The Snodgrass and Humphry's Saga...

[droid]

Did we ever actually find out why the club jettisoned both out the door so quickly after appointing Naismith?

[OmiyaHearts]

I'm gonnae take a punt and say they both got released for being a negative influence in the dressing room.

[Shaggy2]

Put your wooden spoon away. Ancient history and neither are any great loss.

[droid]

Just now, Shaggy2 said:

Put your wooden spoon away. Ancient history and neither are any great loss.

Hardly a wooden spoon, I've always wondered what exactly happened. I'm nosey like that.

[Go for it 1308]

7 minutes ago, droid said:

Did we ever actually find out why the club jettisoned both out the door so quickly after appointing Naismith?

Who cares

[Watt-Zeefuik]

Got the distinct impression that both thought the way to respond to the losing streak was to yell at the younger players a lot and give them "tough love," and Robbie to his shame (apparently as advised by McCulloch) decided to let this roll.

 

Naisy came in and said, "yeah, we're not having that" and punted them.

[rudeskaboyuk]

Me ! ... I am always interested in these things. 

[been here before]

Humphreys went back down to Wigan due to them being sketchy about paying wages on time and generally being a but iffy.

 

Snodgrass is a wank so who cares.

[RustyRightPeg]

I didn't think there was anything in the Humps thing but then Maloney's comment about his terrible loan riled me up, but in hindsight made me think. 

 

Regarding Snodgrass, I'd heard a few players had approached Craig Gordon who in turn spoke to the board about the unrest...Neilson then left and the rest is history.  

[Lambo85]

Snodgrass was absolutely awful for us. He was completely finished as a player and its no surprise that he hasn't played again since leaving us.

 

Terrible signing, file him under Aaron Hughes and Glenn Whelan!

[GinRummy]

I think there were probably more players unhappy and the dressing room was split in some way. Naisy showing the rest of the squad he wasn’t ****ing about by being decisive with those two. 

[Sooks]

Snodgrass was a knackered liability . No idea about the big felly though 

[Shaggy2]

18 minutes ago, droid said:

Hardly a wooden spoon, I've always wondered what exactly happened. I'm nosey like that.

Fair enough but it does no good being openly discussed. Hope you find your answers. To me it’s just football, shit happens. They weren’t contributing anything and weren’t in future plans of the man in charge so ties were severed. Honesty would probably be appreciated after a period of contemplation. 

[BigAlim]

I’m sure there was talk on here at the time that Cochrane went all Kill Bill on everyone 

[MCW1976]

14 minutes ago, Lambo85 said:

Snodgrass was absolutely awful for us. He was completely finished as a player and its no surprise that he hasn't played again since leaving us.

 

Terrible signing, file him under Aaron Hughes and Glenn Whelan!

 

If you look back through the Kickback archives, I'd say you'll find that Hearts fans (most of them) were creaming their drawers over Snodgrass - and for a sustained period of time.

 

For a while, he was outstanding.

[Jambo61]

14 minutes ago, Lambo85 said:

Snodgrass was absolutely awful for us. He was completely finished as a player and its no surprise that he hasn't played again since leaving us.

 

Terrible signing, file him under Aaron Hughes and Glenn Whelan!

He was playing in a tournament in Dubai a few weeks back! Think Tennent's 6's!

[Sooks]

Stephen Robinson basically retired Robert Snodgrass

[Lambo85]

3 minutes ago, MCW1976 said:

 

If you look back through the Kickback archives, I'd say you'll find that Hearts fans (most of them) were creaming their drawers over Snodgrass - and for a sustained period of time.

 

For a while, he was outstanding.

 

I do not need to look back, I remember it well although I do not agree with your last sentence.

 

Snodgrass was everything that was wrong with our performances at the time. Slow, really slow. Every time he got the ball he wanted to take an extra touch and try to slow the game down.

 

Sorry but he was a shite signing.

Edited March 19 by Lambo85

[Sooks]

5 minutes ago, Lambo85 said:

 

I do not need to look back, I remember it well although I do not agree with your last sentence.

 

Snodgrass was everything that was wrong with our performances at the time. Slow, really slow. Every time he got the ball he wanted to take an extra touch and try to slow the game down.

 

Sorry but he was a shite signing.

Totally agree

[May98]

Snodgrass left because he was told he wouldn’t play when at the same time he thought he was our best player.  He wasn’t an arsehole in the dressing room, he just wanted the best for the team.  

[Smithian]

I feel like Humphrey was a solid pickup expected to play a big role but lo and behold we found a striker who tore up the lower leagues before so-so seasons in the Premiership and the Belgian top flight and he decided to be the best goal scorer in Scotland. Add to that Ginnelly being good and he was redundant

 

Snodgrass was a good pickup before opponents realized he was old. And he had to be dressing room nightmare or they wouldn't have threw him out on his arse once his on field utility was negligible.

[Jim Panzee]

35 minutes ago, Lambo85 said:

 

I do not need to look back, I remember it well although I do not agree with your last sentence.

 

Snodgrass was everything that was wrong with our performances at the time. Slow, really slow. Every time he got the ball he wanted to take an extra touch and try to slow the game down.

 

Sorry but he was a shite signing.

interesting - I (and fairly sure many others on here) - thought Snodgrass was very good in his first handful of games. We played through him and he controlled the games.

 

but.

 

after those handful of games, opposition managers simply marked him out of the game and gave him zero time on the ball. From here on in - he / our gameplan was shit. Nielsen for some inexplicable reason didn't change this tactic and we fell off a cliff.

 

 

[Jamboross]

38 minutes ago, Lambo85 said:

 

I do not need to look back, I remember it well although I do not agree with your last sentence.

 

Snodgrass was everything that was wrong with our performances at the time. Slow, really slow. Every time he got the ball he wanted to take an extra touch and try to slow the game down.

 

Sorry but he was a shite signing.

 

There was a 2 to 3 month period, coinciding with a good run of form where he was excellent and everything we did went through him. Folk on here were calling him Snodric and wanting him given a new contract.

 

Sadly teams sussed out that he was slow and any sort of pressure on him stopped him and us playing. As soon as that happened our form fell off a cliff. 

 

A great player in his day and really wasn't as bad on the pitch for us as people make out. Off the pitch he may well have been disruptive, I've no idea. 

 

Also no having the slating of Aaron Hughes. Top professional who was only ever meant to be backup and initially did very well when called upon. Certainly not in the same category as Whelan who took us for a ride. 

[Jim Panzee]

Just now, Jamboross said:

 

There was a 2 to 3 month period, coinciding with a good run of form where he was excellent and everything we did went through him. Folk on here were calling him Snodric and wanting him given a new contract.

 

Sadly teams sussed out that he was slow and any sort of pressure on him stopped him and us playing. As soon as that happened our form fell off a cliff. 

 

A great player in his day and really wasn't as bad on the pitch for us as people make out. Off the pitch he may well have been disruptive, I've no idea. 

 

Also no having the slating of Aaron Hughes. Top professional who was only ever meant to be backup and initially did very well when called upon. Certainly not in the same category as Whelan who took us for a ride. 

👍

[A_A wehatethehibs]

48 minutes ago, Sooks said:

Stephen Robinson basically retired Robert Snodgrass

Robbie retired him. By completely failing to react to one of the most basic tactics in football called doubling up on an older player not just from Robinson but every team in the league. Snodgrass couldve kept doing half a job if we had switched to a midfield 3. But for whatever reason Robbie stubbornly stuck with 2, Snodgrass +1, all the way from Feb when it started wobbling, right through to getting sacked. 

[soonbe110]

1 hour ago, OmiyaHearts said:

I'm gonnae take a punt and say they both got released for being a negative influence in the dressing room.

Think you win the prize, close the thread. 

[soonbe110]

1 hour ago, been here before said:

Humphreys went back down to Wigan due to them being sketchy about paying wages on time and generally being a but iffy.

 

Snodgrass is a wank so who cares.

He went back to Wigan because he was told he wouldn’t be playing much, if at all. Threw the toys out the pram. 

[soonbe110]

1 hour ago, Sooks said:

Stephen Robinson basically retired Robert Snodgrass

With a little bit of help from Alex Gogic. 

[kingantti1874]

14 minutes ago, A_A wehatethehibs said:

Robbie retired him. By completely failing to react to one of the most basic tactics in football called doubling up on an older player not just from Robinson but every team in the league. Snodgrass couldve kept doing half a job if we had switched to a midfield 3. But for whatever reason Robbie stubbornly stuck with 2, Snodgrass +1, all the way from Feb when it started wobbling, right through to getting sacked. 

100%.  Though I think there was also a bit of influence from Snodgrass in terms of him dictating what kind of role he wanted.  
 

I think Robbie was a naive manager, he could have and should have sussed that if they are doubling up on Snodgrass there was room somewhere else. We could have by passed Snodgrass all together which would have given teams a dilemma .  But no we kept trying the same thing over and over 

[kingantti1874]

3 minutes ago, soonbe110 said:

He went back to Wigan because he was told he wouldn’t be playing much, if at all. Threw the toys out the pram. 

that’s what I was told as well. Wasn’t happy at the lack of game time 

[soonbe110]

Just now, kingantti1874 said:

that’s what I was told as well. Wasn’t happy at the lack of game time 

More than one of them told the same thing as soon as Naismith took over as interim. 

[Famous 1874]

Wasn’t the rumour that the players were unhappy with Neilson showing favouritism towards Snodgrass? 
 

Then Neilson got sacked and I guess Naismith simply didn’t fancy him and decided to remove him due to a broken relationship with lots of the other players. 
 

Humphrys was just a bit shit for 90% of the time and I expect Naismith didn’t rate him 

[boag1874]

5 minutes ago, MCW1976 said:

 

If you look back through the Kickback archives, I'd say you'll find that Hearts fans (most of them) were creaming their drawers over Snodgrass - and for a sustained period of time.

 

For a while, he was outstanding.

Agreed, he was absolute class for ages and was the main influence making us tick. Part of the reason was teams were worrying too much about McKay & Shankland which was leaving space open for him to dictate our play.

 

I think us hedging our bets on getting Beni back in January 2023 didn't help, Beni's good on the ball (while not the attacking influence Snodgrass was) but more crucially he can play well in tight areas under pressure which Snodgrass couldn't do. Robinson sussed that he was the key to everything we were doing - stop Snodgrass and our play collapsed because with McKay off the boil & playing with an injury we were way too reliant on him being our playmaker.

 

Haring was really badly concussed/dealing with another injury (I can't remember which), Kio hadn't worked out. That left Halliday or Devlin as his partner, I like Devlin but in possession he's not the man who's going to break defences open so forget him and focus on the danger man, especially with the danger man unable to run with the ball, Halliday was a decent squad filler nothing more.

 

Unfortunately it looked like he took his frustrations out on the other players when things weren't working out for him, particularly the younger ones. Neilson should have nipped that in the bud but didn't, it caused serious unrest and that was that, Naisy ultimately made the right call.

 

Had Beni returned when we'd hoped & we used Snodgrass in a 3 man midfield maybe things would be different. Using him in a 2 as a sort of deep lying playmaker was a poor choice, he was too easy to stop if teams just stuck a man on him and it forced us to play too deep.

[karipidis]

28 minutes ago, Jamboross said:

 

There was a 2 to 3 month period, coinciding with a good run of form where he was excellent and everything we did went through him. Folk on here were calling him Snodric and wanting him given a new contract.

 

Sadly teams sussed out that he was slow and any sort of pressure on him stopped him and us playing. As soon as that happened our form fell off a cliff. 

 

A great player in his day and really wasn't as bad on the pitch for us as people make out. Off the pitch he may well have been disruptive, I've no idea. 

 

Also no having the slating of Aaron Hughes. Top professional who was only ever meant to be backup and initially did very well when called upon. Certainly not in the same category as Whelan who took us for a ride. 

This is exactly how it played out and people claiming he was absolutely awful are talking nonsense. 

[RustyRightPeg]

31 minutes ago, Jamboross said:

 

There was a 2 to 3 month period, coinciding with a good run of form where he was excellent and everything we did went through him. Folk on here were calling him Snodric and wanting him given a new contract.

 

Sadly teams sussed out that he was slow and any sort of pressure on him stopped him and us playing. As soon as that happened our form fell off a cliff. 

 

A great player in his day and really wasn't as bad on the pitch for us as people make out. Off the pitch he may well have been disruptive, I've no idea. 

 

Also no having the slating of Aaron Hughes. Top professional who was only ever meant to be backup and initially did very well when called upon. Certainly not in the same category as Whelan who took us for a ride. 

 

This is it in reality.

[Wee Mikey]

1 hour ago, Lambo85 said:

Snodgrass was absolutely awful for us. He was completely finished as a player and its no surprise that he hasn't played again since leaving us.

 

Terrible signing, file him under Aaron Hughes and Glenn Whelan!

 

Not strictly true, in my opinion.

 

He started off well and put in some fine corners for Halliday to score at both Dingwall and the subsequent home match at Tynie. Oh, plus a 'silly free-kick' v 'Well(?) that went right in?

 

Having said that, on his debut I saw him giving Robbie pelters and being a bit of a 'know it all'. He was influencing our bench.

 

Also, a German mate called him out as being 'awful'. I made the case for him as having been really quite good up until then.

 

Subsequent to that match, it seemed like everything had to go through him. But, he was caught on the ball over and over again.

 

Too much influence over less experienced players and, ultimately, not accepting that he was, er, a bit 'past it'.

 

With a different mind-set, he could've used his experience to the team's overall benefit, but he came across as yet another Billy big baws and, sadly, Neilson capitulated.

[Jambof3tornado]

1 hour ago, Lambo85 said:

Snodgrass was absolutely awful for us. He was completely finished as a player and its no surprise that he hasn't played again since leaving us.

 

Terrible signing, file him under Aaron Hughes and Glenn Whelan!

Bit harsh on Hughes I reckon,who did a job when it was asked of him.

[Bull's-eye]

Snodgrass started great, anyone saying different is talking Shite.

 

I reckon he started to think he  would make the perfect player-manager and started to attempt to control the dressing room.

Neilson decided he'd allow it to play out for reasons unknown.

 

The rest of the players where having none of it and both where jettisoned.

 

Humps was a contract wrangle with Wigan as far as im aware.

[boag1874]

29 minutes ago, Jamboross said:

Certainly not in the same category as Whelan who took us for a ride. 

Whelan was probably the most frustrating signing we made under CL imo. Pereira, Stockton etc were obviously worse but that's just cause they were shite players who shouldn't have been here in the first place.

 

With Whelan you could see he was a good player and his first 2/3 games he showed that, we could all see that he could offer something we really really needed in the middle, leadership. The trouble is though he couldn't be ****ed, downed tools straight away, couldn't be arsed training, couldn't be arsed on a matchday, never bothered his arse to integrate himself into the club.

 

He was here thinking it'd be an easy ride and didn't give 2 shiny shites about hearts. Then had the cheek to slag US off in an interview saying we threw him under a bus, that his form was good, that it wasn't his fault we were doing shite. Billy big baws attitude as if to say we were lucky to have him, absolute knob and up there with my least favourite personal in our history. 

[Mikey1874]

No disruption.

 

Just Neilson failing to acknowledge the problem of Snodgrass being shut down in games. Which upset the dressing room as results were suffering and a main source problem wasn't being dealt with. Neilson at fault completely. Snodgrass blameless.

 

Humphreys just not rated. 

[karipidis]

Did Snodgrass not put out a tweet saying 'all will be revealed' or something along those lines? Suggest that something went on. 

[A_A wehatethehibs]

39 minutes ago, kingantti1874 said:

100%.  Though I think there was also a bit of influence from Snodgrass in terms of him dictating what kind of role he wanted.  
 

I think Robbie was a naive manager, he could have and should have sussed that if they are doubling up on Snodgrass there was room somewhere else. We could have by passed Snodgrass all together which would have given teams a dilemma .  But no we kept trying the same thing over and over 

I don’t think he was naive tbh. I think he chucked it, after not getting the player/s he wanted in the Jan window. I think he quit mentally because he knew Joe had basically knifed him through the failure to address the known vulnerabilities in Jan. Robbie would’ve known which way the wind was blowing. It really did look to me like he just said **** it and gave up. 

[Carter]

2 hours ago, Sooks said:

Stephen Robinson basically retired Robert Snodgrass

Or Robbie Neilson basically retired Robert Snodgrass, who in turn ended Robbie's career as a credible manager at a decent level in the game.

 

You could see Snodgrass had been a top player. But oh my goodness Robbie really mishandled that situation and it cost him dearly. 

[jr ewing]

Humphrys back to sort out finances with Wigan. 

[Sooks]

4 minutes ago, Carter said:

Or Robbie Neilson basically retired Robert Snodgrass, who in turn ended Robbie's career as a credible manager at a decent level in the game.

 

You could see Snodgrass had been a top player. But oh my goodness Robbie really mishandled that situation and it cost him dearly. 

No arguments here , it was embarrassingly shit , and frustrating as **** . If we scoop the euro cash at the end of this season then brilliant , but we really should be sitting here hoping on our third stint on the bounce 

[Robbo-Jambo]

Naismith probably knew from his international days that Snodgrass was a prick.

 

He started well then once he got found out he spent most of the time screaming at the bench or his teammates.

 

Think Naismith puts great value on a happy and harmonious dressing room.

[Shooter McGavin]

If this thread proves anything, it's that nobody actually knows what went on. All just rumours and hearsay.

[Pasquale for King]

2 hours ago, Lambo85 said:

Snodgrass was absolutely awful for us. He was completely finished as a player and its no surprise that he hasn't played again since leaving us.

 

Terrible signing, file him under Aaron Hughes and Glenn Whelan!

Spot on

[Wee Mikey]

7 minutes ago, Shooter McGavin said:

If this thread proves anything, it's that nobody actually knows what went on. All just rumours and hearsay.

 

Any track from 'Rumours' versus anything from Hear'Say wins in my book. ❤️

 

 

[RustyRightPeg]

58 minutes ago, karipidis said:

Did Snodgrass not put out a tweet saying 'all will be revealed' or something along those lines? Suggest that something went on. 

 

In his twitter statement that he released a week or so after it he did say he'd fully bought into Hearts and the job at hand etc. etc. but it wasn't to be or something along those lines. Fairly certain he did say it would come out in due course but we've heard nothing since. Probably for the best in fairness.