Blame lies at home

WHAT a difference a year makes. When August merged into September 12 months ago Hearts were on top of the Premierleague with five straight wins out of five, and talk had begun about George Burley’s side finishing the season as champions. Not even the most optimistic supporter would currently surmise such an outcome for next May. Unless Hearts get a grip, even finishing in the top three may not be a foregone conclusion.

Under the circumstances, Friday’s Uefa Cup first round draw, which paired Valdas Ivanauskas’s side with Sparta Prague, did not inspire confidence that this could yet be a season to remember at Tynecastle. The memory of nine Hearts players trying to compete against the 11 of AEK in Athens two evenings before was still too fresh.

That 3-0 defeat, albeit that all the goals arrived very late in the game, was one of the low spots of a dreadful few days which saw last season’s runners-up being over-run at Ibrox and former head coach Graham Rix take the club to court. Nothing in this sequence of events inspired confidence that the club is running smoothly on or off the pitch.

So bad were things in Athens that it would have been no surprise if one of the travelling Hearts supporters had been roped in to make up the numbers on the substitutes’ bench. Some of the derision aimed at the backroom staff Hearts have imported from Lithuania smacks of xenophobia, but why, it is reasonable to ask, are so many of the club’s players prone to injury and illness?

As if this handicap was not bad enough, Ivanauskas – either of his own volition or under orders – seems to believe in a selective form of rotation which undermines continuity of selection further. So far this season at least 25 players have turned out for Hearts.

Contrast all this to last year when, after Takis Fyssas was introduced at left back by Burley in the third league game against Dundee United, 10 of the 11 players in the side were certain starters. With Paul Hartley, who along with Steven Pressley is crucial to Hearts’ wellbeing, now returning to the side after being sidelined, domestic results may pick up. Amidst all the doom and gloom it shouldn’t be forgotten that Hearts rose to the occasion to beat Celtic at Tynecastle.

What seems painfully obvious from both matches against AEK, however, is that Hearts have little chance of making an impact in the Uefa Cup. The decision to continue playing European matches at Murrayfield is enough of an own goal, but unless Vladimir Romanov uses the next four days to make a couple of impressive signings, even reaching the group stages will be problematical.

That Jamie Mole was expected to play up front on his own against AEK says everything about the shambolic nature of Hearts’ start. How many strikers does the club need, and when is one of them going to emerge as a consistent member of the side?

The Russian referee, Yuri Baskakov, was a convenient scapegoat, but you wouldn’t expect a boys’ club to allow its players to leave the dressing room wearing jewellery. A blame-everybody-but-us culture has been allowed to develop at Tynecastle; perhaps a harder look in the mirror would reveal more than just earrings.

The truth is that over two legs Hearts were outplayed by AEK, and no more so than during the first hour at Murrayfield when the home side had a full complement of players. Until that truth is recognised, Romanov and his lieutenants won’t make the progress they crave.

Taken from the Sunday Herald