Quote Originally Posted by Doddie View Post
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1. Most of the Tornadoes were at ER before either Hart or Turnbull arrived.

2. Hart fell out with, and sacked, the man who assembled those players - Willie MacFarlane.

3. Hart owned a building firm - that's where his money came from. I have it on good authority that not only was he 'at it' in a big way over government and council contracts, he was an absolute beast to work for and a bully to those who did work for him. NOT a nice man.

4. We had 3-4 years of reasonable success after he arrived. If that sounds grudging, bear in mind that we had some of the best players in Scotland at the time - Brownlie, Schaedler, Stanton, Blackley, Edwards, Gordon, Cropley, Duncan, Bremner were all good enough to play for Scotland (even if one or two didn't) and the ones I've left out, like Jimmy O'Rourke, Bobby Smith, Jim Black, would walk into any SPL team today as first picks for the first team. We should have done much better.

5. Hart made big promises, as did Turnbull. None of those promises were fulfilled. When he arrived, we were the third or fourth strongest club in the League, with good players, playing regularly in Europe, but with a ground that badly needed upgrading. When he died, he left us under-financed, struggling with relegation, a team of (at best) moderate players, in a stadium that urgently needed basic repairs, never mind an upgrade.

IMO Tom Hart's mismanagement of the club laid the seeds for our subsequent decline, first under Kenny Waugh, then under the Chuckle Brothers, that left us vulnerable to the Mercer takeover bid.

Money was wasted on big-name signings (Harper and Munro the main ones) who failed to deliver the goods.

Loyal players who had the good of the club at heart were treated very badly.

Hart wanted to be seen as the benefactor to whom glory and honour should be paid; he didn't like it when other people got the credit for success. He was owner and chairman, and therefore could whatever he wanted to do - no one could control him.

IMO Tom Hart wasn't fit to clean the shoes of Sir Tom Farmer, and under STF and Rod Petrie we've prospered much better than we ever did under Hart. Maybe not as spectacularly, but we have the training ground we needed, we have the stadium appropriate to our place in the game, and we have sound finances and a real sense of steady progress over 20 years.

Hart was of the same ilk as Romanov - just not as good at the game. I wouldn't want him back under ANY circumstances.

We are all entitled to our opinion Doddie so here are a couple of mine on your post.
1) Names Edwards, Gordon, Herriot and Black spring to mind.
2) Willie McFarlane never got another job in senior football management.
3)Hart retired from the building trade in 1973 although his Firm still prospers.
4) I don't know what you mean by "at it"but I think you are talking bull****.His firm never tendered for any Government Contracts, I should know, I worked for the company !
5)Hibs finished 12th in the league in 1969. When Tom Hart died in 1982 the Club owed him over £200,000, that's about £2 million today.

Tom Hart was Club owner for over 10 years and as chairman/managing director did'nt take a penny in wages for the roll nor did any of the other directors in his time as chairman. Bit different today is'nt it Doddie ?