The monumental loser Ann Budge FAIL FAIL FAIL

[Hectormasson]

41 minutes ago, Nookie Bear said:

 

Why don't you destroy his 'trolling' with facts?

All he pointed out is totally true !whether folks on here agree or not, he's right........

[i8hibsh]

5 minutes ago, Nookie Bear said:

 

But we were still bottom with 8 games to go. Whatever the circumstances no matter how unfair our demotion was, we were bottom of the league with 8 games to go.

 

And that was before Budge cocked up the battle over the summer.

 

 

I could only surmise to the financial cost of that legal fiasco but it would be fair to say it was a lot.

[Firefox]

Season's over, nae transfer news, what can we talk about?  Lets have Yet another Budge Over thread so we can say all the things that have already been said over and over and over................pffft!!

[i8hibsh]

1 minute ago, Firefox said:

Season's over, nae transfer news, what can we talk about?  Lets have Yet another Budge Over thread so we can say all the things that have already been said over and over and over................pffft!!

 

 

But it simply has to be talked about.  It is the biggest and most severe issue facing us as a club.  

 

We can perhaps not talk about it, buy our new strips, renew our season tickets and go through it all again next season though.

[martoon]

I don't mind how many anti Budge/Neilson threads there are.

 

The more the better.

 

Other than withholding ST money, posting on this forum is the only way I can express the anger, frustration and sadness at the husk of a club HMFC has become.

 

I can't do it in person because of the pandemic.

 

Repetitive it may be but no more so than the parrot like Budge/Neilson firefighters.

 

i8 can start a new feckin thread everyday, afaic. I'm heart sick at what these people are doing to the club.

 

Budge, Neilson, and the ever lurking Levein, OUt

[wavydavy]

13 minutes ago, Nookie Bear said:

 

Would rather see celtic use our club shop than see that thing outside 😄

 

Wrong thread for these sort of comments.

[Pasquale for King]

5 minutes ago, Last Laff said:

No I mean the debt we would be in if not topped up by benefactors, the only thing AB has done well.  

I’m not sure how much credit she can get for that though as Anderson and his wife approached her to do the Save the Children deal. 
She has wasted the money they gave us so what’s the point of having it, they must be questioning her too. 

[SectionDJambo]

There is little doubt that our club is now at a critical time for our future. There has to be immediate signs of improvement and determination to restore the reputation of our football team. None of this 3 or 5 year plan distraction. It has to happen now.

Every focus should be on the football team, nothing else. Without a challenging football team everything thing else does not gain the financial rewards that the investment requires.

We have definitely become soft from top to bottom. The players and management seem to accept defeat too easily. Whilst we were dealt with unfairly last summer, we should never have allowed ourselves to be in such a position. It’s not as though it happened suddenly. It’s been a gradual decline with years of poor decision making and dithering, dressed up as keeping a calm head.

Hearts shouldn’t assume the fans, the main source of income, are just going to just keep coming along. Look at the crowds of the yo yo years pre Wallace Mercer and that is self evident.

 

[Hashimoto]

5 minutes ago, Last Laff said:

No I mean the debt we would be in if not topped up by benefactors, the only thing AB has done well.  

OK.....So we are all running scared that the benefactors disappear like snow off a dyke if Budge go's?

To me that doesn't give Budge carte blanche to continue this downward tread she has taken Hearts. 
Even rich benefactors must worry that their money is not being invested wisely.

Sooner rather than later Budge has to move aside.....We'll soon find out if the benefactors are there for Hearts or for Budge 
 

[Mollo]

Our clubs situation is far more associated with the words IN the post, than who posted them. Loads of fair points.

 

We are an absolute shambles on multiple fronts. A wise piece of business / improvement advise I once heard was "Don't focus on the last results, focus on the trend"

 

A broke man trending a saving is doing well, a millionaire losing it all isn't. Our recent trend(s) are shocking. A slight gain with promotion but you can zoom into any sine wave and find an 'up'

 

[Leveins Battalion]

Budge out.

[Leveins Battalion]

This summer will be no different,at the back of the pack picking up has beens and 2nd-3rd choice targets.

 

 

 

[Hashimoto]

5 minutes ago, i8hibsh said:

 

 

But it simply has to be talked about.  It is the biggest and most severe issue facing us as a club.  

 

We can perhaps not talk about it, buy our new strips, renew our season tickets and go through it all again next season though.

Or more importantly we can guess the colour and designs of our new strips....pffff!....And at the same time whilst Rome burns!

This constant mismanagement of Hearts is the most important topic that should be under scrutiny and discussion amongst the support.

[Geoff Kilpatrick]

Hot air on here is pointless.

 

If you want Budge out the solution is simple. Force the current FoH board out and then confront Budge with takeover completion. The money is there so JFDI.

 

Oh, you want someone else to do it for you? Stunned.

[Hashimoto]

2 minutes ago, Geoff Kilpatrick said:

Hot air on here is pointless.

 

If you want Budge out the solution is simple. Force the current FoH board out and then confront Budge with takeover completion. The money is there so JFDI.

 

Oh, you want someone else to do it for you? Stunned.

We are not all FoH contributors.....Is FoH the only voice a Hearts supporter should have when concerned with the running of our club?

[The Treasurer]

54 minutes ago, i8hibsh said:

 

 

I'm certainly not holding my breath over us becoming a success under Budge.

I think we all know that by now.

Was it really necessary to start yet another thread on the same subject

[Last Laff]

16 minutes ago, Pasquale for King said:

I’m not sure how much credit she can get for that though as Anderson and his wife approached her to do the Save the Children deal. 
She has wasted the money they gave us so what’s the point of having it, they must be questioning her too. 

I would be if I was them.

Well if it’s not her charm attracting the cash then there’s another scored out reason. 

[i8hibsh]

Just now, The Treasurer said:

I think we all know that by now.

Was it really necessary to start yet another thread on the same subject

 

 

As I mentioned earlier, the historic Budge threads ran their course.

 

This is a fresh bebate witht he same subject matter - it happens on forums.

 

I wanted to hear from the 'other' side as to their reasons for their support.

 

2 pages in and no valid reasons have been put on the table I may add.

[Last Laff]

15 minutes ago, Hashimoto said:

OK.....So we are all running scared that the benefactors disappear like snow off a dyke if Budge go's?

To me that doesn't give Budge carte blanche to continue this downward tread she has taken Hearts. 
Even rich benefactors must worry that their money is not being invested wisely.

Sooner rather than later Budge has to move aside.....We'll soon find out if the benefactors are there for Hearts or for Budge 
 

No, it’s the only reason I can think of for anyone supporting her. 
 

The rest 100%.

[Selkirkhmfc1874]

Hard to argue with lots of the op points except the losing court case !! As a support we all backed the club going to court last summer.

[i8hibsh]

Just now, Last Laff said:

No, it’s the only reason I can think of for anyone supporting her. 
 

The rest 100%.

 

 

Good balanced posting but I would argue the whole befactor thing as our first team is not benefiting from it.

 

I would be 'half full' and sold on it if at least our youth team and academy were progessing but they are completely fruitless and for the amount of cash and time went into it we are lagging behind our competitors in the main.

 

It seems our benefactor contributions are going toward 'nice' non footballing virtuous projects as opposed to helping the bottom line.

[Pasquale for King]

6 minutes ago, Last Laff said:

I would be if I was them.

Well if it’s not her charm attracting the cash then there’s another scored out reason. 

I think she said they had agreed to back us for the next 5 years made summer, if she was running the show. What is the point of the two FoH members on the board if they are making these decisions?

[Geoff Kilpatrick]

13 minutes ago, Hashimoto said:

We are not all FoH contributors.....Is FoH the only voice a Hearts supporter should have when concerned with the running of our club?

No, but it's the bloody easiest route to achieving what you are seeking.

[Forever Hearts]

1 hour ago, John Findlay said:

I'm pissed off Hibs are in a cup final post. They are not playing one of the OF in the final, so may just win it.

Then again they may not. History is most definitely on their side.

They won it the last time they played one of the Old Firm in a SCF. 

 

[Hashimoto]

3 minutes ago, Geoff Kilpatrick said:

No, but it's the bloody easiest route to achieving what you are seeking.

Sorry Geoff.....there is no easy route as I see it.....Budge is due £3m, and probably growing!

She ain't for budging (excuse pun!) until she is paid back. FoH not in a position to find that type or level of funding. 
As a matter of fact it looks like FoH donations are sliding so the financial position is actually worse!

Some of us have gone past the point of no return as far as the leadership team at Tynecastle is concerned. 
My dissatisfaction at the way things have been these past 5 or 6 years will be my voluntary dropping out until things change 

[Martin_T]

There have been some poor decisions made certainly. But equally a lot of seemingly qualified individuals, notably Levein, badly underperformed when they really should have done much better.

[Gordon Ramsay]

1 hour ago, i8hibsh said:

As it so painfully seems, this catastrophic disaster is not going anywhere.  So we now sleepwalk into our 8th season under this monumental failure and I am sure deep down we all know exactly how next season will pan out.

 

When this monumental failure stepped in on the back of fans pledges, Hearts and Hibs had both hit rock bottom.  Hearts came out of the traps the quickest but alas it seemed just a short fast dash.

 

Since then we have been walking backwards as we have watched Hibs win the Scottish cup for the first time in 114 years (or whatever it was) and just finish above us for the 4th season in a row (first time since the 1970s) and in all painful likelihood win another Scottish Cup and enjoy the European football it brings.

 

Every season seems to bring another unwanted records and failures for us.  If it is not our worst run of results in our history, worst results in our history, unforgivable recruitment, losing court battles, relegation, hammerings to teams like Livingston, haemorrhaging money, fan disconnect and fan apathy it is watching us become accepting both on and off the pitch of being congenial losers.

 

I am out of puff now, I just don't know what we do to get rid of this monumental loser who is running our club.

 

We are being run like a community centre, I know this term is over played but it really is the situation we face.  The only successes we have witnessed under Budge in the past 6 years are a restaurant and the girl’s team getting promoted.

 

We are the friendly club now,  hell bent on being likeable.  We have even developed bonds with insignificant diddy clubs.

 

Anyway, my point caller is I want those very few Budge lovers left (you know who you are) to explain to me why they are happy with her being in charge?  To me, no Jambo could honestly want this disaster to remain in control. 

 

 

 

You'll get pelters from folk crying you are slagging off Ann and Robbie too much on a Hearts forum but at the end of the day where else do we do it? 

 

Every point is valid and the accountability at the club is non-existent. 

 

It's extremely depressing. 

[Robbo-Jambo]

36 minutes ago, martoon said:

I don't mind how many anti Budge/Neilson threads there are.

 

The more the better.

 

Other than withholding ST money, posting on this forum is the only way I can express the anger, frustration and sadness at the husk of a club HMFC has become.

 

I can't do it in person because of the pandemic.

 

Repetitive it may be but no more so than the parrot like Budge/Neilson firefighters.

 

i8 can start a new feckin thread everyday, afaic. I'm heart sick at what these people are doing to the club.

 

Budge, Neilson, and the ever lurking Levein, OUt

Absolutely this. 

 

She woll only get the message and possibly act when income streams start to go down the way. 

 

Money talks and that is her language. 😏

[Mars plastic]

3 minutes ago, Hashimoto said:

Sorry Geoff.....there is no easy route as I see it.....Budge is due £3m, and probably growing!

She ain't for budging (excuse pun!) until she is paid back. FoH not in a position to find that type or level of funding. 
As a matter of fact it looks like FoH donations are sliding so the financial position is actually worse!

Some of us have gone past the point of no return as far as the leadership team at Tynecastle is concerned. 
My dissatisfaction at the way things have been these past 5 or 6 years will be my voluntary dropping out until things change 

When did this loan of 3 mill happen and why was it needed? I'd have thought with all the ST sold and the FOH monthly beer money we'd be in a fairly healthy fiscal position. 

[Nookie Bear]

40 minutes ago, wavydavy said:

 

Wrong thread for these sort of comments.

 

Never a right thread for it tbf

[been here before]

49 minutes ago, May one-six said:

Probably the most ironic statement ever posted on Kickback.

 

You had were bang on the money there until...

 

40 minutes ago, i8hibsh said:

 

 

But it simply has to be talked about.  It is the biggest and most severe issue facing us as a club.  

 

We can perhaps not talk about it, buy our new strips, renew our season tickets and go through it all again next season though.

 

[i8hibsh]

5 minutes ago, Martin_T said:

There have been some poor decisions made certainly. But equally a lot of seemingly qualified individuals, notably Levein, badly underperformed when they really should have done much better.

 

Levein took us to the brink for sure but it all lies with Budge.

 

No matter what manager we have they will not be accountable to anyone.  This is to say that no matter how poor the results are they simply do not have the fear on the Monday morning most managers will have. 

 

Budge has created a land of fluffy unicorns, a losing congenial mentality and a culture of niceness and this cascades down throughout the club - it would be impossible not too.

 

I hear the old (not aimed at you) "Ann Budge doesn't pick the team" which of course is true but it is a nonsense argument.  All success and all failure comes from the very top.  Not everything will be directly attached to it but it all comes from it whether directly or indirectly.

Edited May 10, 2021 by i8hibsh

[Geoff Kilpatrick]

3 minutes ago, Hashimoto said:

Sorry Geoff.....there is no easy route as I see it.....Budge is due £3m, and probably growing!

She ain't for budging (excuse pun!) until she is paid back. FoH not in a position to find that type or level of funding. 
As a matter of fact it looks like FoH donations are sliding so the financial position is actually worse!

Some of us have gone past the point of no return as far as the leadership team at Tynecastle is concerned. 
My dissatisfaction at the way things have been these past 5 or 6 years will be my voluntary dropping out until things change 

You don't actually know that. What we do know is as follows: - 

 

1. FoH have the funds to pay £100K for the share transfer and have paid over £2M beyond said £100K for the share transfer to the club. I appreciate that is working capital at present and there is no argument about that but the idea that we don't have the funds to do this is wrong.

 

2. I'm not sure about the terms of the Budge loan but I very much doubt it is instantly repayable on her shares being transferred. Indeed, she already has security via a floating charge over Tynecastle. Given that FoH donations amount to a minimum of £1.56M p.a. at present, we could easily repay her within two and a bit years in a worst case scenario.

 

3. While that is going on, the club might actually get a reality check. Too many highly paid arseholes doing the square root of feck all while a tuppence ha'penny club like St Johnstone plays in two cup finals.

[Martin_T]

4 minutes ago, i8hibsh said:

 

Levein took us to the brink for sure but it all lies with Budge.

 

No matter what manager we have they will not be accountable to anyone.  This is to say that no matter how poor the results are they simply do not have the fear on the Monday morning most managers will have. 

 

Budge has created a land of fluffy unicorns, a losing congenial mentality and a culture of niceness and this cascades down throughout the club - it would be impossible not too.

 

I hear the old (not aimed at you) "Ann Budge doesn't pick the team" which of course is true but it is a nonsense argument.  All success and all failure comes from the very top.  Not everything will be directly attached to it but it all comes from it whether directly or indirectly.

 

I see your point, but I don't think that family fun days, a woman's team etc are mutually exclusive to the attitude and performance of the first team.

 

Ultimately people we have employed in leadership positions for the first team, have let us down with underperformance.

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

Its really simple, you withdraw your custom.

 

Really that easy 

[Jambof3tornado]

1 hour ago, tian447 said:

There is nothing in this thread that you haven't said time and time again, all over this forum.

 

Did it really need a new, dedicated thread?  Absolutely ****ing boring now. 

Boring but she is still here, so very relevant. 

 

#BUDGEOVERNEILSONOUt 

[Last Laff]

23 minutes ago, Pasquale for King said:

I think she said they had agreed to back us for the next 5 years made summer, if she was running the show. What is the point of the two FoH members on the board if they are making these decisions?

All true, sadly.  

[i8hibsh]

4 minutes ago, Martin_T said:

 

I see your point, but I don't think that family fun days, a woman's team etc are mutually exclusive to the attitude and performance of the first team.

 

Ultimately people we have employed in leadership positions for the first team, have let us down with underperformance.

 

 

I also feel it has been detrimental that Ann has always been surrounded by 'Yes' men (and women) fawning over her every step.  This is not healthy.

 

She also thinks our fanbase are FoH, families and businessmen.

 

The vast majority of our fanbase (and all fanbases in football) are Joe Schmoes, Joe Bloggs and Josephine regular.  These are the people she has no time for and it has caused a huge disconnect.

Edited May 10, 2021 by i8hibsh

[Hearts1975]

1 hour ago, i8hibsh said:

As it so painfully seems, this catastrophic disaster is not going anywhere.  So we now sleepwalk into our 8th season under this monumental failure and I am sure deep down we all know exactly how next season will pan out.

 

When this monumental failure stepped in on the back of fans pledges, Hearts and Hibs had both hit rock bottom.  Hearts came out of the traps the quickest but alas it seemed just a short fast dash.

 

Since then we have been walking backwards as we have watched Hibs win the Scottish cup for the first time in 114 years (or whatever it was) and just finish above us for the 4th season in a row (first time since the 1970s) and in all painful likelihood win another Scottish Cup and enjoy the European football it brings.

 

Every season seems to bring another unwanted records and failures for us.  If it is not our worst run of results in our history, worst results in our history, unforgivable recruitment, losing court battles, relegation, hammerings to teams like Livingston, haemorrhaging money, fan disconnect and fan apathy it is watching us become accepting both on and off the pitch of being congenial losers.

 

I am out of puff now, I just don't know what we do to get rid of this monumental loser who is running our club.

 

We are being run like a community centre, I know this term is over played but it really is the situation we face.  The only successes we have witnessed under Budge in the past 6 years are a restaurant and the girl’s team getting promoted.

 

We are the friendly club now,  hell bent on being likeable.  We have even developed bonds with insignificant diddy clubs.

 

Anyway, my point caller is I want those very few Budge lovers left (you know who you are) to explain to me why they are happy with her being in charge?  To me, no Jambo could honestly want this disaster to remain in control. 

 

 

The one thing that no one can criticise u for I8 is that u have been consistent from day dot and when it came to ur feelings about AB 

 

Where I don’t agree with u (necessarily) is in terms of what she actually wanted for the club. My old man met her at his plot ceremony and got to spend 20 minutes or so in her Company and spoke to her personally 

He always maintained that from what he could pick up that there was no question that she wanted the best for the club and was extremely passionate about the future of the club - that was 2 years ago

 

I don’t buy this shit that she has any sinister intentions or has done anything other than try (from her own perspective) and make decisions that SHE thought was best for the club 

 

But that’s it. If everyone, and I mean everyone steps back without getting emotive about anything, when it has came to her overall tenure at the club and given the potential of the club it has not went the way most of us wanted. I don’t think anyone can deny that 

 

The problem was that she was an old lady who should have been enjoying and living out her retirement years in peace - a supporter and her daughter who went to the games, and then suddenly she became the owner of one of the biggest football institutions in Scotland 

 

it’s platantly obvious to even the most thick headed what happened since then. She knew nothing about football and nothing about running a football club. She knew how to run a business and put in place codes of conduct and structures hence the many observations around the fact that she has probably focussed more on our standing in the football community than our performance on the football pitch 

 

she ran around speaking to people that she trusted - didn’t want outside help and probably saw this as interference. She then brings in her inner circle and gives them carte Blanche to run the football side - the problem being that they all failed to varying degrees and were just as stubborn as Ann was when it came to pulling the plug with their own respective failings.
 

Now she has cut these ties with her previous confidantes, and now handed more power over to McKinlay, Savage etc - is it too little to late ? I think so - I think new leadership is required and at the very very top - it doesn’t have to be negative as some folk always bleat on about but would it benefit the club - absolutely it would 

 

The thing I do get is that a lot of folk get concerned about is that we have an owner that has went on record saying that she doesn’t have a clue how to run a football club. That will never inspire confidence in the masses - the minute anyone thinks a bad decision is made, it is because the person that made it, has made it, and because she didn’t really have the necessary knowledge or expertise to make the right decision in the first place

 

we need someone who knows how to run a football club and not someone who relies on other people telling her how to do it. This is the real issue otherwise who is accountable when it fails and if the people who are responsible fail then the owner needs to hold them to high standards and accountability 

 

However, Let’s stop all this granny budge pish and abuse to varying degrees  - I personally would much rather she focusses on the most important things like how the team is performing rather than how we are perceived in terms of the football community but in her eyes, how we are perceived within the football community is obviously important - that’s her own point of view and one she is perfectly entitled to 

 

that said, no need to abuse her. She has stepped up when no one else did - put her money up - structured the club better that it was in a lot of ways but she has failed abysmally on the football side (this is meant in general and not at you) 

 

I just don’t take any pleasure whatsoever in her getting personal abuse of any sort - I feel sorry for her in a lot of ways and just feel that she is now in a position where she cannot win either way and especially with a lot of the support breathing on top of her. She is in quicksand at the moment and who else is left in her inner circle to turn to ? They have all failed her to date 

 

You keep hearing that pr people from The club read in to this forum and if they do I hope they realise at times when there is choice words going on about her that it is driven purely by frustration rather than a will to criticise their involvement 

 

Please Ann. Just walk away - you don’t need this shit at the time of ur life. U should be away enjoying urself and not having the stress of running the club. U were let down badly, by those you trusted, no question, but ultimately u made the decisions and they were the wrong decisions 

 

Ultimately the Captain is the last man to go down with the boat. No one has held AB accountable for her decision making since day dot and this is the root cause of the problem and why to this day we are still talking about all of her failings, yet she hasn’t been held to account for any of them 

 

Let’s just leave it at that and park any further slagging toward her as it was countless bad decisions that she made rather than some sordid intent to do the club wrong - no one held her accountable and they are just as much to blame as AB, and her management teams that she surrounded herself with for the position that we find ourselves in today 

[martoon]

11 minutes ago, Robbo-Jambo said:

Absolutely this. 

 

She woll only get the message and possibly act when income streams start to go down the way. 

 

Money talks and that is her language. 😏

 

As things stand, R-J, she's not getting mine. Not upfront, anyway.

 

Quite capable of pissing it up against the wall myself. 😊

[Hashimoto]

3 minutes ago, Geoff Kilpatrick said:

You don't actually know that. What we do know is as follows: - 

 

1. FoH have the funds to pay £100K for the share transfer and have paid over £2M beyond said £100K for the share transfer to the club. I appreciate that is working capital at present and there is no argument about that but the idea that we don't have the funds to do this is wrong.

 

2. I'm not sure about the terms of the Budge loan but I very much doubt it is instantly repayable on her shares being transferred. Indeed, she already has security via a floating charge over Tynecastle. Given that FoH donations amount to a minimum of £1.56M p.a. at present, we could easily repay her within two and a bit years in a worst case scenario.

 

3. While that is going on, the club might actually get a reality check. Too many highly paid arseholes doing the square root of feck all while a tuppence ha'penny club like St Johnstone plays in two cup finals.

Agreed Geoff....I don't have that type of insider knowledge...

Regarding point 2......Any money that FoH have to pay back to back effectively denies that money being reinvested back into the club....So we are looking like standing still for 2 or 3 years minimum. I also appreciate that the terms for repayment can be stretched, or altered on agreement from both parties....However, this c£3m+ is a noose around our neck for a long time to come.

On top of that..How many FoH contributors will be happy knowing that their hard earned cash is not going back into the growth of the club.....It's going back into Ann Budge's £3m purse!  

[Geoff Kilpatrick]

1 minute ago, i8hibsh said:

 

 

I also feel it has been detrimental that Ann has always been surrounded by 'Yes' men (and women) fawning over her every step.  This is not healthy.

 

She also thinks our fanbase are FoH, families and businessmen.

 

The vast majority of our fanbase (and all fanbases in football) are Joe Schmoes, Joe Bloggs and Josephine regular.  These are the people she has no time for and it has caused a huge disconnect.

Cool. You're a Joe Schmoe whose sole attempt at changing things is ranting on here since you've already withdrawn your custom. Maybe you might get why people can't be arsed listening to you even if they agree with you.

[suds66]

1 hour ago, Section N Rules said:

Her reign has been nothing short of abysmal in terms of football, there is absolutely no denying that.

No argument from me, brutal 

[David Black]

36 minutes ago, i8hibsh said:

 

 

As I mentioned earlier, the historic Budge threads ran their course.

 

This is a fresh bebate witht he same subject matter - it happens on forums.

 

I wanted to hear from the 'other' side as to their reasons for their support.

 

2 pages in and no valid reasons have been put on the table I may add.

They can't, there is no excuse whatsoever for what has happened. There are fanatics of a football club who can see and accept where and when things are wrong, but the blind fanatic refuses to see anything and takes exception when those faults are put in front of him. They can't however put up a logical argument in defence, only take offence.

[Geoff Kilpatrick]

2 minutes ago, Hashimoto said:

Agreed Geoff....I don't have that type of insider knowledge...

Regarding point 2......Any money that FoH have to pay back to back effectively denies that money being reinvested back into the club....So we are looking like standing still for 2 or 3 years minimum. I also appreciate that the terms for repayment can be stretched, or altered on agreement from both parties....However, this c£3m+ is a noose around our neck for a long time to come.

On top of that..How many FoH contributors will be happy knowing that their hard earned cash is not going back into the growth of the club.....It's going back into Ann Budge's £3m purse!  

How many fans are happy with the status quo?

 

The only other outcome is Budge writing off the loan which might happen with 5 more years of this current pish. So given a choice of 5 years of torpor and 2 years of austerity I'll take the latter.

[i8hibsh]

3 minutes ago, Hearts1975 said:

The one thing that no one can criticise u for I8 is that u have been consistent from day dot and when it came to ur feelings about AB 

 

Where I don’t agree with u (necessarily) is in terms of what she actually wanted for the club. My old man met her at his plot ceremony and got to spend 20 minutes or so in her Company and spoke to her personally 

He always maintained that from what he could pick up that there was no question that she wanted the best for the club and was extremely passionate about the future of the club - that was 2 years ago

 

I don’t buy this shit that she has any sinister intentions or has done anything other than try (from her own perspective) and make decisions that SHE thought was best for the club 

 

But that’s it. If everyone, and I mean everyone steps back without getting emotive about anything, when it has came to her overall tenure at the club and given the potential of the club it has not went the way most of us wanted. I don’t think anyone can deny that 

 

The problem was that she was an old lady who should have been enjoying and living out her retirement years in peace - a supporter and her daughter who went to the games, and then suddenly she became the owner of one of the biggest football institutions in Scotland 

 

it’s platantly obvious to even the most thick headed what happened since then. She knew nothing about football and nothing about running a football club. She knew how to run a business and put in place codes of conduct and structures hence the many observations around the fact that she has probably focussed more on our standing in the football community than our performance on the football pitch 

 

she ran around speaking to people that she trusted - didn’t want outside help and probably saw this as interference. She then brings in her inner circle and gives them carte Blanche to run the football side - the problem being that they all failed to varying degrees and were just as stubborn as Ann was when it came to pulling the plug with their own respective failings.
 

Now she has cut these ties with her previous confidantes, and now handed more power over to McKinlay, Savage etc - is it too little to late ? I think so - I think new leadership is required and at the very very top - it doesn’t have to be negative as some folk always bleat on about but would it benefit the club - absolutely it would 

 

The thing I do get is that a lot of folk get concerned about is that we have an owner that has went on record saying that she doesn’t have a clue how to run a football club. That will never inspire confidence in the masses - the minute anyone thinks a bad decision is made, it is because the person that made it, has made it, and because she didn’t really have the necessary knowledge or expertise to make the right decision in the first place

 

we need someone who knows how to run a football club and not someone who relies on other people telling her how to do it. This is the real issue otherwise who is accountable when it fails and if the people who are responsible fail then the owner needs to hold them to high standards and accountability 

 

However, Let’s stop all this granny budge pish and abuse to varying degrees  - I personally would much rather she focusses on the most important things like how the team is performing rather than how we are perceived in terms of the football community but in her eyes, how we are perceived within the football community is obviously important - that’s her own point of view and one she is perfectly entitled to 

 

that said, no need to abuse her. She has stepped up when no one else did - put her money up - structured the club better that it was in a lot of ways but she has failed abysmally on the football side (this is meant in general and not at you) 

 

I just don’t take any pleasure whatsoever in her getting personal abuse of any sort - I feel sorry for her in a lot of ways and just feel that she is now in a position where she cannot win either way and especially with a lot of the support breathing on top of her. She is in quicksand at the moment and who else is left in her inner circle to turn to ? They have all failed her to date 

 

You keep hearing that pr people from The club read in to this forum and if they do I hope they realise at times when there is choice words going on about her that it is driven purely by frustration rather than a will to criticise their involvement 

 

Please Ann. Just walk away - you don’t need this shit at the time of ur life. U should be away enjoying urself and not having the stress of running the club. U were let down badly, by those you trusted, no question, but ultimately u made the decisions and they were the wrong decisions 

 

Ultimately the Captain is the last man to go down with the boat. No one has held AB accountable for her decision making since day dot and this is the root cause of the problem and why to this day we are still talking about all of her failings, yet she hasn’t been held to account for any of them 

 

Let’s just leave it at that and park any further slagging toward her as it was countless bad decisions that she made rather than some sordid intent to do the club wrong - no one held her accountable and they are just as much to blame as AB, and her management teams that she surrounded herself with for the position that we find ourselves in today 

 

 

Thing is I really try not to get personal and get no pleasure from it.  She is a lady of senior age who seems a stand up person.  I truly wish her a long happy and healthy retirement.

 

Football is football though and the love we have for our team conquers all.  I see her as highly destructive and haven watched her for years treat the fans with such snobbery disrespect and watching us degenrate as a club then I certainly start to feel deep resentment and hatred to her.

 

I was very much on board with her at the start, I sang her name at Tynie - that seems an age ago now.

[i8hibsh]

4 minutes ago, Geoff Kilpatrick said:

Cool. You're a Joe Schmoe whose sole attempt at changing things is ranting on here since you've already withdrawn your custom. Maybe you might get why people can't be arsed listening to you even if they agree with you.

 

 

It was with the heaviest of hearts that I did withdraw my custom.  But she certainly does not speak the language of football - she only speaks money so there is my reason.

 

And voicing my disgust and dissatisfaction on the number one Hearts forum seems fairly prudent to me.

[graygo]

22 minutes ago, i8hibsh said:

 

 

Good balanced posting but I would argue the whole befactor thing as our first team is not benefiting from it.

 

I would be 'half full' and sold on it if at least our youth team and academy were progessing but they are completely fruitless and for the amount of cash and time went into it we are lagging behind our competitors in the main.

 

It seems our benefactor contributions are going toward 'nice' non footballing virtuous projects as opposed to helping the bottom line.

 

Youth team and academy? Have you missed the news about a pandemic?

 

As for your op, Hibs have not gone from strength to strength. It took them 3 fecking years to get out of the championship. Since coming up they've finished 4th, 5th then 7th. How the feck is that going from strength to strength?

Fair enough they've done better this season but anyone can see that this has not been a normal season 

Folk are quick to criticise fans for measuring "success" as how we've done compared to Hibs, looks like you've done the same in reverse.

Here's another novel idea, a lot of the benefactor money went into the new stand allowing the club to function normally which it wouldn't have been able to do if paying for the stand with "normal" income. You can call it a "non football virtuous project all you like but it was essential that it was done when it was and will bring much needed income into the club for years to come. 

In short - Heart of Midlothian Football Club have benefited from having benefactors.

[i8hibsh]

Just now, Awbdy Oot said:

 

Youth team and academy? Have you missed the news about a pandemic?

 

As for your op, Hibs have not gone from strength to strength. It took them 3 fecking years to get out of the championship. Since coming up they've finished 4th, 5th then 7th. How the feck is that going from strength to strength?

Fair enough they've done better this season but anyone can see that this has not been a normal season 

Folk are quick to criticise fans for measuring "success" as how we've done compared to Hibs, looks like you've done the same in reverse.

Here's another novel idea, a lot of the benefactor money went into the new stand allowing the club to function normally which it wouldn't have been able to do if paying for the stand with "normal" income. You can call it a "non football virtuous project all you like but it was essential that it was done when it was and will bring much needed income into the club for years to come. 

In short - Heart of Midlothian Football Club have benefited from having benefactors.

 

 

Our youth team and academy have been sub standard for years - way before the pandemic.

 

In 7 years under Budge Hibs have went up the way (albeit gradual as you say) and we have went down the way - that can't be argued.

[JamboGraham]

Another name for “Budge Lover” or even “Budge Hater” is “Hearts Supporter”. First and foremost we should always remember that wherever a Hearts supporter sits on the spectrum between love and hate we should respect the fact that they are a fellow Hearts supporter.

 

I suspect that many of the support follow the thinking of Wallace Mercer and “don’t give a toss who the Chair is, who the directors are; they want players, players that they can support”. I know I fit in this group.

 

The charge sheet on the original post is fact, the seven year record is a matter of fact. What would be the logic of anyone trying to convince or suggest otherwise now.

 

Therefore unless anything has wildly changed then the only realistic options open to supporters who wish to see change are. 1. Withdraw financial support to a greater or lesser degree (as the OP has done). 2. Withdraw physical/vocal support to a greater or lesser degree. 3. Continue to support the club with financial, physical and vocal support and hope for improvement. All three options present varying levels of challenge to the individual supporter making the decision and there will be many different reasons why they will make their choice. We can only try to respect the decision of other supporters even if it is not the same as ours.

 

Of course there is a further set of options which is protest (planes, bedsheets outside homes, etc.) but for me personally if you reach this level you have lost sight of the fact we are talking, discussing and debating a football club and it would perhaps be advisable to seek out another interest to fill the relatively short time we all have on this planet.