HMFC think Big - many of our fans want to remain small time

[Hercules]

4 hours ago, i8hibsh said:

 

 

Well I am an emotional man,. love romcoms, shave my back. file my nails, give myself pedicures, love cleaning, my favourite colour are the pastel ones and ****ing love the film Dirty Dancing.

 

What is my prize?

 

I am very masculine however and 100% feel men are being emasculated every second of the day.  If in some way we need to apologise for being a man.

 

Football today is a soft sport, played by pansies and supported by unicorns and fairies.  I’m a get hacked, get up, spit your teeth out and get on with it kinda guy.

What a post 👊🏻👊🏻 One of my all time favourites. 

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

Its not hard this.

 

We have a lot of traditional fans

 

We are attempting to move away from traditional and be innovative and simply catching up with other teams e.g ladies team

 

Definition of madness - do the same thing expecting different results, well we haven't won the league since the 60's, is trying something new, that is a long term plan such a bad idea? Not when we have won but 3 trophies in my lifetime. That approach, the one that some crave with rose tinted glasses, would have met with the same ire had the internet existed from roughly 1965 onwards. At least 2 great Hearts teams would have been called shitbags for losing it on the last day.

 

So, to the OP, yes I agree, change is the most difficult thing in life, particularly when you cant identify with a very rich elderly lady with upper class chums, wealthy ones mind that help to finance all of those signings on the pitch. And then of course, her choice of football expert divides us perfectly in half.

 

You can be brave bold and stick to your plan, or you can listen to the likes of some of the most angry respondents, tear it up, and expect the same shit for the next 50 years

Edited August 29, 2019 by Sir Gio

[RudiHMFC]

Tragic. Just win football matches and stop being shite and everyone will be happy.

 

Let's not **** up the pitch before the season starts as well eh, that would be nice.

[OTT]

Folk need to understand that while thoughts of yesteryear bring back heaps of nostalgia if we ever want to become a genuine contender we need to change and evolve. For a club our size, we have woefully under performed over the years, and we've totally failed to keep up with the times. I don't think we'll ever properly catch Celtic but I do think we could do more to bridge the gap, since coming in Budge has increased turnover to in excess of £15m thats with zero meaningful player sales. With a heavier emphasis on youth in the first team going forward, its not outside the realms of possibility to have another £1-3m coming in every couple of seasons from player sales. If Budge can continue to strengthen us off the field we could be touching £20m before long. For context the huns revenue seems to be around £32m. If we're at £20m we're a damn sight closer to catching them than we've ever been. The FOH will play a massive role in funding projects (IMO) which will allow the club to grow further, and thats a totally unique advantage we have over every other club in Scotland. 

 

A little more growth beyond that and its honestly not that far away.  We do however, need to start getting things right on the footballing side. 

[Kiwidoug]

3 hours ago, jonnothejambo said:

Ah the 1970s. 

 

Humped regularly, relegation, piss poor crowds, being worse than Hibs, going to away games and being chased, most notably by the Perth Pack. Windows getting tanned in by Mhanks chucking bricks from the railway embankment. 

 

On Monday evening I sat in our beautiful stadium as darkness fell, saw the new dressing room and the beautiful pitch and was filled with pride at where we are now. 

 

All we need now is to start winning more games....

You get it Jonno.  I get it.  Jamboelite gets it and I strongly suspect the silent majority also get it.  We need to be free of the constant injury nightmare and start playing to our full potential and winning games.

 

We will.  Without a shadow of a doubt.  We are set up for a brilliant future.

[OTT]

3 hours ago, RudiHMFC said:

Tragic. Just win football matches and stop being shite and everyone will be happy.

 

Let's not **** up the pitch before the season starts as well eh, that would be nice.

 

It does kinda make me laugh that after all Budges humming and hawing about smoke bombs it turns out it was Budge herself who has done the most damage to the pitch  

[151]

11 hours ago, jambonian said:

The only thing "big" at the moment is certain egos. Once that is gone we'll start playing attractive football once again and go from strength to strength. 

 

Sadly, THE ego is here to stay.

[Hercules]

4 hours ago, jonnothejambo said:

Ah the 1970s. 

 

Humped regularly, relegation, piss poor crowds, being worse than Hibs, going to away games and being chased, most notably by the Perth Pack. Windows getting tanned in by Mhanks chucking bricks from the railway embankment. 

 

On Monday evening I sat in our beautiful stadium as darkness fell, saw the new dressing room and the beautiful pitch and was filled with pride at where we are now. 

 

All we need now is to start winning more games....

More games ????? 

How about some games ? 

[Kiwidoug]

11 minutes ago, Hercules said:

More games ????? 

How about some games ? 

We thrashed Stenhousemuir 2-1.

[Hercules]

31 minutes ago, Kiwidoug said:

We thrashed Stenhousemuir 2-1.

I forgot. Sorry mate. 😂👍🏻

[Stephen Muddie]

12 hours ago, i8hibsh said:

 

 

At least the dot count will be easy.

True. Count sold seats instead of unsold ones. Might be more difficult if they sell more than 5000 though. Source: an experienced dot counter.

12 hours ago, Saughton Jambo said:

I’m sure I’ve an old Ulster flag and UJ lying gathering dust in my attic that I could bring back for nostalgic purposes. I’ve kept them just in case some of our support reverts back to type and there’s a second coming of the gorgie aggro. Bit like waiting for the fourth Reich to appear 

I'm not sure if it's 1971 or you are still waiting in 2019?

11 hours ago, maroonshrew said:

Out of interest, as a man who blow dries his hair, moisturises, earns less than his wife, enjoys shopping, has twitter and facebook, watches Ru Paul's Drag Race and drinks oat milk lattes, does this mean you don't think I am masculine or a real man?

Votes remain, watches game of thrones, likes the Liberal Democrats and wears sandals with socks an aw?

11 hours ago, i8hibsh said:

Well I am an emotional man,. love romcoms, shave my back. file my nails, give myself pedicures, love cleaning, my favourite colour are the pastel ones and ****ing love the film Dirty Dancing.

 

What is my prize?

Hahahahahahahaha. Files his nails, favourite colours are the pastel ones?? WTF. Hahahaha. If I were on the awards panel I'd recommend a few new pairs of comfortable (hopefully untwisted) knickers.

10 hours ago, i8hibsh said:

You mean when all our finance is gained off the field and we earn nothing on it?  That is not a football team.

I guess we've never been a football team. 

10 hours ago, Meestah Sahmon said:

Sat pretending to write emails/word docs then pasting them into here to create the illusion of working, I assume because office work is for bent shots and he'd prefer to be out on a battlefield getting his head caved in with an axe, spitting his brain matter out and getting on with it again...

 THIS. 

9 hours ago, Notts1874 said:

I8 is like all of Hertz twitter merged into one seething mess of a person.😂😂😂

OMG It's true. i8ibsh is a.... *gulp* SEETHEBOT

 

7 hours ago, Shooter McGavin said:

Right now, the business side of the club is streets away from the on-the-park side of the club.

 

I’m excited for the time when the footballing side of things catches up but I’ve been waiting for that moment for a while now and it’s that waiting that is driving all Hearts fans crazy as we’ve had years where we were run as a total basket case yet still competed very well, now it’s the polar opposite. 

Good post. Feels that way.

1 hour ago, farin said:

What a weird thread. 😄

[TorinoJambo]

14 hours ago, The White Cockade said:

the 70's

when we got crowds of as low as 3 or 4 thousand

we hardly won a game

we were skint

any decent players were sold on for peanuts

bigotry and sectarianism were rife

the Board were hated

one of the main songs on the terraces was "what a load of rubbish"

those 70's?

Well summed up, my friend. I have went regularly since the mid sixties. The seventies were shit on the park but the camaraderie off the park was special. However, we are on the verge of something good. The academy is burgeoning and If the latest supposed Hickey story is true, we will be making regular massive money from its products. Factor in the fact that ALL the major expenditure on the stadium has been made and we will be able to afford better quality to compliment our youngsters. Leave Craig Levein to get on with it.

[Jambo-Fox]

Hearts bigger than the Hibs;

 

          NOW

 

         THEN

 

and

 

         FOREVER!!

[Beast Boy]

The changes that some people don’t like, are not changes individual to HMFC. They are changes to society that are only just starting to make it to scottish Football. Ann is trying to stay ahead of the curve, and I for one am pleased she is.

 

You hear a lot of garbage about how Ann doesn’t get football, or she doesn’t understand HMFC. I think the opposite is true. She understands very clearly what football is in the modern age, and she understands that those changes are coming to Scottish football, whether we like it or not. She is keeping us ahead of the curve.

 

I believe that much of the criticism the club receives is unwarranted. She is being blamed for changes in society, that are happening one way or another anyway. People are taking out their frustrations at the world changing on Hearts and Budge.

 

Reminds me of the people who voted for BREXIT who say they remember the days before we joined the EU and want us to go back to that. Unfortunately for them, and for our own ‘real men’, those days are gone and they cannot return. I think people are trying to cut off their noses to spite their faces.

 

 

[OTT]

3 hours ago, Icon of Symmetry said:

The changes that some people don’t like, are not changes individual to HMFC. They are changes to society that are only just starting to make it to scottish Football. Ann is trying to stay ahead of the curve, and I for one am pleased she is.

 

You hear a lot of garbage about how Ann doesn’t get football, or she doesn’t understand HMFC. I think the opposite is true. She understands very clearly what football is in the modern age, and she understands that those changes are coming to Scottish football, whether we like it or not. She is keeping us ahead of the curve.

 

I believe that much of the criticism the club receives is unwarranted. She is being blamed for changes in society, that are happening one way or another anyway. People are taking out their frustrations at the world changing on Hearts and Budge.

 

Reminds me of the people who voted for BREXIT who say they remember the days before we joined the EU and want us to go back to that. Unfortunately for them, and for our own ‘real men’, those days are gone and they cannot return. I think people are trying to cut off their noses to spite their faces.

 

 

 

I think this is a pretty good post tbh.

 

My view is that Ann doesn't understand football in the football sense, but in the modern era football and business have crossed over, and if there is one thing Ann does get is business. I think she understands now that sucessful football clubs are more than just football clubs, they're businesses and offer consumers more than just football - function suites for example during non-match days. I want Budge to have the freedom to pursue off-field projects because the end of year accounts speak for themselves. IIRC when she took over we were sitting around £8m, we're now sitting at £15m, I want to see how much further Ann can grow that turnover before she steps down to go enjoy her retirement.

 

I think finding a guy as committed as Levein to do the job he's doing is very near impossible. Too many folk are happy to have no legacy bouncing from club to club down south raking in the cash for failure. We could probably get better than Levein but we'd be lucky to keep him for more than a couple of seasons. I think we need continuity in our DOF, and that can't come from changing the guy every 2/3 seasons as views and methodology will change. As far as the manager/ head coach situation goes, I'm growing more and more worried Levein has lost his grit. I would like to see us put the feelers out for a new guy to take over next season (literally day 1 after the season has ended). 

 

I feel like Levein wants to play a passing game but for whatever reason its not happening in the first team, Dundee Utd played very nice football from what I recall. If a guy like Tony Mowbray can get Hibs playing a decent passing game then that proves it is possible to communicate these tactics to players at our level. However, for some reasons ours aren't responding to it. I'd question whats changed in Levein from Dundee Utd to now. Is he spending less time on the training ground? Is he trusting his coaches too much and we're suffering as a result? Alex Fergusons methods were successful because Man Utd had the best resources so could afford to hire quality coaches. We don't have those same resources, so I don't believe Levein can afford to allow for so much delegation. I'm not making assumptions, just asking questions because I feel like the issue is the coaching not the players, as the coaching is the only constant. 

[iainmac]

I'd love it if there was eventually a separate line in our annual accounts that said "Asian Ventures". 

 

Might be interesting going forward. 

[Geoff Kilpatrick]

8 minutes ago, iainmac said:

I'd love it if there was eventually a separate line in our annual accounts that said "Asian Ventures". 

 

Might be interesting going forward. 

Perhaps we should appoint a Japanese manager next up?

[Hercules]

4 minutes ago, farin said:

Maybe we should just do our taking on the pitch instead of smug interviews making excuses for terrible performances. 

That’s too easy for some on here. Put the round thing in the rectangle thing with the net. People spouting 4 paragraphs of pish to justify Leveins horror football. Easiest game in the world football. 👍🏻 

[Turkishcap]

17 minutes ago, Geoff Kilpatrick said:

Perhaps we should appoint a Japanese manager next up?

Win Sam Naw?

[Beast Boy]

2 minutes ago, Turkishcap said:

Win Sam Naw?

 

Nothing about that pun name sounds Japanese! 😄

[Turkishcap]

1 minute ago, Icon of Symmetry said:

 

Nothing about that pun name sounds Japanese! 😄

Agree its more Chinese, may have to brush up on Japanese!

[iainmac]

23 minutes ago, Geoff Kilpatrick said:

Perhaps we should appoint a Japanese manager next up?

 

Perhaps...... 

[Beast Boy]

Few people on here unable to separate issues, and instead just myopically grunting about Levein on every thread. Sad really.  

[Nookie Bear]

44 minutes ago, Icon of Symmetry said:

Few people on here unable to separate issues, and instead just myopically grunting about Levein on every thread. Sad really.  

 

So sad ☹️

[Hercules]

48 minutes ago, Icon of Symmetry said:

Few people on here unable to separate issues, and instead just myopically grunting about Levein on every thread. Sad really.  

Totally agree. Beyond disappointing. 😢. 

[Nookie Bear]

Just now, Hercules said:

Totally agree. Beyond disappointing. 😢. 

 

Heartbreaking 😪🤧

[Marvin]

On 29/08/2019 at 06:41, i8hibsh said:

Do you mean going back to a time where it was 100% about the football? Footballers were real men, and winning was life and death?

 

It wasn't all rosey and I would take many things in the modern game but we have sky rocketed into the future at a speed so fast hardly anyone had a chance to get on board.

 

We as a fanbase and club are simply not quite ready for Ann Budge's 'modernising'. She is so out of touch to what football is at Hearts she is killing us.

 

She will not even compromise. It is her vision, her stadium, her club and her journey.

 

 

 

You sound like my Dad.

 

 

Take that as a compliment

[tcjambo]

The OP makes a great point.

 

Most of the loudest complainants are those stuck in the past when all a football club was about was the current season. It caused us to lurch about from season to season when maybe one in ten we threatened to do something.

 

Sustainability first then the football side should improve. We are all frustrated it is taking longer than we hoped but I am still sure we will get there. I like that we are, as a club, do try innovation e.g. untried manager but with a strong coaching background (didn't work I know but CL took a lot of plaudits for his bravery at the time), Sponsorship through charity, living wage, tapping into the Japanese market etc. I don't understand the lack of balance some people show when evaluating the last five years.

[Geoff Kilpatrick]

8 minutes ago, tcjambo said:

The OP makes a great point.

 

Most of the loudest complainants are those stuck in the past when all a football club was about was the current season. It caused us to lurch about from season to season when maybe one in ten we threatened to do something.

 

Sustainability first then the football side should improve. We are all frustrated it is taking longer than we hoped but I am still sure we will get there. I like that we are, as a club, do try innovation e.g. untried manager but with a strong coaching background (didn't work I know but CL took a lot of plaudits for his bravery at the time), Sponsorship through charity, living wage, tapping into the Japanese market etc. I don't understand the lack of balance some people show when evaluating the last five years.

Feck me! Now fans are getting criticised for wanting a winning team!

[jambomjm74]

8 minutes ago, tcjambo said:

The OP makes a great point.

 

Most of the loudest complainants are those stuck in the past when all a football club was about was the current season. It caused us to lurch about from season to season when maybe one in ten we threatened to do something.

 

Sustainability first then the football side should improve. We are all frustrated it is taking longer than we hoped but I am still sure we will get there. I like that we are, as a club, do try innovation e.g. untried manager but with a strong coaching background (didn't work I know but CL took a lot of plaudits for his bravery at the time), Sponsorship through charity, living wage, tapping into the Japanese market etc. I don't understand the lack of balance some people show when evaluating the last five years.

To me the priorities are simple. 

Results... and doing it within budget.

Do that first and then build all the extras, later.

Honestly, as a club we have far too many competing priorities .... 

[Beast Boy]

35 minutes ago, jambomjm74 said:

To me the priorities are simple. 

Results... and doing it within budget.

Do that first and then build all the extras, later.

Honestly, as a club we have far too many competing priorities .... 

 

I agree, those are the priorities. Easier to do that with a bigger budget though.

[tcjambo]

1 hour ago, Geoff Kilpatrick said:

Feck me! Now fans are getting criticised for wanting a winning team!

No it's about whether you get a winning team based on a sutainable model or simply splashing the cash  from season to season without any thought for the long term.

[Stephane Grappelli]

On 29/08/2019 at 14:06, alwaysthereinspirit said:

Oh please not the grass thing again. It'll grow back if it hasnt already.

 

OK, take out the grass and replace it with relegation league form.

[Brauhauser2012]

The business side of the club is excellent.  Unlike so many projects in the UK where things are f#$%@d up for the long term because of shortsighted financial decisions we will be reaping the benefits for decades from the excellent work off the park. The approach to the main stand was exemplary. Edinburgh is a fast growing and wealthy city so the facilities we have invested in will be needed. My only concern is for the capacity, will it be enough in 30 years time because the last main stand stood for over 100 years.. The football side is the issue and I believe the problem stems not from the structure but from the coaching staff and dof.  Hoofing the ball up to a big target man, there is nothing modern about that which has been a lot of our football to date. I don't understand why we suffer from so many injuries to key players. I don't think we are modern on the football side and that is the problem.  For example in Vanaceks contract i would have had a requirement for him to wear monitoring equipment for training prior to his start date so we could monitor his fitness to ensure he turned up in good condition. 

[TexasAndy]

2 minutes ago, Brauhauser2012 said:

The business side of the club is excellent.  Unlike so many projects in the UK where things are f#$%@d up for the long term because of shortsighted financial decisions we will be reaping the benefits for decades from the excellent work off the park. The approach to the main stand was exemplary. Edinburgh is a fast growing and wealthy city so the facilities we have invested in will be needed. My only concern is for the capacity, will it be enough in 30 years time because the last main stand stood for over 100 years.. The football side is the issue and I believe the problem stems not from the structure but from the coaching staff and dof.  Hoofing the ball up to a big target man, there is nothing modern about that which has been a lot of our football to date. I don't understand why we suffer from so many injuries to key players. I don't think we are modern on the football side and that is the problem.  For example in Vanaceks contract i would have had a requirement for him to wear monitoring equipment for training prior to his start date so we could monitor his fitness to ensure he turned up in good condition. 

Great post.  

[MTS1874]

I do remember wanting to cut my wrists a few times after watching Hearts in the 70s. Similar to the last 3 years in fact.

[Phage]

On 29/08/2019 at 06:41, i8hibsh said:

Do you mean going back to a time where it was 100% about the football? Footballers were real men, and winning was life and death?

 

It wasn't all rosey and I would take many things in the modern game but we have sky rocketed into the future at a speed so fast hardly anyone had a chance to get on board.

 

We as a fanbase and club are simply not quite ready for Ann Budge's 'modernising'. She is so out of touch to what football is at Hearts she is killing us.

 

She will not even compromise. It is her vision, her stadium, her club and her journey.

 

 

 

Bull-plop, I disagree.

[Hectormasson]

On 29/08/2019 at 18:54, OTT said:

 

It does kinda make me laugh that after all Budges humming and hawing about smoke bombs it turns out it was Budge herself who has done the most damage to the pitch  

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👏👏👏👏👍👍🇶🇦🇶🇦🇶🇦🇶🇦🇶🇦🇶🇦🇶🇦🇶🇦

[shaun.lawson]

On 29/08/2019 at 02:41, i8hibsh said:

She is so out of touch to what football is at Hearts she is killing us.

 

Hi i8hibsh,

 

Hearts almost died in the early 1980s.

 

Hearts almost died in the mid-2000s.

 

Hearts almost died in 2013/14.

 

The reason Hearts almost died on not one, not two, but three separate occasions, was because we'd never been run in a financially sustainable way in that entire time. Since the late 1980s, not once did we so much as finish best of the rest without spending more than we took in.

 

So along comes someone who wants to run us in a sustainable way - someone who knows that only by growing the club commercially and working with local businesses can we attract more paying fans, which includes families. Families tend to be rather less than ecstatic if their kids are hearing sectarian chants, or watching other fans being violent. Actually wanting a day out at the football to be safe and enjoyable for everyone should never, ever be too much to ask.

 

Meanwhile, here's you. You've learnt the square root of sweet FA from Hearts' three separate near death experiences; you're economically illiterate beyond belief; and you clearly believe Ann Budge has dragged poor Hearts from some mythical golden age of prosperity and success to something verging on armageddon now. When the reality is that Hearts' way before she came along really would have killed the club... and by the way, you spent most of that time moaning non-stop in any case.

 

All she has to do is appoint a different football manager. That's it. Almost everything else at the club is better than it's been at any point in my lifetime. And no amount of your hyperbole, your sensationalism, your never-ending combination of narcissism, trolling and nihilism will change that. Ann Budge isn't killing Hearts. She, along with the fans, is its saviour. Deal with it.

 

 

[Spellczech]

History can teach you many things, but mainly how NOT to do it...

[Hectormasson]

On 29/08/2019 at 14:45, jonnothejambo said:

 

 

With the size of Edinburgh, and the lothians etc ,,its possible for hearts to become a bigger club in stature,,if there was an investor that's willing to see its potential, I think we could get bigger gates  and even challenge the old firm,  we are where we are just now ,,which is good considering  where we got to ??our gates are good considering our success rate, but in hindsight we could be a far bigger club , if someone put the money in  like what's  happened in England, but happen up here to a lesser degree " its finding someone though, you never know ? We live in hope...

[Jambo-Fox]

1 hour ago, Hectormasson said:

With the size of Edinburgh, and the lothians etc ,,its possible for hearts to become a bigger club in stature,,if there was an investor that's willing to see its potential, I think we could get bigger gates  and even challenge the old firm,  we are where we are just now ,,which is good considering  where we got to ??our gates are good considering our success rate, but in hindsight we could be a far bigger club , if someone put the money in  like what's  happened in England, but happen up here to a lesser degree " its finding someone though, you never know ? We live in hope...

Lots of good points ..... however Hearts will never be bigger in the cesspit of corruption that is Scottish football ..... now if the club joined a bigger, better and more honest league with high standards and honest governance the sky is the limit ....

[Hectormasson]

7 minutes ago, Jambo-Fox said:

Lots of good points ..... however Hearts will never be bigger in the cesspit of corruption that is Scottish football ..... now if the club joined a bigger, better and more honest league with high standards and honest governance the sky is the limit ....

Yes your right ,new league would be the probably only way,better than what were in that's for sure,probably do ok fairer too , ,

[Sydney]

On 02/09/2019 at 23:20, shaun.lawson said:

 

Hi i8hibsh,

 

Hearts almost died in the early 1980s.

 

Hearts almost died in the mid-2000s.

 

Hearts almost died in 2013/14.

 

The reason Hearts almost died on not one, not two, but three separate occasions, was because we'd never been run in a financially sustainable way in that entire time. Since the late 1980s, not once did we so much as finish best of the rest without spending more than we took in.

 

So along comes someone who wants to run us in a sustainable way - someone who knows that only by growing the club commercially and working with local businesses can we attract more paying fans, which includes families. Families tend to be rather less than ecstatic if their kids are hearing sectarian chants, or watching other fans being violent. Actually wanting a day out at the football to be safe and enjoyable for everyone should never, ever be too much to ask.

 

Meanwhile, here's you. You've learnt the square root of sweet FA from Hearts' three separate near death experiences; you're economically illiterate beyond belief; and you clearly believe Ann Budge has dragged poor Hearts from some mythical golden age of prosperity and success to something verging on armageddon now. When the reality is that Hearts' way before she came along really would have killed the club... and by the way, you spent most of that time moaning non-stop in any case.

 

All she has to do is appoint a different football manager. That's it. Almost everything else at the club is better than it's been at any point in my lifetime. And no amount of your hyperbole, your sensationalism, your never-ending combination of narcissism, trolling and nihilism will change that. Ann Budge isn't killing Hearts. She, along with the fans, is its saviour. Deal with it.

 

 

He doesn't really care about that. 

 

He despises feminism (ie he despises the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of the equality of the sexes)

He 100% feels that men are being emasculated every second of every day

 

My interpretation of his posts is that frequently they are "dog whistles".  Whilst he is using the team's poor performance or other footballing related matters as the basis for his posts what he is really trying to do is to catch the attention of others who might also be feeling like they are being left behind. 

 

He sees Hearts as an example of society changing, an example he feels deeply connected to and he feels it ever worse because there is a woman in charge.

 

He is looking for validation as he is worried about how to deal with society changing, and with society challenging and sometimes rejecting previous norms.

 

He's not alone in the world.  Brexit, Trump, Proud Boys, Victor Orban, etc. etc. are all linked to this.

 

Hearts winning will help him feel better about Hearts - but it wont change his concerns about society.

 

That's just my interpretation.  I may well be 100% wrong.

 

 

[JFK-1]

I feel things will improve and the sheep will become our main competition for a Europa spot. The relative recent bad form is unfortunately to a significant degree down to the predicament of Scottish football in general.

 

There is no money in the Scottish game or at least not enough to get anything of a certain quality outside the top 2. The OF spent between them a total £28.53 million while the rest of the league combined spent a total of   479K.

And that 479K went on just two players one to the sheep and the other to hibs. The OF were also the only teams to have any income at all on outgoings at least until the late signing of Greg Taylor from Kilmarnock who haven't spent any of the income on transfer fees.

In Scotland outside the OF teams can't so much choose who they will sign as just cast around for typically league one freebies. The only edge the cluster of clubs outside the top 2 such as sheep and Hearts who have a budget advantage over most of the others is to try to pick out the best of these freebies and offer them a higher wage.

The thing is operating at that level you're still not going to get guaranteed quality and consistency. If you did richer clubs would have been paying transfer fees for them.

Plus I feel operating at that level is unpredictably hit or miss thus we have a situation where even the slightly richer clubs often aren't getting a much better deal regarding better quality or consistency than the St Mirren's and Accies below them.

I think Hearts have an overall better quality squad than current placing would suggest and presume that over the marathon of the season all things being equal it will be balanced out.

[Jamhammer]

On 03/09/2019 at 19:16, Spellczech said:

History can teach you many things, but mainly how NOT to do it...

I'm gonna steal this, I like it.

The board are trying something different and are to be commended for it. That quote about doing the same thing constantly and expecting different results being the definition of madness has, obviously had an impact at that level. Craig is on the board but doesn't seem to apply it to the footballing side.