Tynecastle values count for nothing

In PR terms, things get worse by the week at Tynecastle. At his inaugural press conference, Rix told his audience, when pressed on his offence: “I will say this only once” and sought to convince those present that yes, he had made a mistake, but that “everybody deserves a second chance”. But even if his contrition was genuine, the fact he was on the defensive even before meeting his players indicates that he should never have been given the job in the first place.

Last summer the then Hearts chief executive Phil Anderton was candid in his assessment of the requirement for his club to rid itself of a small section of undesirable followers, in an overdue attempt to create a family-friendly environment. “We are in the process of conducting a study, which I think will demonstrate that many Hearts fans don’t want to attend home games because they are not comfortable with the atmosphere and, frankly, if there is the notion that you are going to a ground where there will be obscene singing, racist chants, the possibility that missiles might be thrown and of violence erupting, then I completely empathise with those who do not want to bring their families to this stadium,” said Anderton. “I wouldn’t do it, and I have young kids, so I know what the sceptics are concerned about.”

He couldn’t have foreseen that the Romanovs would oust Burley, with his team at the summit, and hand over the reins to somebody whose name remains on the sex offenders’ register and who is forbidden from coaching his under-18 ensemble.

Nor should anybody underestimate the disenchantment of those who have investigated the details of the Rix case and discovered that it follows an all-too-familiar pattern in the testosterone-charged football sphere where somebody such as Paul Gascoigne can be rehabilitated as a prankster and unlikely poacher-turned- gamekeeper in his new incarnation as Kettering Town manager, while the majority of football acolytes seem to forget he is a self-confessed wife beater.

Rix has paid for his crime and is free to pick up the pieces and continue with his life. One wonders if his victim has been allowed the same luxury, or whether the Englishman comprehends the scale of the vitriol which he will encounter at every ground in Scotland. Unfortunately, some crowd reaction will doubtless stray beyond the acceptable, but no-one is forcing Rix to carry on his football career or stay in the spotlight on a lucrative salary. It is his decision alone and he will perhaps have derived encouragement from the tone of some who believe that it is only results that matter. For them, the reputation of a club long ceased to have any importance.

A significant number of people have posted comments such as “She probably looked about 19 or 20, and she must have known what she was doing” on websites. This scale of ignorance underlines the extent of the malaise which Anderton was striving to tackle, but many other decent supporters are quietly despairing.

Rix has returned to the fold, if not with open arms, merely with a few tut-tuts from his colleagues. The immediate shock of his appointment may have subsided in some quarters, but the controversy is unlikely to go away. Hearts appeared to promise the earth, but last week they delivered only soiled goods.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk