No one’s going to kill my Jambos

The Jambos legend insists the Tynecastle club will NEVER disappear into it — even if it means playing part-time in the Third Division.

Robbo is still hopeful his old club can pull through the biggest challenge they have faced in their 139-year history.

Hearts’ all-time leading goalscorer and former manager Robbo said: “We have got to be honest — Hearts are now staring into the abyss but I am confident the club can be saved. I have no worries whatsoever about that, but in what form, what condition and in what league?

“The whole point is we need someone to make that decision and tell us how much the club is worth.

“Let people know and let the negotiation period start quickly.

“Hearts will survive but the problem the Hearts fans have is where is the future of the club.

“I have no doubts they will exist. They could be in the SPL with a points reduction and a transfer embargo. We just don’t know.

“Things may be so bad that they get turfed into the Third Division and have to go part time.

Rallying “That may be the way forward, but we won’t be able to move forward until we know what the price of buying the club is going to be.”

Hearts weren’t able to pay the players their wages yesterday with season ticket sales down 20 per cent on the 8,000 they had banked on being sold by now.

Robertson insists the club can’t keep asking the supporters, who stumped up £1million in a share issue at the turn of the year, to bail them out.

He said: “The club came out in November to ask the fans to keep them going until the end of the season.

“The fans then responded magnificently by rallying and they got them out of it.

“But they are now in a situation where they can’t keep asking the fans to dig them out of a hole. It is a Catch-22 situation because they are 1,500-2,000 season tickets down on their projected figures.

“It is totally understandable and acceptable from the Hearts fans because they are obviously very wary of putting their money into the club.

“I am 100 per cent behind the fans who are standing back and waiting to see what to do and whether to renew their ticket or not.

“I empathise with their thoughts because we don’t know exactly where the money is going.

“There seems to be one thing after another and the club lurches from one crisis to the next — the £100,000 tax bill came out of the blue last week.”

Robbo says administrators in Lithuania for major shareholders Ukio Bankas and UBIG have to make their plans for their holding in the club clear for possible buyers.

He said: “They have to come out and give potential investors an indication of what they are after.

“We have heard that there is a Scandinavian consortium out there, I know there are Scottish people who are potentially interested in buying the club and I know the Foundation of Hearts want to buy it for the fans.

“We all need a clear indication as to what the administrators want for the debt of Ukio Bankas and UBIG.

“If they are willing to accept a pence-in-the-pound type scenario then that can get the ball rolling.

“But we need a decision made by them as to what they would deem an acceptable offer.

“That would at least give a starting point for the consortia or anyone else who may be interested in buying the club to take their plans forward.”

The players were not paid yesterday and with no income until TV money in August, other staff are expected to endure the same plight on their pay day next week.

Robbo admits it will be tough for the staff who have continually been paid late in the last few years.

Robbo, putting students through their paces for the SFA’s B coaching licence in Largs, said: “If you don’t get paid do you stick it out or move somewhere else?

“It is not their fault the club have mismanaged the funds, so you can’t keep asking them to defer wages.

“The players and the fans don’t want sympathy though, what they want is clarity.

“If they are told what the situation is, then you’d hope some of them would hang around for a new owner.

“I want to see a healthy Hearts in the future, but it is on a life support machine at the moment.

Negotiate “There is no money so it is down to what the club can bring in, but the fans — rightly in my opinion — have said enough is enough.

“On one hand, you do want them to come forward and buy season tickets, but how can you ask them to buy a ticket for a season they may not see?

“We don’t know for sure what division Hearts will be in and you can’t expect people to pay up when they don’t know what they are actually buying.

“The only way the club won’t go into administration is for buyers to come in once we have a starting point to negotiate.

“Although a lot of the blame is towards Vladimir Romanov, people have to remember that it was the Chris Robinson era which took the club up to £25million in debt in the first place.

“We have been mismanaged in many ways over the decades.

“It is now about how to take the club forward and start living within its means.”