Sobering Stats

[Famous 1874]

58 minutes ago, Sir Gio said:

Can you be specific to what she has done wrong. 

 

And I do mean specific please 

Quite an incredible list really:

 

Appointed Levein manager 

Gave Levein a year and a half far too long 

‘Sacked’ Levein and then had him still involved with the club, this time he was instructed to help sell the duds that he had brought in

Said that Levein was doing a very good job when we were bottom of the table 

Took months for Stendel to get his coaching staff in 

Has prioritised everything bar the football team with all her external activities. Usually that would be acceptable, however we have been rotten on the pitch so the priority has to be the football side of things.
Not sacked John Murray 

Took 2 years to release the footballing report if I remember correctly, or did it even come out?

Gave her brother’s organisation a ridiculous contract for the new stand 

Over spent massively on the stand 

The new stand was miles late 

Has criticised Hearts fans numerous times, including the infamous ‘genuine fans’ comment, yet another pr goal by her and her team 

Appointed her nephew to run the 1874 bar 

Created a BBC documentary as a PR spin, ended up showing a glimpse of how much an utter shambles that we have behind the scenes, and it briefly highlighted how unprofessional the club has become - I.e the office staff and the media lady 

Appointed yet another one of her mates, Robbie Neilson. Extremely hard to get that balance between professionalism and friendship, similar to her at Levein. 
 

The list could go on and on. Most important, Heart of Midlothian are soft centred, there is a lack of accountability but instead an acceptance of mediocrity. 
 

I have no qualms with her relationship with benefactors, however without them, our balance sheet would not look so good. I also think she has backed the managers fairly well financially in the market, but her inability to act on glaring issues, and then to continue to keep making them is her major downfall, similar to Robbie Neilson. 
 

She has apparently taken a step back with the appointment of Andrew McKinaly but there’s not been really any transparency as to what she is not involved with. 

[Agentjambo]

3 minutes ago, Le Chat said:

 

That, in my opinion, is where the problems start.

 

I think AB is FAR more interested in the balance sheet than she is in the league table.

 

Business is all she knows, she's very good at it. Football however... 

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

14 minutes ago, Dusk_Till_Dawn said:

It comes from the top and she is indifferent about the football. That filters down and creates an environment where no-one is accountable for anything. 
 

I won’t argue about the finances, except for the big overspend on the main stand. But a financially strong club with a shit football teams does, to my mind, sum up the extent of the passion of our owner.

Her job is to provide finance and infrastructure. 

 

Can't think of too many passionate successful owners in truth.

 

Footballers get motivated by managers not owners.

 

She has provided ample foundation and is currently laying a pretty decent succession plan. 

 

Just because we don't relate to a 70 year old fairly conservative women,  doesn't mean she is wrong. 

 

The amount of time she's personally invested for someone of her age, I may be inclined to believe she's passionate in any case,  just displayed in a way not familiar to the typical fan

[o1djambo]

1 hour ago, Sir Gio said:

Can you be specific to what she has done wrong. 

 

And I do mean specific please 

Yes. Here we go. Taken us from playing in the Spl with playing in Europe ambitions eg top four in our first season up. Next season to top six ambitions. Last season to scrapping results to stay in the league and now grinding out results in the lower league. No young players coming through. Dire football with no imagination from the management. 

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

17 minutes ago, Agentjambo said:

Your talking about the business side, we are a football club so there is a playing side. 

Her job is the business side. That's been clearly defined since day 1

[Agentjambo]

7 minutes ago, Sir Gio said:

Her job is the business side. That's been clearly defined since day 1

So who was in charge of the playing side? 

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

5 minutes ago, Famous 1874 said:

Quite an incredible list really:

 

Appointed Levein manager 

Gave Levein a year and a half far too long 

‘Sacked’ Levein and then had him still involved with the club, this time he was instructed to help sell the duds that he had brought in

Said that Levein was doing a very good job when we were bottom of the table 

Took months for Stendel to get his coaching staff in 

Has prioritised everything bar the football team with all her external activities. Usually that would be acceptable, however we have been rotten on the pitch so the priority has to be the football side of things.
Not sacked John Murray 

Took 2 years to release the footballing report if I remember correctly, or did it even come out?

Gave her brother’s organisation a ridiculous contract for the new stand 

Over spent massively on the stand 

The new stand was miles late 

Has criticised Hearts fans numerous times, including the infamous ‘genuine fans’ comment, yet another pr goal by her and her team 

Appointed her nephew to run the 1874 bar 

Created a BBC documentary as a PR spin, ended up showing a glimpse of how much an utter shambles that we have behind the scenes, and it briefly highlighted how unprofessional the club has become - I.e the office staff and the media lady 

Appointed yet another one of her mates, Robbie Neilson. Extremely hard to get that balance between professionalism and friendship, similar to her at Levein. 
 

The list could go on and on. Most important, Heart of Midlothian are soft centred, there is a lack of accountability but instead an acceptance of mediocrity. 
 

I have no qualms with her relationship with benefactors, however without them, our balance sheet would not look so good. I also think she has backed the managers fairly well financially in the market, but her inability to act on glaring issues, and then to continue to keep making them is her major downfall, similar to Robbie Neilson. 
 

She has apparently taken a step back with the appointment of Andrew McKinaly but there’s not been really any transparency as to what she is not involved with. 

I think most people are either contradicting themselves or not understanding her role.

 

I find the rebuilding of Tynecastle an astonishing criticism. 

 

It's the very soul, foundation, bedrock of the club. 

 

The overspend was conducted fully in the knowledge that James Anderson would offer assistance. 

 

Speculate to accumulate, invest. 

 

Thankfully Budge and Anderson know this and have sought to not only safeguard Tynecastle but turn it into a business that will benefit the club for decades to come. 

 

It will have paid for itself many times over eventually, our crown jewel.

 

If she's to be damned its for being too loyal. 

 

As I said to the other chap, I think quite a few seem to struggle to identify with a 70 year old woman. 

 

Not my cup of tea for a chat, I find her condescending at times, but I don't let my dislike of some of her ways to blinker my judgement. 

 

Suspect it won't be much longer now anyway 

[Agentjambo]

2 minutes ago, Sir Gio said:

I think most people are either contradicting themselves or not understanding her role.

 

I find the rebuilding of Tynecastle an astonishing criticism. 

 

It's the very soul, foundation, bedrock of the club. 

 

The overspend was conducted fully in the knowledge that James Anderson would offer assistance. 

 

Speculate to accumulate, invest. 

 

Thankfully Budge and Anderson know this and have sought to not only safeguard Tynecastle but turn it into a business that will benefit the club for decades to come. 

 

It will have paid for itself many times over eventually, our crown jewel.

 

If she's to be damned its for being too loyal. 

 

As I said to the other chap, I think quite a few seem to struggle to identify with a 70 year old woman. 

 

Not my cup of tea for a chat, I find her condescending at times, but I don't let my dislike of some of her ways to blinker my judgement. 

 

Suspect it won't be much longer now anyway 

At the end of the day who employed Craig Levein? ANN BUDGE... End of. 

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

2 minutes ago, Agentjambo said:

So who was in charge of the playing side? 

You know that,  if you don't why are you even bothering. 

 

She made an error holding on too long,  she has appointed another one who could be decent. 

 

You really need to compare Hearts in 2014 to 2021, as a totality not just a team sitting 12 points clear in the 2nd tier in poor form 

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

1 minute ago, Agentjambo said:

At the end of the day who employed Craig Levein? ANN BUDGE... End of. 

And it was a successful rebuild until Neilson left. Go back to May 14. So easy to forget the carnage inherited 

[Agentjambo]

1 minute ago, Sir Gio said:

And it was a successful rebuild until Neilson left. Go back to May 14. So easy to forget the carnage inherited 

So she was at fault after neilson left. OK got there in the end. 

[mitch41]

We are a big club but we’ve been managed by men who are just not up to the job. Cathro, Levein & Neilson are clowns of each other. Stendel was a breath of fresh air it’s just a pity the authorities did the dirty on us. Big club, big support, big stadium, big training facilities, big corporate facilities, big shop, big.....well you get the idea. 
 

[Agentjambo]

2 minutes ago, mitch41 said:

We are a big club but we’ve been managed by men who are just not up to the job. Cathro, Levein & Neilson are clowns of each other. Stendel was a breath of fresh air it’s just a pity the authorities did the dirty on us. Big club, big support, big stadium, big training facilities, big corporate facilities, big shop, big.....well you get the idea. 
 

Stendel was shafted.

[mitch41]

2 minutes ago, Agentjambo said:

Stendel was shafted.

And he was a man of pride & honour.

[Section Q]

On 27/02/2021 at 03:34, SomethingAboutObua said:

Fan expectations are reasonable.Our club management isn't good, simple as that.

 

We did well the season they were able to let everyone go an build an entirely new squad with no contractual obligations to the released players, dumping players that gave up wages or had done well with the club like Jamie McDonald, Ryan Stevenson. The young guys we had ready made in the championship had spent 1 years in the top flight playing regularly under Locke due to circumstance. They weren't brought through by the new regime, they were already at the club and playing.

 

The seasons that the management haven't been able to dump the squad and have first team experience youth ready have been woeful. 

 

Who in our team has sell on value? Stephen Kingsley and 29/30 year old Boyce? Yeah we sold Claire in the summer but was it the million pound deal they were hoping when they signed him? **** no. 

 

After Neilson first left We for some reason hired a good coach with no management experience that everyone in Scottish football said was weird. He turned out to not be a good manager and players thought he was weird. 

 

Replaced him with a guy people said was too defensive and played an outdated style of football. We then ended up playing an outdated style of football and only sacked him after getting ourselves in a relegation battle with fans protesting.

 

Then we spent 6 weeks waiting to replace him, and comfortably stuck ourselves into said relegation battle.

 

We then replaced him with a manager who needed a whole preseason and new squad for his style to worked, during a relegation battle.

 

The fans liked him and liked his football, he gave up wages to help the club, said he was very eager to stay and build something with the team, turned out we didn't even tell him we let him go, he found out via his friend. 

 

That manager promoted a Andy Kirk, a youth coach from within, someone that previous managers said was a promising coach, wow conveyor belt about to work? Nope, we sent him with no experience of womens football to manage our 6 figure investment womens team, that we just spent 3 years trying to make a top flight team with people with in depth knowledge of womens football in the UK.

 

We dont have anything resembling a conveyor belt of coaches or youth. Our head of youth's CV is mainly focused on being Fife's Active schools coordinator, thats like organising a lot of after school clubs for Christ's sake. He joined after guys like Paterson etc were in the team, since then we've had Hickey (mostly Celtic's work), Cochrane (Montrose fan favourite), and Irving who falls below Halliday somehow, plus maybe Harry Stone. Absolutely ****ing awful output from our not 7 years on academy. 

 

We can blame  Neilson for the poor performances but the club as a whole has been run horrendously for years.

I also think we've become touchy freely as a club that players don't take too seriously. I know that won't sit well with fans. We're seen as club whose fans will find money when needed for whatever reason. We're constantly reminded that Budge is a business woman but our track record on wasting money on poor recruitment speaks for itself.

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

15 minutes ago, Agentjambo said:

So she was at fault after neilson left. OK got there in the end. 

So she is shit because she trusted Levein. 

 

Very good.

[Agentjambo]

4 minutes ago, Sir Gio said:

So she is shit because she trusted Levein. 

 

Very good.

For too too long yes. 

[WageThief]

12 minutes ago, mitch41 said:

And he was a man of pride & honour.

 

But not a man of proud and honourable results.

[Byyy The Light]

39 minutes ago, Agentjambo said:

Stendel was shafted.

Stendel’s start to the job was far from ideal but most of that was down to Barnsley being complete wanks.

 

He also rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way which was probably down to language barriers but the whole thing was a shambles from the start with fault on both sides. He played a pretty significant part in his shafting as you put it. 

[Boris5115]

1 hour ago, Famous 1874 said:

Quite an incredible list really:

 

Appointed Levein manager 

Gave Levein a year and a half far too long 

‘Sacked’ Levein and then had him still involved with the club, this time he was instructed to help sell the duds that he had brought in

Said that Levein was doing a very good job when we were bottom of the table 

Took months for Stendel to get his coaching staff in 

Has prioritised everything bar the football team with all her external activities. Usually that would be acceptable, however we have been rotten on the pitch so the priority has to be the football side of things.
Not sacked John Murray 

Took 2 years to release the footballing report if I remember correctly, or did it even come out?

Gave her brother’s organisation a ridiculous contract for the new stand 

Over spent massively on the stand 

The new stand was miles late 

Has criticised Hearts fans numerous times, including the infamous ‘genuine fans’ comment, yet another pr goal by her and her team 

Appointed her nephew to run the 1874 bar 

Created a BBC documentary as a PR spin, ended up showing a glimpse of how much an utter shambles that we have behind the scenes, and it briefly highlighted how unprofessional the club has become - I.e the office staff and the media lady 

Appointed yet another one of her mates, Robbie Neilson. Extremely hard to get that balance between professionalism and friendship, similar to her at Levein. 
 

The list could go on and on. Most important, Heart of Midlothian are soft centred, there is a lack of accountability but instead an acceptance of mediocrity. 
 

I have no qualms with her relationship with benefactors, however without them, our balance sheet would not look so good. I also think she has backed the managers fairly well financially in the market, but her inability to act on glaring issues, and then to continue to keep making them is her major downfall, similar to Robbie Neilson. 
 

She has apparently taken a step back with the appointment of Andrew McKinaly but there’s not been really any transparency as to what she is not involved with. 

Fair list there although I may had that the decision she made to allow the fringe concert to go ahead has ruined our million pound playing surface. Its never been the same since. Like the team it needs major surgery. 

[Agentjambo]

26 minutes ago, Byyy The Light said:

Stendel’s start to the job was far from ideal but most of that was down to Barnsley being complete wanks.

 

He also rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way which was probably down to language barriers but the whole thing was a shambles from the start with fault on both sides. He played a pretty significant part in his shafting as you put it. 

What part did he play? 

[Byyy The Light]

5 minutes ago, Agentjambo said:

What part did he play? 

Depends what side of the fence you sit on I suppose.

 

One angle was he tried to shake things up. Another might be that he was disrespectful and lost influential parts of the dressing room and influential people at the club due to the way he communicated.

 

That would be fine if he put a winning team on the pitch but he couldn’t do that. He was adamant he wanted to play in a way that didn’t work with the players at his disposal.  A one trick pony.

 

He was another Ian Cathro in that you can have great ideas and philosophies about how the game can and should be played but to be effective as a manager you have to piss with the cock you’ve got first and foremost.

Most of the fans who love Stendel watched some YouTube videos of him in a pub and got all gooey when 3 or 4 Barnsley fans came on here saying how great he was.  They also liked the word gegenpress.

 

I wanted him to be the messiah too but he wasn’t. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dusk_Till_Dawn]

1 hour ago, Sir Gio said:

Her job is to provide finance and infrastructure. 

 

Can't think of too many passionate successful owners in truth.

 

Footballers get motivated by managers not owners.

 

She has provided ample foundation and is currently laying a pretty decent succession plan. 

 

Just because we don't relate to a 70 year old fairly conservative women,  doesn't mean she is wrong. 

 

The amount of time she's personally invested for someone of her age, I may be inclined to believe she's passionate in any case,  just displayed in a way not familiar to the typical fan

You’re basically telling me that a football club chairman’s job doesn’t involve creating a successful football team

[Kennedy Bakircioglu]

7 hours ago, Famous 1874 said:

Is there much to cheer about at Hearts? What do you expect them to talk about😂 Very hard to be positive this season. Imo they are one of the best Hearts podcasts - them, Perth to Paisley and Talkin’ Tynie. 

Why is it hard to be positive? We're 12 points clear. The shambles from last season is over. Signings have not been a complete failure. Almost beat Celtic in a cup final. Boyce probably the best striker we've had in years. GMS getting better, McEneff looks promising. Defence is solid-ish.

 

The problem with JKB and various Podcasts is there seems to be a common acceptance you need to say something sensational or shocking to get your opinion heard or seen over the other traffic. The above podcast may well be decent, but the original post was a complete exaggeration of current issues, in my opinion, trying too hard to be sensational and 'wow', similar to the many red tops.

[Musemic]

7 minutes ago, Kennedy Bakircioglu said:

Why is it hard to be positive? We're 12 points clear. The shambles from last season is over. Signings have not been a complete failure. Almost beat Celtic in a cup final. Boyce probably the best striker we've had in years. GMS getting better, McEneff looks promising. Defence is solid-ish.

You started off well but lost all credibility with your opinion that the defence is solid-ish. It is a million miles away from being solid-ish. Six clean sheets in 18 matches is NOT solid-ish by any measure, considering the level we are playing at. We're 12 points clear and will end up winning the title with games to spare but the defence can take little credit for that and will need an overhaul in the summer otherwise it will be a season of struggle next season.

[Guest ToqueJambo]

On 26/02/2021 at 18:16, This is My Story Podcast said:

We’ve now dropped points to 6 of the 7 Full Time teams in the league. Only Ayr, Part Time Alloa and Arbroath haven’t managed to take points off us, although Alloa have beaten us in the cup. 
 

Neil McCann had one training session on Thursday to suss us out and managed it. Morton don’t have a manager and got a result against us. Raith hadn’t played for weeks, only trained once, got a result against us. 
 

Dunfermline lost 

Alloa lost

Dundee lost

Raith lost

Queens draw

Morton draw

Caley draw

 

How far have we fallen? Genuinely, are we deluded by this squad? Is Mikey Smith actual any good? We’ve been brutal as a team since he came in. Is Naismith any good, we’ve dropped a position every season he’s been at the club. Is Halkett any good? Is Kingsley any good? Every season we delude ourselves with this comfort blanket that we have a good squad, things just aren’t going for us, it’ll get better with a pre season, a January transfer window blah blah. Every season our performances get worse and the embarrassing results stack up. Last season we failed to beat Motherwell, St Johnston, Killie, Hamilton, Ross County, Aberdeen, Livingston and Celtic. Failed to beat any of them home or away. We haven’t won at Caley in a decade, we haven’t won in Perth in a decade, we haven’t won at Celtic park in a decade, we haven’t won at St Mirren in years. Dingwall, Fir Park, Hamilton all seasons since our last wins in the league. 
 

Something is fundamentally wrong at the club, no doubt. However, Is the bigger problem our expectations? Reality vs expectations if you will. I expect Hearts to be 3rd, or there abouts. 2016 the last time that happened, 2010 the time before that. 2002/2003 the last time we finished back to back 3rd? 6 times this century we’ve finished 3rd or higher, same as Aberdeen. Motherwell have finished 3rd or higher 5 times. We’ve had 2 relegations, demotions, and 4 bottom 6 finishes. Are we the problem. Are Hearts just no as big or as good as we think they are? 
 

Am gutted with Hearts the now. Lockdown is brutal and watching Hearts is making it worse 😂

 

 

A lot of good points. Two of those last three 3rds you mentioned came under two of the most vilified Hearts managers I can remember in my puff. Half of the three 3rds you mention this century happened under these two managers.

 

One was vilified while still actually in the process of achieving the standard you, me and most Hearts fans think we should be at, and he was also well on the way to getting 3rd or better the following season - with a large contingent of fans actively calling for his head.

 

Bearing these facts in mind, a podcast on the expectations of Hearts fans might be worth a listen. If fans can't get behind a rookie manager doing a great job of getting those 3rd places we all expect, who can they get behind?

 

As Hearts we will always have a 3rd followed by a 4th or 5th, then a 3rd again maybe. Maybe the odd 2nd. We're NEVER going to have this constant progress some seem to expect no matter who the manager is. We're NEVER going to have a successful manager playing great football for more than 1 or 2 seasons. If we get one, how long do people seriously think he'll be with us? He'll be off to England, the Scotland job or the OF like so many do. That's not settling, it's being realistic about the financial gap between us and the OF. We should be able to have a meh season or even two without everyone throwing a massive wobbly. Otherwise how will any manager get the time to build a team as others have in the past?

Edited March 1, 2021 by ToqueJambo

[colinmaroon]

On 27/02/2021 at 10:00, savage said:

Was discussing this all yesterday afternoon.  Tynecastle used to be a scary place to come to.  It's not anymore.  I think stendel could have got that back.  He was animated he showed he cared. That's what feeds into the fans. Levein never did that and robbie is far from animated. I know we have no fans just now and i won't be back until there are changes. 

 

 

It's empty!

 

[This is My Story Podcast]

18 hours ago, Sir Gio said:

Neil McCann watches Hearts every week just about.  What a load of pish to use the one training session as a stick 

 

 

Hahaha so by that logic we could walk into Hearts training tomorrow and have them playing better by Wednesday? We watch them all the time after all?
 

The fact is, McCann walked into a job, had one training session and got his players to understand the game plan, execute the game plan and it stopped us playing how we wanted and they got a result. Just like John McGlynn done at tynie having been off for weeks, having only one training sessions before the match due to covid. The sad fact is, we are so predictable to play against. We never change our approach, you don’t need to have an amazing game plan or tactics to nullify us.
 

Only Ayr, Alloa and Arbroath haven’t managed to get results against us, in the league. Alloa obviously knocked us out the cup. Dunfermline and Raith beat us first attempt. Dundee, Morton, Queens and Caley got results having played us once and sussed us out. So basically the two part time teams in the league, who train twice a week haven’t managed to get a plan to stop us. Everyone else, bar Ayr, who train full time have managed to work on a plan to stop us and have executed it. Sad. 
 

In 2021, we’ve played 9 games. Lost or drawn 5, won 4. I think we can all agree, that’s not good enough. 

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

18 hours ago, Dusk_Till_Dawn said:

You’re basically telling me that a football club chairman’s job doesn’t involve creating a successful football team

Not at all. They are responsible for putting in the infrastructure and creating finance. 

 

You look at Hearts in 2014, a shell, and look at it now. She's done far more right than wrong, her managers have not done great since Neilson departure.  But no owner, no person,  not even one as great as you, ever ever gets everything correct. 

 

 

[Agentjambo]

18 hours ago, Dusk_Till_Dawn said:

You’re basically telling me that a football club chairman’s job doesn’t involve creating a successful football team

Basically that's what he's saying. 

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

3 hours ago, This is My Story Podcast said:

Hahaha so by that logic we could walk into Hearts training tomorrow and have them playing better by Wednesday? We watch them all the time after all?
 

The fact is, McCann walked into a job, had one training session and got his players to understand the game plan, execute the game plan and it stopped us playing how we wanted and they got a result. Just like John McGlynn done at tynie having been off for weeks, having only one training sessions before the match due to covid. The sad fact is, we are so predictable to play against. We never change our approach, you don’t need to have an amazing game plan or tactics to nullify us.
 

Only Ayr, Alloa and Arbroath haven’t managed to get results against us, in the league. Alloa obviously knocked us out the cup. Dunfermline and Raith beat us first attempt. Dundee, Morton, Queens and Caley got results having played us once and sussed us out. So basically the two part time teams in the league, who train twice a week haven’t managed to get a plan to stop us. Everyone else, bar Ayr, who train full time have managed to work on a plan to stop us and have executed it. Sad. 
 

In 2021, we’ve played 9 games. Lost or drawn 5, won 4. I think we can all agree, that’s not good enough. 

Stopping is not a hard game plan. Creating is.

 

Try destroying something at home,  very little knowledge required as opposed to building. 

 

And as I mentioned, McCann already knows Hearts inside out. 

 

The efforts to credit others to discredit Hearts at the moment are agenda driven pish, to curry favour with angry people making the writer feel relevant, self indulgent garbage 

[Dusk_Till_Dawn]

14 minutes ago, Sir Gio said:

Not at all. They are responsible for putting in the infrastructure and creating finance. 

 

You look at Hearts in 2014, a shell, and look at it now. She's done far more right than wrong, her managers have not done great since Neilson departure.  But no owner, no person,  not even one as great as you, ever ever gets everything correct. 

 

 

Once insolvency was sorted, it really wasn’t hard to make the business more professional, modern and functional than Romanov had it.

 

And never forget that the funding for this era has come in no small way from us.

 

On her watch, a lot of that money has been pissed up the wall. And we’re back in the Championship. When the tactic of defending Budge is to pretend that she’s not responsible for the performance on the pitch, the well of excuses is pretty dry.

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

43 minutes ago, Agentjambo said:

Basically that's what he's saying. 

Nah

[TheBigO]

21 hours ago, Le Chat said:

 

That, in my opinion, is where the problems start.

 

I think AB is FAR more interested in the balance sheet than she is in the league table.

 

Not sure interested is the right word.  More adept, or experienced, yes.  She can't be accused of not backing her managers.  Shes went with a model of letting the football guys do the football.  She had the wrong football guys, that was her failing.

 

With Savage and McKinlay in place (Andrew's a good guy by the way), she looks to have perhaps sorted that.  Nothing is certain, but that'd be the hope anyway.

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

31 minutes ago, Dusk_Till_Dawn said:

Once insolvency was sorted, it really wasn’t hard to make the business more professional, modern and functional than Romanov had it.

 

And never forget that the funding for this era has come in no small way from us.

 

On her watch, a lot of that money has been pissed up the wall. And we’re back in the Championship. When the tactic of defending Budge is to pretend that she’s not responsible for the performance on the pitch, the well of excuses is pretty dry.

In your opinion,  certainly not my one or many other too. 

 

I'm happy to go with James Anderson pov in truth, seems a good judge of an investment 

[Debut 4]

1 hour ago, Sir Gio said:

Not at all. They are responsible for putting in the infrastructure and creating finance. 

 

You look at Hearts in 2014, a shell, and look at it now. She's done far more right than wrong, her managers have not done great since Neilson departure.  But no owner, no person,  not even one as great as you, ever ever gets everything correct. 

 

 

Not sure I agree. The person at the top makes everyone accountable below them, or should. We saw how the detachment she favours hurt Hearts with Levein. 
 

The person at the top has to have their finger on the pulse. As it’s shown, handing big responsibility to people you trust ,but creating that gap, made people complacent, maybe too comfortable in their position. 
 

A CEO/chairperson may not pick the team, train them, be with them everyday but they help form the attitude and expectancy throughout the psyche of a club.  

Edited March 1, 2021 by Debut 4

[Gordon Ramsay]

3 minutes ago, Debut 4 said:

Not sure I agree. The person at the top makes everyone accountable below them, or should. We saw how the detachment she favours hurt Hearts with Levein. 
 

The person at the top has to have their finger on the pulse. As it’s shown, handing big responsibility to people you trust but creating that gap made people complacent.  
 

A CEO/chairperson may not pick the team, train them, be with them everyday but they help form the attitude and expectancy throughout the psyche of a club.  

 

This is the way I see it. 

[This is My Story Podcast]

4 hours ago, Sir Gio said:

Stopping is not a hard game plan. Creating is.

 

Try destroying something at home,  very little knowledge required as opposed to building. 

 

And as I mentioned, McCann already knows Hearts inside out. 

 

The efforts to credit others to discredit Hearts at the moment are agenda driven pish, to curry favour with angry people making the writer feel relevant, self indulgent garbage 

Aye cause all the angry people who’ve been calling out what they’ve been seeing for the past 4/5 years have been so far off the mark ....... 👀

 

What we are seeing isn’t good enough and no amount of defending or papering over the cracks will change that. You can make yourself feel “relevant” by ignoring the fact we’ve drawn 3 games on the bounce, lost or drawn more games than we’ve won in 2021 and are winning the title more by others beating each other than us running away with it. With the budget, squad, facilities we have, we should be doing more, much more, than what we are seeing.  I think even Robbie and Co would agree with that. 

[Skippy Doodle]

On 28/02/2021 at 18:03, Byyy The Light said:

Depends what side of the fence you sit on I suppose.

 

One angle was he tried to shake things up. Another might be that he was disrespectful and lost influential parts of the dressing room and influential people at the club due to the way he communicated.

 

That would be fine if he put a winning team on the pitch but he couldn’t do that. He was adamant he wanted to play in a way that didn’t work with the players at his disposal.  A one trick pony.

 

He was another Ian Cathro in that you can have great ideas and philosophies about how the game can and should be played but to be effective as a manager you have to piss with the cock you’ve got first and foremost.

Most of the fans who love Stendel watched some YouTube videos of him in a pub and got all gooey when 3 or 4 Barnsley fans came on here saying how great he was.  They also liked the word gegenpress.

 

I wanted him to be the messiah too but he wasn’t. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He’s just a very naughty boy 😉

[Skippy Doodle]

Expectations are rightly something that cannot be a black and white argument

 

what we get out of the support of our club can vary and this can also change as we go through different transitions within our own personal lives

 

the one thing that strikes me with these threads is that Ann Budge and Robbie Neilson should count themselves lucky that the club has so many passionate fans. 
 

yes we channel that passion in different ways and without the comfort of our normal post match social circles (pubs etc) during the pandemic, we are probably seeing more intense and at times hyperbolic responses to our results (whether good or bad) 

 

for me there is rightly concern about our current inability to set the tempo in matches (in particular away fixtures) but clubs with our finances will rarely yield positive long term results without some continuity off the park

 

Robbie Neilson due to his successes in 1st spell and what should be success in meeting our top priority this season should be allowed a summer window with savage IMO to identify what needs addressed so we can start to hopefully compete for top 4 finishes on a consistent basis along with creating a team intent on being direct and entertaining (something we have failed to do for a decade or so now)

[Franksluckypants]

Mark Twain - Lies, damned lies, and statistics!

 

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/win-ratio-shows-hearts-are-the-most-dominant-championship-team-in-years-despite-criticism-3161518

 

Of course it might well change by the end of the season, but the fact is we are currently getting it done! (The 'how' is much more up for debate...).

Edited March 10, 2021 by Franksluckypants
Spelling correction

[cubanjambo]

1 hour ago, Franksluckypants said:

Mark Twain - Lies, damned lies, and statistics!

 

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/win-ratio-shows-hearts-are-the-most-dominant-championship-team-in-years-despite-criticism-3161518

 

Of course it might well change by the end of the season, but the fact is we are currently getting it done! (The 'how' is much more up for debate...).

Skating this league again , just like we did the last time with Robbie. Deffo top six next season more than likely top 4.

[Voice of reason]

9 hours ago, Franksluckypants said:

Mark Twain - Lies, damned lies, and statistics!

 

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/win-ratio-shows-hearts-are-the-most-dominant-championship-team-in-years-despite-criticism-3161518

 

Of course it might well change by the end of the season, but the fact is we are currently getting it done! (The 'how' is much more up for debate...).

Dropping points in only 6 matches so far is clearly a good stat. Nor really that sobering at all as the record books show. Keep up this PPG record to the end of the year and that’s a good job overall. 

[This is My Story Podcast]

On 10/03/2021 at 22:59, Franksluckypants said:

Mark Twain - Lies, damned lies, and statistics!

 

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/win-ratio-shows-hearts-are-the-most-dominant-championship-team-in-years-despite-criticism-3161518

 

Of course it might well change by the end of the season, but the fact is we are currently getting it done! (The 'how' is much more up for debate...).

And the “how” was pretty much the debate. We are winning this league, have been since day one. I don’t think even Robbie would argue that he wishes we could’ve done it playing a little better but suppose that’s football. Get us out this league and hopefully never see it again. 

[Hectormasson]

On 28/02/2021 at 16:22, Agentjambo said:

At the end of the day who employed Craig Levein? ANN BUDGE... End of. 

Exactly the rest is clear to see !

[Phage]

On 27/02/2021 at 03:46, RussAsia said:

 

Great post.

 

The one constant about it all - Ann Budge. It's time for her to go. Yes she put her money in and has managed to bring in investors. However she's had her money back now and there's not much point in pumping in money to throw it away at some of the rubbish she has been.

 

Our one manager in her time that actually played a decent brand of football and needed a bit more time, she got rid of while he was out the country and didn't even tell him. 

 

People will look back on Budge's time at the club as a failure. 

Performances might not be upto scratch. But in terms of saving the club from extinction, you can never call Budge a failure. Sorry not having that.

Will accept lackluster or something else.

[Pasquale for King]

On 10/03/2021 at 22:59, Franksluckypants said:

Mark Twain - Lies, damned lies, and statistics!

 

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/win-ratio-shows-hearts-are-the-most-dominant-championship-team-in-years-despite-criticism-3161518

 

Of course it might well change by the end of the season, but the fact is we are currently getting it done! (The 'how' is much more up for debate...).

The perception that Hearts have struggled , right away you think oh the majority of us must be wrong. We’ve seen our team struggle with our own eyes no matter what any monkey in the media reckons. 
We’ve been more dominant than United/Ross County and St Mirren. Woopdee ****ing do, our wage bill is probably higher than the three of those put together. Even compared to last seasons United wage bill of 133% of turnover were still miles ahead of theirs. In fact theirs was around £4m and ours was £8.7m where Budge said it’s about the same this season for the same results, no what’s the connection 🤔🤷🏾‍♂️?!?!
 

Edited March 12, 2021 by Pasquale for King

[davemclaren]

6 minutes ago, Pasquale for King said:

The perception that Hearts have struggled , right away you think oh the majority of us must be wrong. We’ve seen our team struggle with our own eyes no matter what any monkey in the media reckons. 
We’ve been more dominant than United/Ross County and St Mirren. Woopdee ****ing do, our wage bill is probably higher than the three of those put together. Even compared to last seasons United wage bill of 133% of turnover were still miles ahead of theirs. In fact theirs was around £4m and ours was £8.7m where Budge said it’s about the same this season for the same results, no what’s the connection 🤔🤷🏾‍♂️?!?!
 

But we haven’t actually struggled. 

[Pasquale for King]

19 minutes ago, davemclaren said:

But we haven’t actually struggled. 

How very happy clapper? Have you missed the constant arguing about this on an hourly/daily/weekly basis? We’ve struggled in plenty of games. Off the top of my head Arbroath/Pars/Dundee/ICT/Ayr/QoS away from home, Pars/Dundee/Raith/Morton at home. That’s half our fixtures so far. All of those were a struggle to win, draw and losses. I don’t think even Neilson can argue with that. 

[davemclaren]

1 minute ago, Pasquale for King said:

How very happy clapper? Have you missed the constant arguing about this on an hourly/daily/weekly basis? We’ve struggled in plenty of games. Off the top of my head Arbroath/Pars/Dundee/ICT/Ayr/QoS away from home, Pars/Dundee/Raith/Morton at home. That’s half our fixtures so far. All of those were a struggle to win, draw and losses. I don’t think even Neilson can argue with that. 

No I haven’t missed the arguing. But given where we are in the league it’s quite clear we haven’t struggled.