Vlad's make it up as you go along strategy...

[Martin_T]

A lot of talk of fire sales etc given current circumstances, but thinking back, we've actually been in this movie before under VR.

 

Think back as far as January 31st 2007, a news update appears on the Hearts official website openly touting Pospisil, Brellier, Tall amongst others for sale on the last day of the transfer window. The club are unable to move any of them on, Hearts again recruit a number of experienced professionals in pre-season 2007/8 (Ksanavicius, Paluzeulos etc amongst others)

 

Fast forward to December 2008/January 2009, the club has been having liquidity issues meaning delays in the payment of player wages. Every player apparently up for sale. The only player we get an acceptable offer for is Berra who departs for Wolves. Hearts again recruit heavily in pre-season 2009/10 when Suso, Black, Bouzid, Kucharski and Witteveen all arrive despite suggestions that the Academy is the way forward.

 

Season 2011/12, Hearts sack Jim Jefferies and replace him with Paulo Sergio, VR wants to change the style of the team etc apparently. A couple of months down the line? Liquidity problems arrive and yet again another fire sale is being touted...young players are to get their chance.

 

VR's strategy for Hearts seems to be highly sensitive to the prevailing economic conditions at the time, we currently have a sovereign debt crisis in Europe, the problems in late 2008 were in line with sub-prime lending crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

 

There has never been a consistent strategy from the current ownership. They've tried recruiting expensive foreign talent, they've tried to 'showcase' Lithuanian players, they've tried to encourage the promotion of youth. Now you can argue for the influence of the incumbent head coach at the time being a factor, but it is ultimately VR who calls the shots at Hearts and the lack of a consistent strategy is part of the reason we find ourselves in the current mess.

[Peebo]

Indeed. If you ask me, there has never really been any strategy. It's just an expensive hobby to him, and given the lack of appearances he actually makes at Tynecastle, it's one he seems to have lost any real interest in a long time ago.

[Don Juan]

Agreed. I think the majority would be happy to get rid of the usual starters and play some of the younger players. However we have been hearing that this will happen for years and never does.

[Teuchterjambo]

A lot of talk of fire sales etc given current circumstances, but thinking back, we've actually been in this movie before under VR.

 

Think back as far as January 31st 2007, a news update appears on the Hearts official website openly touting Pospisil, Brellier, Tall amongst others for sale on the last day of the transfer window. The club are unable to move any of them on, Hearts again recruit a number of experienced professionals in pre-season 2007/8 (Ksanavicius, Paluzeulos etc amongst others)

 

Fast forward to December 2008/January 2009, the club has been having liquidity issues meaning delays in the payment of player wages. Every player apparently up for sale. The only player we get an acceptable offer for is Berra who departs for Wolves. Hearts again recruit heavily in pre-season 2009/10 when Suso, Black, Bouzid, Kucharski and Witteveen all arrive despite suggestions that the Academy is the way forward.

 

Season 2011/12, Hearts sack Jim Jefferies and replace him with Paulo Sergio, VR wants to change the style of the team etc apparently. A couple of months down the line? Liquidity problems arrive and yet again another fire sale is being touted...young players are to get their chance.

 

VR's strategy for Hearts seems to be highly sensitive to the prevailing economic conditions at the time, we currently have a sovereign debt crisis in Europe, the problems in late 2008 were in line with sub-prime lending crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

 

There has never been a consistent strategy from the current ownership. They've tried recruiting expensive foreign talent, they've tried to 'showcase' Lithuanian players, they've tried to encourage the promotion of youth. Now you can argue for the influence of the incumbent head coach at the time being a factor, but it is ultimately VR who calls the shots at Hearts and the lack of a consistent strategy is part of the reason we find ourselves in the current mess.

 

Absolutely agree 100% - it has been management without strategy since the day Burley got the bullet, no coherent plan and management by personal whim, nothing else.

 

Never mind the usual suspects will soon be along..... but but he saved us from the Pieman and kept us at Tynecastle and they will worship at his feet forever more on that. You can only dine out on past glories for so long and the menu isn't half as appetizing now !

[kennyblack'sshot]

I think we just have to accept that very, very rich people need hobbies too. And they often involve buying, selling and running businesses - sometimes for money, sometimes for prestige and sometimes for fun - perhaps in this case a bit of all three (in terms of the aims and motives).

 

People who buy football clubs actually are more than likely looking for a hobby and possibly also have the delusions that we all have as football fans - that with just a few changes we can win the league!

 

Put it this way, if I won the lottery I would be seriously interested in buying Hearts, and I would have very specific ideas of how I would run the club. I would at best hope to get my money back sometime. It I couldn't get Hearts I would consider buying a club elsewhere, including abroad just for the hell of it and to see if I could make it work - also for the fun of it. Making money out of it would be well down my list of priorities. But because it was my money I put in I would want to have a say in most decisions - including possibly the team - and would therefore probably be painted in the media as a meddling owner! As I say even rich people need hobbies and hobbies generally don't make you money.

 

Vlad's been castigated for buying players. He should have let Burley get on with the job but the fact is that Burley - like Robbo - didn't like being "given" players. He wanted full control. If he could have compromised instead of complaining to the media while manager he might never have been sacked from Hearts.

 

I watched the film Moneyball recently. It was amazing how in Baseball, like most American sports, the owners and their scouts sign all the players. They then hire a coach and say "Right, here's your squad - now build me a team" They also trade players during the season and there's not much the coaches or the players can do about it. That was Romanov's attitude - he saw it as a good thing that he's supplying players for the coach. He then expected the coach to coach them to success. We don't get that happening in Scotland - where managers are considered to have full charge of transfers and team choices - but it happens in Europe and American sports. And Romanov was always very specific in calling his hires "coach" rather than manager - I think in all cases, but certainly Rix, Csaba and Sergio.

[Francis Albert]

I think it's a good point, and it has struck me that it is just possible that too much is being read into his rather off-hand comments about selling up and buying a theatre (as others have pointed out the last bit an obvious joke that the Scottish media and to be fair some us were too thick to spot immediately). I am sure it's been true for some time that (like almost every club) we are for sale if the price is right. When we produce prospectus and invite people to make bids, and provide for the due diligence which any sane buyer will want to do very thoroughly, then we'll know how serious he is about selling. At present it's impossible to say. At one level it may be that he just wants to say, when the cost cutting begins in earnest (which I think will, belatedly, happen) he can respond to any criticism with a reminder that he is open to offers from other investors/buyers.

 

My guess is that Vlad will still be here a year from now.

[Francis Albert]

Indeed. If you ask me, there has never really been any strategy. It's just an expensive hobby to him, and given the lack of appearances he actually makes at Tynecastle, it's one he seems to have lost any real interest in a long time ago.

 

 

He has attended more often than a few on here!

[Peebo]

He has attended more often than a few on here!

 

Aye, I have no doubt about that. However, I live 5000 miles away, and I reckon I've been to more games than him this season!

[wibble]

I dont think anyone thinks he's done anything particularly well. Folk just realise that he is, was and will only ever be the only rich guy on the whole planet who was mental enough to buy a team in a fixed and dying league with more debt than was ever possible to pay off.

 

The vlad bashers seem to want him gone, but most refuse to accept that there will be no interested parties. None. Not one. Nobody. Hearts will be finished, just as they would have been if Vlad had stayed aboard his submarine or got into the theatre earlier in life.

 

AFC Hearts is the only thing fans will have left if Vlad walks. Anyone who thinks otherwise is more deluded than any hobo in Edinburgh.

[Jambomullins]

Fully agree. I've never trusted Romanov and been shot down on here on may occasions for saying so. That said, 99% of Jambos don't support Romanov so I couldn't really care less what the 'But, But he saved us from going to Murrayfield brigade' have to say.

 

However, I'm looking forward to the day he ****s off and we can hopefully have an owner who has a clue how to run an efficient business

[kennyblack'sshot]

Fully agree. I've never trusted Romanov and been shot down on here on may occasions for saying so. That said, 99% of Jambos don't support Romanov so I couldn't really care less what the 'But, But he saved us from going to Murrayfield brigade' have to say.

 

However, I'm looking forward to the day he ****s off and we can hopefully have an owner who has a clue how to run an efficient business[/b]

 

People who know how to run efficient businesses generally don't target football clubs for their next purchase - not clubs at our level anyhow. If they do, they quickly realise that a football club is about as far from an "efficient business" as you can get - simply because unlike almost every other business, no football club's main reason for existing is to make money. No football club on earth was started as a business. They have become multi-million pound businesses due to TV money flooding into the game but they are still not making money or even aiming to make money.

[Martin_T]

I dont think anyone thinks he's done anything particularly well. Folk just realise that he is, was and will only ever be the only rich guy on the whole planet who was mental enough to buy a team in a fixed and dying league with more debt than was ever possible to pay off.

 

The vlad bashers seem to want him gone, but most refuse to accept that there will be no interested parties. None. Not one. Nobody. Hearts will be finished, just as they would have been if Vlad had stayed aboard his submarine or got into the theatre earlier in life.

 

AFC Hearts is the only thing fans will have left if Vlad walks. Anyone who thinks otherwise is more deluded than any hobo in Edinburgh.

 

You seem to have a lot of personal capital with VR, but I think the bit in bold is melodramatic. For starters there are interested parties in the club, but again it all depends on the terms of sale. What you say is true if VR does not agree to write off a sizeable portion of the debt, I tend to think he will.

[Nookie Bear]

I dont really have a problem with the buying and selling decisions being taken out off the head coaches hands. Unfortunately, in our case the guy making those calls has neither the skill or experience to do it effectively.

[J.C 7]

The OP is spot on,after getting the squad to a decent standard in 05/06 if things had been allowed to roll along nicely,that squad couldve been supplemented by young players coming through and some spl signings.

 

Cant help but think we missed the boat with some spl players such as naismith,robson,scott mcdonald who wouldve done us a turn and.maybe moved on at a profit. Seemed we werent interested on scottish players a lot of the time though.

 

Vlads had his positives but his continual d!ckin about on the playin side has cost us on and off the pitch imo.

[kennyblack'sshot]

The OP is spot on,after getting the squad to a decent standard in 05/06 if things had been allowed to roll along nicely,that squad couldve been supplemented by young players coming through and some spl signings.

 

Cant help but think we missed the boat with some spl players such as naismith,robson,scott mcdonald who wouldve done us a turn and.maybe moved on at a profit. Seemed we werent interested on scottish players a lot of the time though.

 

Vlads had his positives but his continual d!ckin about on the playin side has cost us on and off the pitch imo.

 

I agree with you but negative stories about him bringing in loan players and players from Kaunas started immediately. Robbo complained about it and Burley made it clear he wasn't happy with it. JJ had a much more mature attitude which is why I was sad to see him sacked when he was. I just think if everyone had comprised a bit back then it might have worked out differently. But we'd not really seen an owner like Romanov at a top SPL club before.

[Eldar Hadzimehmedovic]

Broad generalisations:

 

First plan with Varanavicius, to develop Lithuanian players.

 

Second stage with others making decisions, success on the pitch but worrying spending.

 

Almost every day since he gained full control, utter chaos.

 

[wibble]

 

You seem to have a lot of personal capital with VR, but I think the bit in bold is melodramatic. For starters there are interested parties in the club, but again it all depends on the terms of sale. What you say is true if VR does not agree to write off a sizeable portion of the debt, I tend to think he will.<br />

 

He couldnt write off enough debt to make the club a viable proposition. With a new stand a necessity, even a 10 million carry over would be unsustainable.

Folk talk about running a club with youngsters on the pitch. I used to be one of the 6 or 7,000 at games when we played teams of journeymen and youngsters. It was shite. Folk would be loyal in year 1 and then drift away at a worrying rate.

 

Very interested to hear about all these interested parties outside of Pat the plumber of course.

[kennyblack'sshot]

He couldnt write off enough debt to make the club a viable proposition. With a new stand a necessity, even a 10 million carry over would be unsustainable.

Folk talk about running a club with youngsters on the pitch. I used to be one of the 6 or 7,000 at games when we played teams of journeymen and youngsters. It was shite. Folk would be loyal in year 1 and then drift away at a worrying rate.

 

Very interested to hear about all these interested parties outside of Pat the plumber of course.

 

I was also one of those - watching us play Ayr, East Stirling and the rest in the First Division - and I became a fan for life. That was before video games mind you.

[portobellojambo1]

I think there was a plan/strategy originally Martin, but if I'm honest said plan/strategy came to a rather abrupt end the day George Burley was dismissed , before it had even been given a chance to possibly achieve its intention. It would be interesting if we actually discover at some time in the future why he decided to pull the plug on his intentions so early on before seeing where it could have led us, but I suspect he isn't the sort of person who will draft an autobiography.

[J.C 7]

I agree with you but negative stories about him bringing in loan players and players from Kaunas started immediately. Robbo complained about it and Burley made it clear he wasn't happy with it. JJ had a much more mature attitude which is why I was sad to see him sacked when he was. I just think if everyone had comprised a bit back then it might have worked out differently. But we'd not really seen an owner like Romanov at a top SPL club before.

 

I dont think robbo,burley etc wouldve had a problem if they got the final say but that was the problem. 06/07 was where the liths were really pushed iirc (the ensuing seasons are a blur to me,think my memory has mentally blocked stuff out) zali in midfield etc,velicka coming in,piliabitis etc which I didnt have a problem if guys were good enough and some done us a turn but I think this was to the detriment of our young players trying to come through and long term have we got anything from the lith experiment?

[The Comedian]

If there was ever a plan I do think it was to use hearts to sell Lithuanian footballers and make profit off them.

 

This is why vlad had to exert pressure on managers about signings and selection. I do think it morphed slightly but that's is why I think he bought us.

 

If his comments in that Russian paper are accurate, that was the plan. One crucial factor blew that out the water though: they were crap. Other than maybe one or two, they weren't good enough for US let alone the EPL. What does that say about his knowledge of his own players in his own league? I think the best of them in terms of value to the club has been Zaliukas and he'll never play in the EPL as long as he has a hole in his arse.

 

The plan should have been to keep a tight reign on the clubs finances, bring through the best young Lithuania talent along with the best we have here and have a structured and disciplined youth policy. The money coming in from player sales could have been clearing debt, put away for a new stadium and invested back into youth development.

 

It staggers me how we've been run by Romanov

[wibble]

He could clearly write off enough debt to make us viable. The problem is at the moment were not even technically solvent!! He writes all the debt off you think no one will be interested?

 

FFS we have allegedly 2 parties interested in our current state.

 

The club could be run on a profit basis fairly easily. Wages basef off season tickets sales only for example. Consequences may well be a crap product on park, however, truth be told we've spent fortunes and still resulted on crap product on park.

 

Scottish football is changing as whole not just at hearts.

 

What do you want these interested parties exactly to do? Announce themselves in press? People have constantly said there would be no interest when there appears to be its dismissed. Why? Now any takeover will be solely dependent on vlad and what he will accept. People would and will takeover Us over but they will not just throw there money away it is a business deal at the end of the day.

 

You really believe there are interested parties? Who told you? The media?? Get a grip.

 

Look at the reality of the situation.

 

A club 30m in debt.

A club that hasn't turned a real profit in living memory.

A stand that needs bulldozed and rebuilt.

A league that is a 2 horse race - and is fixed that way.

A league in terminal decline attendance wise.

A league that may soon be short of 1 of it's 2 TV money drawcards.

A national economy that is staring into an abyss.

Unemployment skyrocketing.

More quality football on TV than ever before.

 

As I have said before. The only people expressing an interest are either attention seeking fandans, wind-up merchants or figments of the medias imagination.

 

Vlad could wipe out the debt entirely and Hearts would still be a bad bit of business because only 1 of the points I make above would change.

[Hansel]

Sometimes I feel like I'm Charlie form Charlie and the chocolate factory, and Vlad is Willy Wonka. I like the taste of Wonka's chocolate, but his whimsical nature frightens me. He doesn't notice the chaos he creates.

 

Anyway, I'm off to bed.

[kennyblack'sshot]

Let's just make one thing clear - there is always going to be a club with Hearts in their name in Edinburgh. If there are clubs like Spartans and East Stirling and Livingston then there will be a Hearts. We may avoid administration or whatever or we may end up like Dundee for a while.

 

Whatever happens, there will be a Hearts-related club to support. Then we will find out who the true fans are. If there are people moaning on here who then stop going to game because the club is down at the foot of the league then they'll only have themselves to blame if the club never builds itself up again.

 

Hearts might go bust but the 10,000 minimum season ticket holders and the rest of the fans who go to as many games as they can and buy merchandise etc won't spontaneously combust. It will be up to us fans what happens to the club after that - if we all turn up we will very quickly get back to where we were as we will still have the third biggest support in the league, so will eventually be able to outbid other clubs for players, etc. If we don't turn up to games, we won't and Aberdeen, D Utd or Hibs might get themselves together and take advantage of our downfall. So it really is up to us fans what happens to the club after it is either sold or reformed as AFC Hearts. I can understand people not wanting to go to all games just now as they don;t want to pay rubbish players high wages (I felt like that when Kingston and Nade were in the team), but when we have a team of youngsters and journeymen again, it will be up to us to push the club on to bigger things - as we did during the 80s and 90s.

[Martin_T]

Let's just make one thing clear - there is always going to be a club with Hearts in their name in Edinburgh. If there are clubs like Spartans and East Stirling and Livingston then there will be a Hearts. We may avoid administration or whatever or we may end up like Dundee for a while.

 

Whatever happens, there will be a Hearts-related club to support. Then we will find out who the true fans are. If there are people moaning on here who then stop going to game because the club is down at the foot of the league then they'll only have themselves to blame if the club never builds itself up again.

 

Hearts might go bust but the 10,000 minimum season ticket holders and the rest of the fans who go to as many games as they can and buy merchandise etc won't spontaneously combust. It will be up to us fans what happens to the club after that - if we all turn up we will very quickly get back to where we were as we will still have the third biggest support in the league, so will eventually be able to outbid other clubs for players, etc. If we don't turn up to games, we won't and Aberdeen, D Utd or Hibs might get themselves together and take advantage of our downfall. So it really is up to us fans what happens to the club after it is either sold or reformed as AFC Hearts. I can understand people not wanting to go to all games just now as they don;t want to pay rubbish players high wages (I felt like that when Kingston and Nade were in the team), but when we have a team of youngsters and journeymen again, it will be up to us to push the club on to bigger things - as we did during the 80s and 90s.

 

I'm hoping it doesn't come to this, but the one thing that has been consistent during VR's tenure is that we are entirely at the mercy of his whim.

[Someday]

The OP is spot on,after getting the squad to a decent standard in 05/06 if things had been allowed to roll along nicely,that squad couldve been supplemented by young players coming through and some spl signings.Cant help but think we missed the boat with some spl players such as naismith,robson,scott mcdonald who wouldve done us a turn and.maybe moved on at a profit. Seemed we werent interested on scottish players a lot of the time though.

 

Vlads had his positives but his continual d!ckin about on the playin side has cost us on and off the pitch imo.

 

No, without Champions League success and increased ground capacity we could not have continued to pay the high wages.

[Cade]

We should be very grateful that he has never shown very much interest in the club ona day-to-day basis (other than 05/06 season)....

 

If you look at what happened to FBK Kaunas when Vlad got too involved, we got away luckily.

 

When Vlad cares too much

 

"After finishing second in 2007/08 A Lyga championship the club's president announced that the club were being demoted from the A Lyga in favour of LFF I Lyga, the 2nd tier of Lithuanian football system, but as conflict with LFF intensified, FBK Kaunas was relegated to LFF II lyga (consisting of amateur teams)."

[The Comedian]

We should be very grateful that he has never shown very much interest in the club ona day-to-day basis (other than 05/06 season)....

 

If you look at what happened to FBK Kaunas when Vlad got too involved, we got away luckily.

 

When Vlad cares too much

 

"After finishing second in 2007/08 A Lyga championship the club's president announced that the club were being demoted from the A Lyga in favour of LFF I Lyga, the 2nd tier of Lithuanian football system, but as conflict with LFF intensified, FBK Kaunas was relegated to LFF II lyga (consisting of amateur teams)."

 

19 managers at FBK in 8 years.

 

[The Mighty Thor]

If there was ever a plan I do think it was to use hearts to sell Lithuanian footballers and make profit off them.

 

This is why vlad had to exert pressure on managers about signings and selection. I do think it morphed slightly but that's is why I think he bought us.

 

 

This was unquestionably the strategy initially.

 

It was a non-starter because the players brought over were no better than the indigenous players in the SPL.

 

The only exception was Velicka but technically he was transferred from FBK Kaunas to Viking thus the transfer fee went to them.

[J.C 7]

No, without Champions League success and increased ground capacity we could not have continued to pay the high wages.

 

Im not saying we shouldve kept paying high wages but rather players replaced appropriately for less either through young players,driver wallace etc at the time and guys like naismith that I mentioned coming in once the likes of bednar etc where sold,this.wouldve made more sense than bringing the liths in and as I mentioned think there wouldve been more sell on value with some of the spl players around at the time. We missed a chance to make good money and keep the team at a decent level. Instead we insisted on signing some huddys and still paid big wages.

[The Gasman]

I think it's a good point, and it has struck me that it is just possible that too much is being read into his rather off-hand comments about selling up and buying a theatre (as others have pointed out the last bit an obvious joke that the Scottish media and to be fair some us were too thick to spot immediately). I am sure it's been true for some time that (like almost every club) we are for sale if the price is right. When we produce prospectus and invite people to make bids, and provide for the due diligence which any sane buyer will want to do very thoroughly, then we'll know how serious he is about selling. At present it's impossible to say. At one level it may be that he just wants to say, when the cost cutting begins in earnest (which I think will, belatedly, happen) he can respond to any criticism with a reminder that he is open to offers from other investors/buyers.

 

My guess is that Vlad will still be here a year from now.

 

I'm with FA on this.

[Johanes de Silentio]

Sometimes I feel like I'm Charlie form Charlie and the chocolate factory, and Vlad is Willy Wonka. I like the taste of Wonka's chocolate[/b.

 

Anyway, I'm off to bed.

 

A brave admission - sweet dreams!

 

Vlad's reign in three words - The Madcap Laughs.

 

Yup - Vlad is Syd - shine on, you crazy diamond - but do it somewhere else.

 

Time for Roger to step forward - "think I'll buy me a football team" - shame he's an Arsenal fan.

[Paolo]

19 managers at FBK in 8 years.

 

 

Almost as many as Hibs.

[John Gentleman]

Almost as many as Hibs.

 

Aye, shouldve been very predictable.

As the saying goes, the best predictor for the future lies in the past.

 

Still reckon be possesses all the traits inherant in a clinical psychopath.

[redm]

People who know how to run efficient businesses generally don't target football clubs for their next purchase - not clubs at our level anyhow. If they do, they quickly realise that a football club is about as far from an "efficient business" as you can get - simply because unlike almost every other business, no football club's main reason for existing is to make money. No football club on earth was started as a business. They have become multi-million pound businesses due to TV money flooding into the game but they are still not making money or even aiming to make money.

 

Good post.

 

 

Over the last few weeks (and the last few years, I suppose) I've been genuinely amazed by the amount of knee jerking some parts of the support are willing to indulge in when it comes to Vlad. It's all "get him out" chat without any consideration ever given to the reasons why he arrived in the first place, the reasons why he was interested when others weren't, the reasons why he is still the only viable show in town and the reasons why, until we see something better than "two interested parties" reports from the BBC, we have no choice but to be slightly sceptical about the alternatives on offer.

 

It also irritates me that so many seem to decide to adopt a position based on what their opinion is about our club's credibility and how it reflects on them as individual Hearts fans, i.e. Vlad is embarrassing me, therefore he must go. Vlad not paying the wages means I'm getting a hard time from hibbies in the office so as far as I'm concerned, that means he's a crap owner and can GTF whenever he likes. Sometimes it seems to be as simple as that. It's quite unbelievable.

[jamboinglasgow]

Good post.

 

 

Over the last few weeks (and the last few years, I suppose) I've been genuinely amazed by the amount of knee jerking some parts of the support are willing to indulge in when it comes to Vlad. It's all "get him out" chat without any consideration ever given to the reasons why he arrived in the first place, the reasons why he was interested when others weren't, the reasons why he is still the only viable show in town and the reasons why, until we see something better than "two interested parties" reports from the BBC, we have no choice but to be slightly sceptical about the alternatives on offer.

 

It also irritates me that so many seem to decide to adopt a position based on what their opinion is about our club's credibility and how it reflects on them as individual Hearts fans, i.e. Vlad is embarrassing me, therefore he must go. Vlad not paying the wages means I'm getting a hard time from hibbies in the office so as far as I'm concerned, that means he's a crap owner and can GTF whenever he likes. Sometimes it seems to be as simple as that. It's quite unbelievable.

 

It reminds me of once I spoke to someone who had been running a football club, and I asked him could you run a football club sensibly (i.e. turn a profit every year) and this person said that you could, the problem is that you can only do that if every other club does the same. The problem if football is that all it takes is one club to pay more then it earns on wages, it gets better players, rises up the league, other clubs not wanting to be left behind do the same so they spend more then they earn pushing wages up, that in turn means pressure on your club as players demand larger wages due to the inflation from other clubs meaning you either pay up or go backwards which means you face pressures from your own support who want success. Thus clubs get into this financial position. Now one of the supposed ways you can deal with that is wage caps, however that will never happen in Scotland (and Britain) as it is illegal under EU law. The financial fair play will help a little, but with big clubs already finding ways around it I think it may only be a large stone in a river, it may stop some of the problems but it is not stopping most of it. I feel the only thing that will force change is if there is a economic crash in football, as clubs become insolvent with too much debt. Out of this the clubs in countries which have dealt with financial problems (Germany and France (though with what has happened to PSG, there is a danger their financial prudence will go out the window.)

 

The Scottish football needs to deal with this now, and it may require a voluntary agreement among all clubs to keep to a pre-agreed level, as it cant be set in the rules it is at mercy to clubs not panicking and spending like mad. Though Germany and France seem to cope having a licence system where clubs must submit their finances before every season.

 

I would agree that Vlad seems to change his strategy at will, he has often said before he wants us to use the academy more yet allows his managers to bring in players of average ability rather then promoting from within. But it feels very different this time. And I think this new plan has come out of nessceity rather then any long term plan. I think the financial reality of Hearts has really hit Romanov, the last two wage delays have demonstrated that we are very much at risk. So it has to be a case of cut heavily to reduce the wage bill to one that is manageable and use the academy which for all its money pumped into it, is very underused by the first team. I do wonder if pressure from UBIG has brought about this change of plan. Of course it requires more then just cutting and throwing in youngsters as there is much that needs to change or be planned to make the policy succesful, hopefully Vlad has dealt with this.

[wibble]

I dont think a salary cap would be illegal, unless it restricted the wage of the individual. An SPL without the OF would do well to set a salary cap of say 5 milion a year and restrict first team squad size to say 25 players (averaging a wage of 20,000 a year each). Teams could have marquee players on much higher wages if they also had younger players or journeymen in the squad on less.