THE Hearts owner Ann Budge is laying the foundations for a bright future, but insists the club also has to celebrate its past.
As the new club museum opened its doors to the public for the first time yesterday morning, IT guru Budge has recalled how neglected memorabilia once used to be crammed into a disused police cell at Tynecastle, while artefacts that were on show were poorly maintained.
The museum is just the latest in a long list of new projects overseen by Budge since the 68-year-old and owners-in-waiting the Foundation of Hearts (FoH) took the club out of administration in June 2014.
A memorial garden has also been built at the stadium, while work on a new £12m main stand is expected to begin next month.
Budge said: “I used to enter the stadium via the back door and a few days after I took over I met the club historians, Bill and David, who were in an old room. I didn’t know who they were but at that stage I was finding something different and that was another thing I stumbled across and slotted away.
“The area they were in used to old police cells they used. It was packed to the gunnels with memorabilia. The fact it was all hidden away was probably a reflection on what had gone on before. The first time I went into the Directors' Suite I found some glass cabinets and it was filthy.
“I looked at a few things and wondered when the silverware had last been polished. The historians unlocked the cases and there was one item they didn’t realise was silver because it was black. There were things around but weren’t treated with any respect. When I started engaging with the fans they were always telling me about how many generations of Hearts fans were in their family.
“They were always talking about the past. Gradually, it got through to me just how important it is, and as soon as we announced we were going to have a museum it was like opening the floodgates because people were walking into the reception or writing to us to donate items.
“There is a suitcase in one of the cabinets that was taken on tour to South Africa and still has all the labels and names on it, and there’s a tea pot and cream jug as well as medals and trophies.”
Budge, who is set to hand over her entire controlling stake to the FoH by 2020, said: “I thought it would be a case of building a few cabinets, polishing things up and sticking them in. But that would have been the wrong thing to do. We had to do it properly."
While the past has been very much the watchword around Tynecastle this week, the future has been uncertain for one member of the playing squad. Alim Ozturk was relieved of the captaincy by Robbie Neilson on Wednesday in favour of Perry Kitchen but the head coach says the defender is still part of his plans.
Prior to the announcement, Neilson admitted that talks aimed at persuading Ozturk to sign an extension to a contract that expires next summer have already started, and the Hearts boss insists his decision to hand the armband to Kitchen does not signal the end of 23-year-old’s career in Gorgie.
Neilson, who signed Ozturk from Turkish outfit Trabzonspor in 2014, said: “There is definitely still a future for Alim here. It’s important I have a good squad here. Alim will get back in the team at some point, whether it is this week or whether it’s next week - football is a game where people get injured or people lose form.
“It’s up to Alim now to focus and get his head right, he’s been great in training and been great about the place. He has accepted it and we’ve all moved on. He needs get himself back in the team and back playing well again."
It is a measure of the strength of the squad at Tynecastle that Ozturk can't break into the first team. To that end Jim McIntyre, the manager of today's opponents Ross Coutny, is convinced Hearts can split Aberdeen and Rangers to claim a top-three finish in the Ladbrokes Premiership.
He said: “You’re looking at Hearts potentially for the top three, never mind the top six. Robbie has amassed a very good squad there. They have a great mixture of young and experienced players, strength, height and quality. When you add these things together, it gives you a very good side."
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