Breaking the mould again

FROM the enthusiasm in Dave Mackay's voice it is easy to deduce that being a Hearts legend from the distant past in no way hinders the ability to marvel at present-day challengers to your throne.

Vladimir Romanov's ostentatious approach to football club ownership has provided Mackay and others from the trophy-stacked 1950s era with plenty of candidates who could one day be revered on a similar level to them at Tynecastle.

That is, if they aren't already.

Players like Roman Bednar, Edgaras Jankauskas and Takis Fyssas, depending on the duration and productivity of their stay in Edinburgh, may find their names being recalled through the lumpy throats of Hearts supporters in years to come, whilst Paul Hartley and Steven Pressley are probably already regarded amongst the club's finest ambassadors.

Mackay couldn't be happier. He has waited for half a century to see his first professional club assemble a squad capable of assuming the mantle of men like himself, Willie Bauld and Jimmy Wardhaugh and finally, in Romanov, he sees someone capable of delivering just that.

The endeavour that has gone into hauling Hearts to the same lofty standing in domestic football as Rangers and Celtic is similar in intensity to the kind of streetwise, tenacious approach displayed by Mackay in his playing days with Hearts, Tottenham Hotspur and, latterly, Derby County.

It is also having a similar effect on the supposed pecking order in Scotland.

"In the old days, when we played, Celtic and Rangers were the top dogs," recalled Mackay of the post-war period.

"They still are, but Hearts are coming into it and it's great to see.

"We were trying to mount a challenge to the Glasgow clubs in the 1950s. Just before us, Hibs had their Famous Five and were having a go at it too. They weren't as successful as Hearts but they were at least able to compete with Celtic and Rangers. Hibs started it off, and then Hearts carried it on after that and won the league, the Scottish Cup and a few League Cups. They hadn't won a trophy for years previous to my generation emerging. The current group are doing the same in terms of raising the club's profile.

"It's great to see Hearts at the forefront of the Scottish game. They are well worth watching now. The game that stands out for me from last season was the win against Rangers at Tynecastle, one of the few games I managed to get up to see.

"Hearts won 1-0 and thoroughly deserved to win, whereas in the past if they managed to beat one of the Old Firm there was usually an element of luck involved somewhere along the line. It could easily have been more than 1-0."

Mackay laments the lack of opportunities to visit Tynecastle regularly, a byproduct of him now living his life in Nottingham.

He manages to return to his roots on average four times a year, although has become something of a lucky charm given that he invariably sees Hearts triumph when north of the Border.

He has joked with previous managers, notably Craig Levein, about flying him north on a weekly basis as some kind of lucky club mascot. However, he is acutely aware that the need for such a charm is diminishing in Gorgie as Romanov machinates for the future.

Mackay did ensure he was present at Hampden last month to see his former club lift the Scottish Cup, which he himself had pawed 50 years previously after a 3-1 triumph over Celtic at the same ground. The impression he took back south with him was that it was a mere portion of the prosperity to come.

"I think the present side can go all the way, I really do," he insists when asked about Hearts' chances of mounting a genuine title challenge in the season ahead. "Now that they've started and stated their intent, the challenge will be to keep it going. It's much harder to maintain success once you've tasted it.

"Rangers and Celtic will always be there but they don't seem as strong as they have been in the past. They've faltered a bit, but only a bit. I don't think they are attracting the same quality of players as they did even a few years ago.

"But even at that, the Old Firm will pull in crowds of 50,000 and 60,000 at every home game, while Hearts and Hibs are under 20,000. That means there is so much more money being poured in to Rangers and Celtic compared to the Edinburgh clubs. That's what makes it difficult."

He has a point. But, to Mackay the player, giving up on a difficult cause was never an option. That attitude earned him the conspicuous honour of appearing in more than 40 cup finals at all playing levels from schoolboy to senior professional, and never once finishing on the losing side.

"Although the performance was disappointing against Gretna, we won the cup. That's all that matters," he says. "One or two Hearts fans said to me afterwards that they weren't happy, but Gretna did extremely well. We can't play brilliant in every game. We'll just take the win.

"I don't get to see the current team enough to realistically compare Willie Bauld to Roman Bednar or things like that. And we only get occasional news about Hearts down here, about Mr Romanov picking the team and things. I don't know how much truth there is in that anyway, because you're not going to have a manager in place if your owner is picking the team. And if there is a manager then he's not a man by allowing that to happen."

One iota of information that did manage to reach Mackay's ears in recent months was that of his old friend, Graeme Souness, pictured left, being linked with the head coach's vacancy at Tynecastle. The trail followed by Souness from school at Carrickvale in Edinburgh to the bright lights of Tottenham was blazed by Mackay some years before.

"If he went to the same school as me he must have had a good chance of the Hearts job," laughed Mackay. "The school was actually called Saughton when I went and, by the time Graeme went, it was Carrickvale. When we won the Scottish Schoolboys' Cup at under-15 level it was called Saughton. I remember we played at Hampden and beat Queen's Park school, then we played them at Tynecastle and beat them 2-1 to lift the cup. It was a good start for me at 15 and it went from there because I joined Hearts."

And so began a glittering career that has seen Mackay go down in the club's folklore. We can expect a few more candidates for joining him if Romanov can continue his flirtation with success in Edinburgh.

Taken from the Scotsman