Show us the money

Legendary Jambos keeper Smith is still a season ticket-holder at the club he loves.

And he’s suffered with the rest of the supporters as the capital giants lurch towards administration.

Smith, 57, blames the crisis on astronomical wages squandered on mediocre players — but says it’s more important lessons are learned by prospective owners of the club.

Smith — speaking at yesterday’s Edinburgh Street Soccer Festival in Princes Street — said: “I’ve read there are five or six groups putting bids in and I hope they will be scrutinised closely.

“I hope it’s not a case like when Vladimir Romanov came in and they said ‘Oh yes, he has cash, let’s have him.’

“We need to look at every one of these groups right down to the bones. If they have cash, show us the figures, show us it in black and white. Then we can take it forward.

“But my fear is that will take time — and time is the thing Hearts have not got.

“Whoever comes in, we need to see hard offers on paper, but we also need to make sure they can be true to their word and take it from there.

“I think Romanov is to blame for where the club is now — for a start at least.

“He wanted to win the European Cup, and he made big statements like that.

“He also paid far too much money to players who weren’t fit to wear the Hearts jersey and did not know what it was all about. If you pay big wages but don’t have the money to cover it then it’s unsustainable.

“But it was as if that wasn’t looked at and things have spiralled out of control from there.

“Somebody should have seen that scenario developing a lot earlier — whether we blame Romanov or financial advisors or anyone else. It’s not just Romanov — someone else should have put their foot down.”

Smith says there was a sense of inevitability about Hearts’ inability to pay players’ wages last week and the resultant transfer embargo.

He said: “It’s been coming, hasn’t it? You hear about the things that are going on behind the scenes at Tynecastle and you can tell something serious is happening. It was always going to happen through the summer months because with no revenue coming in it was always going to be hard.

“The priority in the weeks to come is staying in the SPL.

“Not being able to pay wages, and the sanctions which come because of that, is a bad situation. Points deductions could come.

“But as long as we are in the SPL then I’m not bothered — that’s the priority.

“That is where we need to be and the money will come.

“The fans are there — there’s a core support of 13-14,000 — so the money will come in once the games start.

“But if things deteriorate to such an extent that we end up in Division Three like Rangers last summer, then that’s where we have to go — but hopefully that’s a last resort.

“We don’t want to lose our derby games against Hibs or our games against Celtic because those are full houses for us. But if that happens, then so be it.

“The ones I feel for are the players and the fans because they’re the ones who have done nothing wrong.

“The Hearts fans have been magnificent bailing the club out a couple of times. The players have kept the team in the SPL — the kids have come through and had a good season.

“They’ve got some experience and they’ve got acclimatised to the SPL and have a better knowledge of what they have to do.

“They can only get stronger and Gary Locke will see to that — so it will be a travesty if these boys end up playing in Division Three. With them being up for sale, we don’t even know if they’ll still be there.

“It will be a worry for them, reading that they’re for sale. They will be going through the summer wondering whether they’re going to be Hearts players next season.

“They’ll wonder if anyone else will come in for them and on top of it, they’re not getting paid — it’s such a worry.

“But they are players and sadly they have become used to these situations through the season.

“You can’t really get a harder situation than this one, but they’ve kept on doing the business.

“We have the nucleus of a good side at the club. We’ve a top keeper, and the likes of Jason Holt and Jamie Walker coming through. Callum Tapping and Callum Paterson are coming on nicely.

“Dylan McGowan, who could be a better player than his brother Ryan, is there.

“They’re all talents and all I wanted was for Lockie to get a couple of older heads in to help the kids — but nobody knows whether he will get the chance to build this team.”