https://youtu.be/5qS6VBho4Lo
I’m not sure if I’ve seen it before. Maybe have and conveniently blanked it out.
Not the easiest of watches but can’t deny it’s all part of our rich history and probably the catalyst to how we have progressed to where we are today - thank goodness.
Also, Think I now see where the origins of the ‘big team’ / ‘wee team’ rubbish maybe comes from. One of Mercer’s comments half way through!!
Results 1 to 30 of 75
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13-01-2018 03:02 PM #1
Early 90s BBC documentary - Mercer/Hertz takeover/merger
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13-01-2018 03:07 PM #2
Mercer was typical of most Tory chancers of that era. When persuading someone else to put up the cash they were always happy to try and turn a quick buck in the name of entrepreneurship.
He was doing it with debt, he failed but he was certainly the architect of their decades of debt and doing it with other peoples money. Skip forward to today for the result and the rotten stigma that follows them around.
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"I did not need any persuasion to play for such a great club, the Hibs result is still one of the first I look for"
Sir Matt Busby
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13-01-2018 03:38 PM #3
Will never forget it and will never forgive the FTB for his actions. The reason why the Mercer Song doesn’t bother me one bit. I love it.
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13-01-2018 03:55 PM #4
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13-01-2018 04:06 PM #5This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Left the jambos nearly 5 million quid (huge in the early 90's) in debt and started the fashion of "other people's money".
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13-01-2018 04:37 PM #7
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never trust a Tory true then and true now
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13-01-2018 04:41 PM #8
I wonder if when he contributed to that documentary Tom Farmer ever have thought he would still be owner of Hibs a quarter of a century later and that he would have overseen the total transformation of Easter Road. For a guy who never wanted to own a football club he hasn't done too badly by us.
One thing you can say about David Duff ..... His naivety may have lead Hibs to the brink of disaster, but when it came to the crunch even though it cost him dearly he almost acted nobly, he could have cashed in and walked away and he didn't. He may have been an idiot who as he himself said was way out of his depth, but in refusing to sell his shares to Mercer he proved beyond doubt that he cared about Hibs.
As for Mercer. More front than a second hand car salesman, his 'it was all good fun' bluster was just that, bluster ... he shat it when the personal ramifications to him and his family of what he had started became apparent and he was scared off, pure and simple. The bit at the end where he tries to give the impression that some sort of ulterior game plan had come to fruition as a result of his failure to destroy us is total window dressing.
The truth is as owner of Hearts he tried to do something that no other club in football history has attempted for the pure and simple reason that in the mind of anybody who cares about or follows the game to take such an action would be viewed as abhorrent and utterly beneath contempt, as was proved by the messages of support for Hibs that came in from all over the UK and further afield during the 'Hands off Hibs' campaign. Hearts fans should be happy he failed, because to succeed would have made them the most reviled club in European football.
Instead of making up lies about how Mercer indirectly saved us and all that bull**** this should be an episode in their clubs history they are embarrassed to be reminded of, never mind talk about. Mind you, when you look at how many of them still revere Mad Vlad, the guy who nearly destroyed their club, I suppose its not that much of a surprise.
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13-01-2018 05:03 PM #9This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
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13-01-2018 05:08 PM #10
Never forget and will always despise the fat arrogant loser and his memory. His exact words “it’s like a spoof” and “it’s been great fun” we’re so typical of the FTB.
Duff made huge mistakes and took us to the brink. But you can’t deny at the 11th hour he didn’t sell himself out and a year later STF took over and the rest is history.
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13-01-2018 05:41 PM #11This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
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13-01-2018 05:55 PM #12
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Thanks for posting that. Watched it through. Brought back terrible memories. Made me start searching around. I hadn’t realised how much Rowland was a classic asset stripper . Seems so typical of 80s business ethics. Made me feel
We were lucky to get out alive. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.t...-conservatives
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13-01-2018 06:08 PM #13This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Last edited by mjhibby; 13-01-2018 at 06:10 PM.
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13-01-2018 06:10 PM #14This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
"I did not need any persuasion to play for such a great club, the Hibs result is still one of the first I look for"
Sir Matt Busby
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13-01-2018 06:12 PM #15This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
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13-01-2018 06:14 PM #16This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
my memory is terribly sketchy but did his wife not play some part in stopping him getting his way with hibs there's just something to do with his wife and i can't remember what exactly
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13-01-2018 06:17 PM #17This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
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13-01-2018 06:27 PM #18This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
It was a horrible, stressful time and no should doubt how close we came to oblivion.
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13-01-2018 06:32 PM #19This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
I've got a fair bit of stuff from that time including Wally's shameless offer letter to shareholders. Special mention to Bank of Scotland, without whose backing he'd not have been so cocky.
"I did not need any persuasion to play for such a great club, the Hibs result is still one of the first I look for"
Sir Matt Busby
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13-01-2018 06:45 PM #20
I've got this programme on DVD converted from my VHS recording of the time, remember watching it at time of broadcast, dark, dark days.
Should be essential watching for anyone who wants to understand what happened around that time, several myths have become established about the chain of events over those few years.
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13-01-2018 06:54 PM #21
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JFK moment driving along clerk st heard on the radio we are at deaths door had to pull in as crying like a child.
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13-01-2018 07:11 PM #22This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
On the return journey, the bus had the radio on. It must have been radio Clyde or something but an advert came on for the next day’s Daily Record. “Find out all you need to know about the men who killed Hibs” and other sensational headlines boomed out. In these pre-mobile and internet days I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. As soon as the bus pulled up into St Andrew Square I ran to the Evening News seller and got the paper. Straight into a taxi, back to the flat and dumped cases and said to the bird I had to rush to ER.
This was on the day it all broke. I was relieved to see several thousand other Hibbies had descended on the Holy Ground. HOH was born that night and I was proud to be a part of the battle against Mercer.
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13-01-2018 07:20 PM #23
Hearts fans seem to view the whole takeover episode as confirmation of their superiority but firstly I think it was a reaction to their failure in 86 and the realisation they were just like the rest of us and couldn't challenge on their own. Secondly, and more importantly, we won. We are still here, have won 3 trophies since and are in a position to get stronger still.
Hibs may never have tried to take over Hearts but it's not because we are inferior, it's because we would never have had the complex to try in the 1st place.PM Awards General Poster of The Year 2015, 2016, 2017. Probably robbed in other years
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13-01-2018 07:31 PM #24This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Overtaking them is classier than taking them over. And they've still got the stigma their methods created.
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"I did not need any persuasion to play for such a great club, the Hibs result is still one of the first I look for"
Sir Matt Busby
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13-01-2018 07:51 PM #25This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
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13-01-2018 07:53 PM #26This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Sent from my SM-J320FN using Tapatalk
"I did not need any persuasion to play for such a great club, the Hibs result is still one of the first I look for"
Sir Matt Busby
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13-01-2018 08:22 PM #27This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Great post.
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13-01-2018 08:42 PM #28This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
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13-01-2018 09:06 PM #29This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
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13-01-2018 09:24 PM #30This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
There's been a lot of revisionism since and the 'Mercer actually saved Hibs' line is one they often like to pull. It's worth remembering Mercer was public enemy number 1 amongst their fans when he left Hearts but has become something of a retrospective hero again in recent years and the takeover is often at the centre of that.
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