Hearts are a historic club who deserve better

Published: 17/11/2012 at 12:00 AM

There was a quirky story from Scotland during the week when the DJ at Hibernian FC was sacked for playing inappropriate music at half-time.

Rudi Skacel celebrates his goal that helped Hearts beat Hibernian to win the Scottish Cup final in May.

The tune in question was the old Beatles number, Taxman, and it was apparently played as a dig against Edinburgh rivals Heart of Midlothian, who have been suffering severe tax problems which nearly put them out of business this week.

Whoever made the decision to sack the fellow appears to have lost their sense of humour, not that there is much to laugh about in Scottish football at the moment.

Mighty Rangers are currently languishing in the third division because of the financial mess the club got itself into and a number of other clubs, like Hearts, are on the brink of liquidation.

Things are not any better on the international scene either, Scotland team manager Craig Levein given the boot with his Bravehearts bottom of their 2014 World Cup qualifying group.

But the immediate concern is the survival of Hearts, a veritable Scottish institution at their Tynecastle home. They are the current Scottish FA Cup holders, but that has been the only bright spot recently. The Jam Tarts are struggling in the league and even worse, arch-rivals Hibs are top.

Hearts have long been regarded as the third team in Scotland - although Aberdeen fans might dispute that - never quite able to dent the stranglehold on the league of the two Glasgow giants, Celtic and Rangers.

It is no coincidence that Hearts used to have a fanzine called 'Always the Bridesmaid'. The last time they won the league title was back in 1960.

There is something quite appealing about Hearts and it is not just their attractive maroon kit. For a start, the very name, Heart of Midlothian, has a romantic ring to it. The name is derived from an old dance hall in Edinburgh, the Heart of Midlothian Dancing Club, where the founders used to go for entertainment.

There is a deeply poignant side to the club's history. When World War II broke out in 1914 the entire team volunteered for military duty. They were part of the 16th Royal Scots and became known as the footballers battalion. An estimated 500 Hearts supporters also signed up for the battalion along with 150 fans from rivals Hibs. Players from Raith Rovers, Falkirk and Dunfermline also signed up.

The football battalion suffered horrendous casualties in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, losing 500 men in just one day. Seven of the Hearts players were killed in action and a monument was erected to them in France at the scene of the battle at the village of Contalmaison.

Another world war had gone by before Hearts' strongest team emerged in the 1950s and they won the league twice thanks to the terrible trio of Willie Bauld, Alex Young and Alfie Conn up front, and midfielder Dave Mackay, who went on to play for Tottenham's Double-winning squad.

Hearts were desperately unlucky not to win two more league titles. In 1965, they finished joint top with Kilmarnock, having scored many more goals than their rivals with a much more impressive goal-difference. But in those days, goal-average was still being used, meaning Hearts missed out by a fraction, Kilmarnock having conceded fewer goals. Hearts were so disappointed they spearheaded moves to persuade the Scottish League to adopt goal-difference, which was duly approved.

Hearts found themselves in a similar situation 21 years later with the same number of points as Celtic but a slightly inferior goal-difference. If goal-average had been used, the Jam Tarts would have been the 1986 champions.

In 1990, Hearts owner Wallace Mercer, desperate to shake off the bridesmaid tag, proposed a merger with Hibs in an attempt to form an Edinburgh side strong enough to take on Celtic and Rangers. But after demonstrations featuring Hands Off Hibs posters, the project died a quick death.

Managing Hearts could be frustrating at times, as Levein, a former player with them, discovered when he was in charge in 2001. After a particularly wretched performance at Aberdeen, he couldn't hold back his feelings.

"I'll be using the winter break to make the players lives as miserable as possible," he insisted.

They came close to success in 2005-6, this time under the ownership of eccentric Lithuanian multi-millionaire Vladimir Romanov. Under manager George Burley, they enjoyed a fantastic start to the season winning their first eight games, putting them five points ahead of Celtic and 11 above Rangers.

And what was Burley's reward? He was promptly sacked by his Lithuanian boss. Apparently they just didn't like one another - what they call irreconcilable differences in divorce courts. Hearts went on to finish runners-up. Former Hearts chairman George Foulkes was less than impressed by Romanov.

"Vladimir Romanov used to be a Soviet naval commander," he said. "He thinks he can run Hearts like a Soviet submarine."

Romanov's dismissal of Burley was a sign of things to come, the Lithuanian disposing of nine managers in seven years.

One of the Hearts songs goes:

"This is our story, this is our song

Follow the Hearts and you can't go wrong

Some say that Rangers and Celtic are grand

But the boys in maroon are the best in the land"

Unfortunately, this season the "boys in maroon" are simply hoping they still have a club to play for.