The generic Hearts thread

[Onceinawhile]

Wtf would they have done if Rangers had beaten them in the 1/4s?

[mjhibby]

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Also the clause makes no mention whatsoever of 'that pay can be suspended entirely'.

The clause is vague, doesn't state pay can be suspended nor contracts can be terminated.

Pressure being applied to players to halve their pay on the say so of that, dearie me.

They're desperate it looks like.

Disgrace the rag of a paper is doing budges bidding. It's an Edinburgh paper not a Gorgie one. No wonder sales have totally dried up.

[mjhibby]

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Supposing Hearts manage time to release a bunch of players, what then?

They want the season restarted, fine, but they shouldn’t get a transfer window with sporting integrity the supposed goal here.

Could drift into a scenario where they are both demanding the season be completed but then crying out that they don’t have a big enough squad to do it...

Very good point. They will plead special dispensation as after all they are a special club. Unbelievable.

[Liberal Hibby]

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Once the yams are confident they will not be relegated they will immediately go into administration. That will allow them to take the hit in this season and come out smelling of roses for next as if nothing has happened. It's what they do.

They can't - if the season is voided and they go into administration they take a -15 point hit into next season (and are likley relegated before a ball is kicked). If it isn't they take it this season and are definitely relegated. They also take a -5 hit next season which might impact on a possible promotion challenge, but isn't season defining.

[G B Young]

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If this causes a problem with copyright etc please let me know:



Queen and her Aberdeen castle can’t cope in perfect storm

There was a time, not so long ago, when Ann Budge could do no wrong. The Queen of Hearts extricated the club from administration, moved them in an exciting new direction with a new moral compass and oversaw an expansion of Tynecastle Park that was supposed to maximise their potential.

Well, the new main stand is reported to have cost £9million more than originally promised, Hearts are in the throes of another financial crisis and, while the shirt sponsor says Save the Children, this week’s call for all staff, including players, to take a 50 per cent wage cut suggests that it is the club who need saving.

What a spectacular unravelling it has been for Budge and Hearts in the space of 18 excruciating months. In the early part of last season, they were top of the league and into the semi-finals of the Betfred Cup, but the bottom was to fall out of a club that relied much too heavily on their manager, and director of football, Craig Levein.

Despite successive transfer windows in which he presided over a blur of expensive players coming and going, he had a team that was neither effective nor fun to watch and, when Budge relieved him of his duties in October, Hearts were bottom of the league and unable to arrest the decline.

Nobody quibbled with the level of investment, but then again, nobody expected Hearts to find themselves in a relegation battle. Add to that a new head coach, Daniel Stendel, whose tactics were ill-suited to a survival scrap, as well as a vacuum in the football department that Levein controlled, and a perfect storm was brewing.

When coronavirus came along, Hearts were the footballing equivalent of society’s most vulnerable — victims with an underlying health problem.

Budge has got a lot right, especially the club’s social ethos, but her ignorance of football matters left them playing catch-up. And there is no room for that when the game is crippled by a global health crisis.

The measures that were announced on Wednesday were desperate. PFA Scotland yesterday met with players to discuss the way ahead. Legal opinion suggested that Hearts were within their rights because of the language used in the statement. They only “proposed” the club-wide salary reduction. If staff were unwilling or unable to accept, they would be “offered” a termination of their deal.

If there is a clause in their contracts, entitling Hearts to suspend pay — and that theory was also doing the rounds last night — it is a kick in the teeth for players, especially those who were lured to Tynecastle on the promise of a lucrative package.

Steven Naismith, previously with Norwich City, signed a four-year deal last summer that was likely to be the last of his career. Liam Boyce agreed a three-year contract in January that is reported to be worth £6,000 a week, more than Aberdeen and numerous others could afford.

As it turns out, Hearts could not afford it either.


Budge claimed that the suspension of the season was going to cost them £1million, but much of that was due to come from a Scottish Cup semi-final against Hibs that they would not have budgeted for. The SFA promised this week that its flagship competition would be completed later this year.

While there was no official reaction from the players yesterday, some of their fellow professionals were angry. Tam McManus, the former Hibs striker, tweeted: “Seems a convenient way to dump some ‘excess baggage’ ie a HUGE wage bill run up by a succession of managers. This just doesn’t sit well with me at all.

“I would tell the club to f*** off. I have done so in the past when asked to take a 50 per cent wage cut. You sign a contract you honour it or pay it off in full.

“My loyalty is to myself/family. No loyalty whatsoever in football. Clubs treat players like s***e when not wanted.”

With so much uncertainty as to how or whether the Premiership season will be completed, the odds are against Hearts avoiding the drop, and their willingness to let players go suggests that they know it.

Bryan Jackson, who led the administration process in 2013, believes that Budge has moved quickly to prevent another one.

“Ann is looking at the situation, thinking, ‘we’ve already missed games and we don’t know when the picture will change’,” said Jackson. “ ‘It could be two weeks, two months or even longer — so we need to do something right now’. To me, that does seem to be the right thing to do. To wait too long and not do anything could be more dangerous for the sustainability of the club.”

Try telling that to the players. Try telling that to the academy coaches and backroom staff whose halved salary leaves them struggling to pay their bills.

It will be a hard sell also for the anonymous benefactors whose donations of up to £9million kept the club on an even keel for so long. And do not expect the supporters who have already donated a similar figure in the past five years to be quite so enthusiastic about digging deep yet again.

All of which will be embarrassing for Budge, who was hailed as the relegated club’s saviour in 2014 when she stepped in to repair the damage done by her reckless predecessor, Vladimir Romanov.

It would be stretching a point to suggest that Hearts are back where they started, but this was not how it was meant to be when she outlined her vision for the club.

Wow, who wrote that? The yams will be up in arms about it. Hard to disagree with any of it though.

This sentence sums their situation up:

When coronavirus came along, Hearts were the footballing equivalent of society’s most vulnerable — victims with an underlying health problem.

[brog]

This SPFL rule was introduced after the last Hawrts debacle. I think it may be behind the 50% wage offer. Basically any players not paid by Hearts can't play for them until the situation is remedied. So if they didn't pay 50% of the players then those players, unless U-20, could not be selected Instead by trying to get 100% of the staff to accept a 50% cut it allows them to continue to select from everyone on the playing staff. Of course it's all moot at the moment but I suspect that's the rationale behind this action.


Default in Player and Football Manager/Coaching Staff RemunerationE17
Except in circumstances where there is a bona fide dispute as to liability forpayment by the Club, where the Club is entitled to deduct or otherwise withholdpayment of a sum otherwise due or where the Club takes, suffers or is subject to anInsolvency Event, any Club which shall fail to pay any sum due by it to a Playerunder and in terms of that Player’s Contract of Service and/or any sum due by itunder a contract of employment to any Official engaged in football managementand/or football coaching (a “Remuneration Default”) shall be in breach of theseRules.E18 Any Club which suffers or is subject to a Remuneration Default shall within 2 daysof such default notify the Secretary in writing of any such default with details of the 49amount(s) and Player(s) and/or Official(s) concerned and if it fails to so notify theSecretary it shall be in breach of these Rules.E19 Any Club which commits a Remuneration Default shall not, except with the consentof the Board, to be given in the Board’s absolute discretion, apply to have ScottishFA Registered with it or Play any Professional Player who is not an Under 20 Playerand/or who was not Scottish FA Registered with that Club at the date of therelevant Remuneration Default until the Board notifies the Club in writing that it issatisfied that such Remuneration Default shall no longer continue or subsist.

[Widhibs]

They've Def spent far too much but the sensationalism from the weegie rags is same as usual. My colleague just sent me this tweet cos I've been winding him up a bit 😂

https://twitter.com/DikamonaClevid/s...163571202?s=19

I'll keep the wind ups going through, it's to easy the now.

[Jones28]

If the league were to come out with some mad reconstruction proposals would the clubs not need to vote it through? I can’t see many clubs turning round and saying yes when it’s so blatant that the league are just trying to avoid any controversy.

[Logie Green]

Kiwidoug on Kickback commends Stendel for giving up his wages then follows it up by saying he thinks there will be more evidence of the 'Dunkirk spirit' in future. I'm not sure if he means the 'Dunkirk spirit' during WW2 or if it's a new alcoholic drink. 🤷*♂️
----------------------------
Looks like Kiwidoug might be right! I've just read that to mark her 103rd birthday Vera Lynn has released a version of 'We'll Meet Again' to help us get through the crisis. 🤷*♂️

[brog]

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Kiwidoug on Kickback commends Stendel for giving up his wages then follows it up by saying he thinks there will be more evidence of the 'Dunkirk spirit' in future. I'm not sure if he means the 'Dunkirk spirit' during WW2 or if it's a new alcoholic drink. ��*♂️

KiwiD's a hoot! The Dunkirk spirit for a German! Love it!!

[greenginger]

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KiwiD's a hoot! The Dunkirk spirit for a German!. Love it!!

They’ve got a German coach, a German player and an Austrian player as well. Their very own Axis

[Skol]

Paul Forsyth I think wrote the article. Alan Harvey's name is there but I think he took the god awful picture of budge in her maroon jaiket in front of the unfinished stand

[Skol]

Reading the EEN article, it seems the 'Stendel working for free' claim by the jambos is misleading. He has returned to germany and the story implies he may not return depending on the way things play out

[Waxy]

Hearts to Stenal-Your effectively sacked.Dont come back.
Hearts to Media- Stendal has agreed to work for free in our time of dire need.

[Kato]

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Reading the EEN article, it seems the 'Stendel working for free' claim by the jambos is misleading. He has returned to germany and the story implies he may not return depending on the way things play out

Hearts stories in the EEN are literally the template for modern "fake news".

[Phil MaGlass]

The hertz are goin doon wae Cowowner virus.
Ahll get ma coat.

As fir that name Clevid 28 sounds like a new disease awe the gither

[Bostonhibby]

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6 grand a week for Boyce......JHC
What an outfit they are....cowboys

Boycey's got 2 goals though, well worth the expense. 2 more and he's equal top scorer.



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[Bostonhibby]

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They’ve even asked Levein to take a pay cut. That’s disgraceful after everything he’s done for them.

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.c...impact-2502272


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He's said what the hell, knock a fiver off and I'll stay away for an extra hour.

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[G B Young]

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Reading the EEN article, it seems the 'Stendel working for free' claim by the jambos is misleading. He has returned to germany and the story implies he may not return depending on the way things play out

That sounds more like the reality of the situation. After all, how do you work for free if there's not really any work to do?

[BS44]

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They can't - if the season is voided and they go into administration they take a -15 point hit into next season (and are likley relegated before a ball is kicked). If it isn't they take it this season and are definitely relegated. They also take a -5 hit next season which might impact on a possible promotion challenge, but isn't season defining.

They won't be relegated this season if relegation is suspended.

[Waxy]

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They won't be relegated this season if relegation is suspended.

Why should relegation be suspended?

[007]

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They’ve even asked Levein to take a pay cut. That’s disgraceful after everything he’s done for them.

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.c...impact-2502272


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Not great to read about the ordinary staff's troubles. I don't get why Budge isn't lending the club money to help the staff, no sign of the benefactor either. Are these stories being put out to garner sympathy from the fans to keep them donating?

[Kato]

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Not great to read about the ordinary staff's troubles. I don't get why Budge isn't lending the club money to help the staff, no sign of the benefactor either. Are these stories being put out to garner sympathy from the fans to keep them donating?

Cheaper to re-enter admin, cry a bit, pick up the bones for a song and hey presto start again.

Debt all gone.

Re set the narrative back to "brave club battles back from the dead" and soak up the plaudits for "saving the club".

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[cocteautwin]

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Not great to read about the ordinary staff's troubles. I don't get why Budge isn't lending the club money to help the staff, no sign of the benefactor either. Are these stories being put out to garner sympathy from the fans to keep them donating?

She’s recently been repaid by FoH the £2m she put up for the purchase of shares during the Admin process so she’s not skint. Oh wait, the stock market has crashed, she might be skint.

[007]

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Cheaper to re-enter admin, cry a bit, pick up the bones for a song and hey presto start again.

Debt all gone.

Re set the narrative back to "brave club battles back from the dead" and soak up the plaudits for "saving the club".

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I.e. shaft the fans who have paid for the club but don't actually own it yet.

[Kato]

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I.e. shaft the fans who have paid for the club but don't actually own it yet.

Oh dear, diddums, how sad , that's disgraceful etc etc

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[cocteautwin]

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She’s recently been repaid by FoH the £2m she put up for the purchase of shares during the Admin process so she’s not skint. Oh wait, the stock market has crashed, she might be skint.

Oh, she’s been repaid the £2m. Does that mean FoH have received the shares and the club is now fan owned?


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[cocteautwin]

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Oh, she’s been repaid the £2m. Does that mean FoH have received the shares and the club is now fan owned?


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Well no. Would you believe it she’s taken the cash but decided not to transfer the shares!

[cocteautwin]

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Well no. Would you believe it she’s taken the cash but decided not to transfer the shares!

That’s very weird.

[007]

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Oh dear, diddums, how sad , that's disgraceful etc etc

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Surprised they're not going nuts. They've paid for the club but ownership hasn't been handed over for some reason.