Eight years older, eight years wiser at Hearts

Jamie MacDonald has been there from the very start.

The Hearts goalkeeper experienced the rush of excitement that greeted Vladimir Romanov's arrival, the investment and Champions League adventure, two Scottish Cup triumphs, but then the bad times, too, culminating in the Tynecastle club's ongoing battle for their very existence.

The past eight years have been a remarkable time and the 27-year-old, one of those who has taken a pay cut to help the club, is the only player to have lasted the Lithuanian's entire tenure. There is, therefore, no better person to recount the highs and lows of the past eight years. "There was the odd time when he'd come in for meetings and do his speech through his interpreter," said MacDonald, who insists it was a 'no-brainer' to take a 50% pay cut. "Some of the meetings were a bit mental to say the least, with threats and what not – especially in the early days. That was just his character. You don't know if it was just a psychological thing to put in a scare factor. It's a different culture over there.

"I was only a young boy at the time, thinking: 'wow, this is different from what I'm used to'. It was something different and character building. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. It was just his way of dealing with things, rightly or wrongly. Everyone has their way of dealings with things."

Hearts finally succumbed to their cash-flow problems last week but MacDonald had been preparing for such a scenario. The writing was all on the wall for Hearts from as early as 2005 when Romanov spent lavish sums building a bloated squad.

"Did I see this coming? Yeah," adds MacDonald. "One Christmas, Vlad brought over 33 players from Eastern Europe to play against our under-19s. We played three games against three teams of trialists and signed about 15 of them.

"If you look back and how many players we were carrying, it's astonishing. If you look back to the start of Romanov's reign then that's where most of the damage was done. It's only a matter of time. You kind of realise it is probably inevitable but at the same time you think, 'it's going to be all right'."

Taken from the Herald