Hearts - the Diary of an Incredible Season

Mike Smith

Category Non-fiction/Sport
Pub Date May 2006
ISBN 1 84502 087 1
Extent 192 pp. + 8pp photographs
Price 7.99
Format 198mm x 129mm, paperback
Plates 8pp black and white photographs

Further details about the book.

Why do I support Hearts? A question I often ask myself! My early years were spent in Cumbernauld, an overspill of 1960s Glasgow. My father was anxious that I was not embroiled in the sectarian nonsense of the Old Firm so he decided he would bring me up as a Falkirk Bairn. He took me to my first Falkirk game at Brockville in October 1968. But the visitors that day were Hearts. As a six year old, I was awestruck by the huge travelling support and the raucous atmosphere they created. And Hearts won 3-1! I had been bitten by the Jambo bug – and it’s still in me nearly forty years later.

How Did the Book Come About? In the summer of 2005, I had the idea - and my wife will tell you this doesn’t happen very often - of writing a book about Hearts adventures in European competition. I had already begun my rambling prose when Hearts began season 2005/06 in spectacular fashion. My friends at Jambos.net mentioned that it would be nice if someone were to write about this season, akin to the book about season 1985/86, brilliantly written by the late and sorely missed, John Fairgrieve. Dave Henderson, the fella who drives Jambos.net said he immediately thought of me when thinking about such an idea - surely I would know someone who could write such a book….

What Has Been So Special About This Season? Little did I realise that season 2005/06 would prove to be such one of the most dramatic, astonishing seasons in the history of this great club. From winning their first eight league games, to the departures of George Burley, George Foulkes and Phil Anderton; to the controversial appointment of Graham Rix as Head Coach and now his equally controversial departure Hearts have seldom been away from the headlines. I hope this book encapsulates the spirit of adventure of an incredible season when Hearts emerged from the shadow of crippling debt, the potential sale of Tynecastle Stadium and the slow but sure death of a football institution and challenged the might of the Old Firm. For those Hearts supporters who came on this astonishing journey - not only those who headed to Tynecastle every other game in ever increasing numbers but those from afar and in foreign shores whose appetite for getting involved with events in Gorgie was whetted by the internet - this book is for them.

What Is The Future For The Club? Well there’s the $64,000 question! Some people say Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov has turned the club into a laughing stock with his dictatorial ways and his dismissal of three managers in nine months. Some people fear for the future with such a man in charge. But, for all his faults, it’s worth considering this. If it weren’t for Romanov, Tynecastle would by now be demolished and turned into flats. Hearts would be playing at Murrayfield before at least fifty thousand empty seats every week and would not have players of the calibre of Rudi Skacel, Roman Bednar, Edgaras Jankauskas et al. Paul Hartley and Andy Webster would have been sold and the team would undoubtedly be struggling in the bottom six of the SPL. The fans would have deserted he club in droves – the last rites would have been served on a club that would be dead within five years.

Under Romanov the club is remaining at Tynecastle; the main stand is being rebuilt; the debt has been transferred to the Bank of Lithuania; quality players have arrived and the team has challenged the Old Firm this season.

We may not like his methods and may be unsure what the future holds. But at least under Vladimir Romanov there is a future…..