been accumulated in pursuing a dream. That should not happen this time around. And, as their commanding display at Celtic Park yesterday surely demonstrated, this time around they won't be so soft touches when going toe-to-toe with the Old Firm.

Taken from the Scotsman