Hibs legend Jackie McNamara Snr: We must stop people like Vladimir Romanov taking over Scotland's iconic clubs

Hugh Keevins

ALTHOUGH he is on the green side of the Edinburgh divide, Jackie does not want to see rivals Hearts go to the wall.

YOU wouldn’t need a fertile imagination to believe that Tynecastle could conceivably stage the last Edinburgh derby for some time, or of all time, tomorrow afternoon.

Hearts remain on a life-support machine and the plug is in the hands of administrators in Lithuania who’ve already stated their intention to liquidate the club unless they receive a financial offer that suits them.

And that hasn’t happened yet.

But Jackie McNamara Senior, with 236 appearances for Hibs and a CV that also shows time spent as the club’s assistant manager, would derive no satisfaction from Hearts’ demise.

Or take any pleasure in watching them do a Rangers and start over again in the bottom tier.

The old firebrand socialist in McNamara tells him the game has been let down by the tolerance shown to what he describes as the “sharks” who have infested the waters inside Scottish football.

McNamara has always had a respect for the truth and an inclination towards offering a forthright opinion.

He’ll start with the subject of fans who get out the collection buckets and start to fill them in order to save the clubs they love.

And who are forced into a position where they have to do so because their teams are burdened with debts racked up by bungling owners.

McNamara said: “I’d be in favour of club licencing rules that would keep another Vladimir Romanov from coming into this country and devastating a club like Hearts.

“He’s a man in hiding now after using and abusing a great club.

“I often think, what would McCrae’s Battalion, the Hearts players who laid down their lives in the First World War, have made of all of this?

“There are people who’re getting involved in our game who represent the unacceptable face of capitalism.

“They are sharks circling our waters and seriously affecting clubs that are Scottish institutions.

“I’m not personally offended when I see Charles Green on TV say he’d take £14m for a 28 per cent share in Rangers if Jim McColl offered it to him but I would be if I was a supporter who’d just forked out for a season ticket at Ibrox.”

But McNamara isn’t a Rangers fan. He’s Hibs through and through and sufficiently well thought of by the club and its supporters to be asked to be one of the pall bearers at Lawrie Reilly’s funeral last week.

That doesn’t mean Jackie revels in Hearts walking the now well-trodden tightrope between administration and liquidation.

He said: “It would be stupid of anyone to wish the death penalty on Hearts. They’re the club who give Hibs their biggest home gates of the season and the rivalry between the clubs is healthy for the city.

“Of course there’s vitriol and bile between the fans but it’s a lesser dose than you get in Glasgow.

“Everything there is about parentage and whether you go to the church or the chapel on a Sunday.

“I went to the same school as Robert Russell, a fine player for Rangers in his day, when we were growing up in Easterhouse.

Vladimir Romanov is battling to save his business empire Vladimir Romanov is battling to save his business empire
PA

“I remember telling that to a Grade One referee who retired a few years ago and he said to me, ‘Are you sure?’

“I knew what he was trying to get at. My name’s McNamara and I began my senior career by spending three years with Celtic.

“That was enough to pigeonhole me in his eyes. Edinburgh’s not as vile.”

Tynecastle has been sold out days in advance of tomorrow’s game in spite of the fact Hearts have started the season with a 15-point deduction for going into administration.

And the away end of Tynecastle will be full regardless of the fact Hibs have started the season by suffering humiliation in Europe in
the form of a 9-0 aggregate defeat to Malmo in the qualifying round of the Europa League.

McNamara said: “Pat Fenlon’s managed Hibs to the two most embarrassing results in the club’s history.

“The 5-1 defeat to Hearts in the Scottish Cup Final and the 7-0 loss to Malmo in the second leg of the European tie at Easter Road were awful moments.

“Pat knows he’s in a results-driven industry and, like any manager, his next game could be his last. This weekend’s derby has to be about pride and self-respect for Hibs.

“I was on holiday when the all-Edinburgh Cup Final was played and I had a feeling I shouldn’t go back to Scotland for the match.

“I watched it on TV and I got nearer to Ian Black than any Hibs player did that day – and I was in Spain!

“If it had been Jim Jefferies in charge of Hearts for that game, instead of Paulo Sergio, he’d have been driving them on to obliterate
the memory of the day he was on the wrong side of a 7-0 win for Hibs at Tynecastle.

“I’m 60 now, and with the bus pass to prove it, and I’m beginning to think I’ll have passed on without seeing Hibs lift the Scottish Cup.

“I caught a glimpse of one of my sons on TV at the Final. He was wearing one of Chic Charnley’s jerseys from his time at Hibs. It was the fans I felt sorry for at Hampden.”

Jackie would like to see Hibs win at Tynecastle tomorrow but retains a regard for someone like Billy Brown and his decision to work for nothing to help Hearts through the turmoil stemming from their financial collapse.

He said: “Ordinarily, my trade unionist’s principles wouldn’t allow me to approve of people who work for nothing. But Billy loves his club so much he’s willing to do that.

“I love the fact he’s giving his club something back but I would hate it if people took advantage of that kind of generosity and saw it as a precedent while asking others to do the same.

“In the meantime all I’m concerned about is Hibs and Hearts still have each other to play against.

“I see the damage that has been caused to Scottish football by the loss of the Old Firm game. That’s what TV companies and sponsors want to see.

“Now we’ve had the amalgamation of the SPL and the SFL into the SPFL.

“Well, when I was a kid we called it a Marathon bar and now they call it a Snickers bar. But just because you change the name on the wrapping it doesn’t mean you’ve changed the product. I’d be more optimistic for the future if we had legislation to keep the sharks at bay, a bigger top division and a greater influx of young Scottish players into our top teams.

“There’s still an inclination to be blinded by the thought that excessive wages paid to foreign players will be a big help to the game but it’s simply not true.”

So what will be true of tomorrow’s derby, set against the background of inner turmoil at Tynecastle as the club awaits its fate and inner confusion at Hibs as they stumble from one bad result to the next?

McNamara said: “The ball will be black and blue and may spend the night as a patient at the Western General Infirmary.

“It’ll be nervy, fighting football and I can only hope there’s some kind of spectacle worth looking at in the midst of it all.

“Hibs haven’t been pleasing on the eye. They’re all ball retention without any purpose to their movement. I only went to the game we lost to Motherwell last Sunday because I’d been to a whisky tasting beforehand and after a couple of good malts I was talked into the idea.

“Hibs need to up their confidence level and Hearts shouldn’t rely on Partick Thistle struggling after winning promotion.

“I saw them play my son’s team, Dundee United, last weekend and they got a draw by playing football the right way.”

As our conversation ends, Jackie added: “Anyway, I’ll see you behind the goals.”

It’s a football man’s way of saying goodbye until the next time. And, for McNamara, the next time would look better if the sharks had been culled and the unacceptable face of capitalism had undergone surgery to remove its blemishes.

Taken from the Daily Record