Spiers on Saturday: Locke has to rally Hearts for Edinburgh derby against dire financial backdrop

Spiers on Saturday
Graham Spiers
Saturday 10 August 2013

Some Hearts fans are still ruing the day their club ever got embroiled in its eastern European tryst, although it is timely to recall the sheer mess at Tynecastle in years past as the club now lurches through administration towards a fateful CVA decision.

These are anxious times in Gorgie. The Foundation of Hearts remains on course to be given preferred bidder status by BDO, the club's administrators.

Tomorrow, hapless Hibernian show up at Tynecastle for the first Edinburgh derby of the season, a match in which it is hard to guess which team will be worse.But for Hearts fans, recent history should not be forgotten.

It has become a default position to vilify Vladimir Romanov, the cantankerous figure who appeared on the scene in 2004 and promised the world to aggrieved fans. You now sense that Hearts were headed for a terrible fate eight years ago, one that might not have been any easier than the crisis currently facing the club.

Hearts were £20m in debt to Halifax Bank of Scotland in season 2004/05, just when Romanov came sniffing around looking for a Scottish football club to buy.

It was humiliating for Chris Robinson, then the Hearts chief executive, to have to put Tynecastle up for sale, wherein he reached an initial agreement with Cala Homes for a £22m sale of the stadium's footprint for housing development. Robinson, loathed by many Hearts supporters, felt he had no other option. The club was facing a financial meltdown.

Hearts, you may recall, were due to play their games on a completely different planet by the name of Murrayfield.

To this day, it is mystifying to assess Romanov's motives. He took on that £20m debt and personally guaranteed its transfer from HBOS to Ukio Bankas, which he had co-founded as Lithuania's first private bank.

Back then someone, somewhere at HBOS received a clearing cheque which erased Hearts' indebtedness and, in effect, had Romanov's signature on it.

Eight years on, here we are facing another Edinburgh derby tomorrow, and Hearts are thoroughly impoverished. A combination of a 15-point penalty for their insolvency event, as well as a transfer embargo stretching through to February 2014, means that Gary Locke, having watched summer departures, has a bunch of kids to work with.

Locke, a devoted Hearts man, is in the job five years too soon. He is a determined, impassioned character who is on a hiding to nothing.

As hopeless as Hibs have looked, the Hearts manager admits to looking on enviously at the contrast in fortunes between the two clubs over the summer. Pat Fenlon has added six new faces, and re-signed both Kevin Thomson and Ryan McGivern, while Locke has been fending off questions about how he will cope with a young, depleted squad.

"I'm envious of every manager right now," Locke said yesterday. "It's not just Hibs, everyone else can sign players, and we can't. So of course you are going to be envious.

"I think Hibs have strengthened wisely in the summer. Rowan Vine is a player I like, he's a clever player who scores goals. They have spent money on James Collins as well so they have certainly strengthened from last year."

Repeatedly, Locke has to be diplomatic about Hearts' abilities, not wanting to kill their season before it gets going. One misplaced word from the inexperienced coach and the headlines could be dire.

"My squad is a bit paper thin," Locke conceded. "But there is no point me worrying about who other people are signing. I know I can't sign anyone. All I am bothered about is Hearts and we have virtually a fully-fit squad. This will be a difficult game for us but, hopefully, we can get the points."

Off the field, we await the next Hearts instalment. It has been an agonising saga, now seven weeks of administration while BDO's Bryan Jackson has studied the wreckage of the club and UBIG, its Lithuanian parent company.

Yesterday, however, there was one significant step made in that context. The Foundation of Hearts appeared to emphatically snub the advances of Angelo Massone, who wished to muscle in on a joint-takeover bid for Hearts.

The Italian revealed how his Five Stars Football Ltd company was willing to provide financial support to the fans' group. But given that Massone led Livingston into administration in 2008, and BDO are thought to be sceptical over his ability to come up with funds, the Foundation chose to give the lawyer a wide berth.

"It's strange he does this on the day he must prove funding to BDO after a near two-week extension," said Ian Murray MP, the FoH chairman. "He's had three months to contact Foundation of Hearts and, given I'm not the hardest person in the world to get hold of, I feel somewhat suspicious. However, we have consistently said we'd talk to anyone with the best interests of the club at heart. I'll let others decide if this individual fits that particular qualification, given his well-documented history at Livingston."

Ukio Bankas, which claims to be owed £15m from Hearts, had informed both parties that they had to increase their offers for a CVA to go through. The Foundation of Hearts, which remains the front-runner to be granted preferred bidder status, have tabled a £3m CVA offer, with a further £3.75m available for working capital. Massone has offered a flat £4.25m.

Meanwhile, back on the training ground, Locke hopes that a little bit of nostalgia might rub off. He has brought in Hearts legend John Robertson to lend a hand with his strikers. "Robbo knows what the derby means here," said Locke. "I've got him in once a week to work with the strikers and I'm hoping we will see the fruits of that soon."

Taken from the Herald