HEARTS: Despite the outward calm at Tynecastle following the deferral of wage payments, the signs are ominous. By Michael Grant
A THOROUGHLY dispiriting little item plopped into the email inbox in the course of researching an article during the week. It was a breakdown of all the debts Gretna owed when they went out of business four months ago. What a tawdry, depressing list it was. Here was £176 owed to a skip hire firm, there £23 for an unpaid television licence. And there was a £320 debt outstanding to a clan gifts company, perhaps something to do with the full Highland regalia worn by manager Rowan Alexander during their 2006 Scottish Cup final appearance.
Gretna played Hearts that day, May 13, 2006, the greatest day of the Brooks Mileson era at Gretna and, so far, of Vladimir Romanov's stewardship of Hearts. How the pair of them lorded it back then, giving off the unmistakable vibe that they were two self-made mavericks who had come along to shake up Scottish football. They revelled in occupying Scotland's showpiece match while Celtic, Rangers and everyone else were absent. They were the outsiders who would operate outwith the traditional boardrooms and cabals and do things their way. Romanov liked Mileson's style, saw him as someone who shared his instinct for looking the establishment in the eye and sticking up two fingers.
Sadly Mileson is no longer with us, of course, and his football club fell from the heights of Hampden to the ashes of that cold list of unpaid debts to creditors. That email shows Gretna stripped bare, every vulnerability and inadequacy exposed, all the dirty washing out in public (literally - £227 was owed to a laundry company).
We aren't there with Hearts yet and perhaps never will be. Those who are circling over Tynecastle ready to swoop down on the carcass of this club are going to have to wait a while longer, and maybe their frustration will be permanent. But it isn't difficult to see why the vultures are paying an unhealthy interest in Hearts. The alarm bells emanating from this club are deafening.
Sources involved in the latest humiliating episode over non-payment of wages to players insist that the matter is being treated with calm acceptance rather than panic or sensationalism within the club. There is no sense that the delays, deferrals and part-payment of wages signifies the club's desperate last scramble before falling over the financial precipice. There are significant problems with cash flow, inevitably leading to feverish speculation about Hearts' very survival, but the feeling among the players is calm because they are reassured by what they hear from those briefing them on the club's behalf.
That does not mean that the calmness is justified, of course.
We can only wait and see what the wider economic meltdown will mean to Ukio Bankas Investment Group (Ubig), the financial parent company on whom Hearts rely for their survival, although there are few grounds for optimism. In the meantime irreparable damage has been done to the club's reputation by its second non-payment of wages in the space of three months.
No blip this time, no technical glitch, no mere banking hold-up. Here was the full-scale embarrassment of an employer not being able to meet its commitments to staff, not able to pay the weekly wage as promised in their contracts. The sad confirmation that there were basic financial problems at the core of this came when some of the higher-paid players were asked to take a deferral. The message was clear: we don't have enough to pay you all just yet, give us a day or so. It was desperate behaviour.
There has not been a peep from Romanov throughout it all, of course. The last time I recall seeing the owner chirp away was on the night his FBK Kaunas team bundled Rangers out of the second qualifying round of the Champions League. He wasn't likely to miss the chance to gloat that night. He was drawn to the cameras like a moth to a flame.
Not now, though. Not when Hearts could do with a reassurance that Ubig will be OK and that the club isn't heading for a fatal crash or a January fire sale. Amid all the talk of Laryea Kingston or some other valuable asset having to be sold to stimulate cash flow, Romanov has done another disappearing act.
It is a mortifying position to be in. If you were a Hearts director you might feel embarrassed about making eye contact in another club's boardroom, if you were a supporter you would have to take it when rival fans bombarded you with taunts. No-one knows what happens next, but right now this fine club has been reduced to standing with the insides of its pockets hanging out.
Still on Hearts and money, manager Csaba Laszlo was quoted with the following gem when asked if he had been among those who had not been paid on time: "I was in Africa for two years so I have so much money that I don't even look at my bank account."
Way to go, Csaba. Good to see that you developed such an empathy and sensitivity to the locals when you worked in a country, Uganda, which has needed £1.5 billion of international debt relief since 2000.
Csaba has an endearing habit of running off at the mouth during interviews, though, and some of the stuff he comes out with is precious. Let's put that African money answer down to language difficulties/ being quoted out of context, and keep listening to the SPL's most eccentric gaffer.
