This is Tynecastle

A month is a long time in the life of a Hearts supporter but November is one I'd gladly repeat. It's a strange feeling this hopeful optimism thing, and it had been missing for far too long. There have been ups and downs, but for once, it's a joy to be able to look back on a whole 4 weeks without shuddering in dismay or having rueful regrets over missed chances and opportunities or disasters of Lithuanian origin. So while I might live to regret unleashing this positivity upon a blog which will still be here to ponder over should it all go belly up in weeks to come, I'm going to do it anyway. I want to remember this feeling.

5 wins on the trot - what about that? We know that the media had us written off earlier in the season but I'd be surprised if there were even many amongst the Gorgie faithful who truly believed that this team could take us anywhere of note. Yet they have, and if third position is the best we can do this season it'll be a whole three places higher than my original hopes for 2008-09. There's still a long way to go before we'll know if European nights are coming to Tynecastle but simply being in a position to consider it a real possibility is something that would have generated laughter only 3 months ago.

That fragmented squad, so sparse in quality and consistency hasn't just been rejuvenated under Csaba Laszlo, it has been altered beyond recognition. Bringing on the more talented players such as Berra and Driver is an achievement, but it's not really half as impressive as the incredible change in Nade, the improvements that we have witnessed in Wallace, Zaliukas or Jonsson or the renaissance of both Karipidis and Aguiar. Csaba isn't solely responsible for their individual talents, but he is certainly due some credit for taking this mish mash squad of under-confident players and slotting them together in such a way that they are beginning to look remarkably like a good team. I might sound like I'm grateful now, but I'll really be waxing lyrical if he also manages to sort out Kingston's attitude, Stewart's temper and Miko's inconsistencies....

I don't want to ruin the mood of this blog entry so I'm not going to give screen time to the difficulties we encountered in some of these narrow wins. One goal more than your opponent is all that you need, and for as long as it brings us 3 points, I won't have any complaints about the manner of our victories. More importantly, our most recent win was jam packed full of enough spirit, skill, aggression, determination and intelligence to justify a very long list of superlatives and it was this display which brings me on to the whole point of this entry - Tynecastle.

God I love that stadium. I can confidently state that there is no place on this earth that I would rather have been than that rickety old stand on Saturday afternoon at 14:15 (+ remarkably generous additional time). When the first goal went in the place rocked, when Larry poked home the second it erupted, and when the final whistle went, Tynecastle roared so loudly they probably heard us in Leith. It took the breath away. After months of lacklustre performances from both the team and the support, it was a special moment and one which I hope goes some way to reminding these players just how incredibly proud they should be to wear that strip. If there was a man out there in maroon who didn't feel on top of the world after experiencing that, I don't care who he is, he's not cut out for Heart of Midlothian.

I could go back through this whole entry and temper the optimism with some stark facts and less inspiring realities, but I'm not going to. Even if things aren't quite so much fun in the coming weeks, for now I'm just happy to enjoy this feeling. Today, being a Jambo is great.

www.heartsfcnews.com

Larry and Ghanagate

Before I get started on my latest musings, I have to first of all say that I rate Larry Kingston. He has come in for a fair amount of criticism lately, and I'm among the first to agree that his most recent performances haven't been the most sparkling or inspirational - but say what you like, he's probably still the most talented player that we currently have on our books. The unfortunate thing is that he's probably also one of the most infuriating.

When he first arrived in Gorgie, we were all in awe of his midfield prowess and in a pretty rotten season (that'll be last year, then) he was one of the few things we could smile about. I could even forgive those few games towards the end of the season when his petulance overshadowed his talent and he spent more time sitting on the pitch whinging about refereeing decisions than he did actually playing the ball; everyone has their bad days. So then we start the new season and while he hasn't been the most effective member of our midfield, he certainly hasn't been the worst either. The renaissance of Bruno Aguiar was exciting for more than one reason, and not least for the notion that Bruno and Larry might just form a rather exciting partnership over time. Time being something we haven't really had thanks to Larry's most recent injury.

So what of this injury? There were strong rumours of a changing room bust up between Larry and Christophe (plus a few others) and shortly afterwards we're treated to the news that Mr Kingston has a muscular injury which fortunately, wasn't thought to be serious. But a few weeks down the line we're still Larry-less and Csaba has near enough intimated that he's a medical enigma or he's simply at it. Then he trots off to Ghana at the behest of their national team, travelling 8000 miles simply to prove that he is actually injured. Now I'm certainly no medical expert but I find it hard to believe that sitting on a plane for hours is the best treatment for any sort of muscular injury and nor do I believe that any football authority would insist on anyone travelling that sort of distance simply to prove that they're not telling fibs. If any further evidence was required, surely it would be enough to know that the player in question also hadn't featured for their club because of this very injury? Presumably, the Ghana national coach has access to such things and if not, someone could always point him in the direction of www.heartsfc.co.uk...

Larry himself claims that he made the trip because he was worried that his family might be in danger. Apparently the fans are so passionate that they tend to target their frustrations upon the families of the injured player if they think those who play abroad are simply demonstrating a lack of commitment. If that truly is the case, then I can understand why he might want to go but not when there are no reasons for them to think that he could be doing anything other than telling the truth. In short, I have no idea whether the Ghana national coach insisted that he attend, or whether it was Larry who was insistent on attending, but either way, I don't like it one little bit.

Larry is clearly capable of great passion and commitment, but I'd like to see him demonstrating some of that towards the club who pay his wages and the maroon jersey that he wears. He's no good to either club or country when injured and travelling thousands of miles for no apparent reason isn't going to help him play for either. Continuing with his treatment and getting fit again, however, certainly would. So I hope he does the right thing now, that he returns to Edinburgh and gets himself back into contention for a place in the eleven that will be facing Rangers in little over a week's time. He's said to have aspirations to bigger things than Hearts and if that's the case, someone should maybe explain to him that being sought by other clubs depends upon performances he churns out for his current employer. If he's offski in January, then so be it. But I want us to get our money's worth in the interim.

www.heartsfcnews.com

No flair please - we're Jambos

I'm almost scared to say it. What if the simple act of typing the words is enough to put you straight into the bad books of the wickedly fickle gods of football? Imaginary entities they may well be, but given the turnaround in fortunes for Hearts of late, the whims of ancient spirits may well be one of the more believable explanations for the current run of results...

October wasn't really the most enjoyable of months for the average Jambo and while two draws and one loss may seem reasonable enough for a club which finished in the lower echelons of the SPL last season, it was the complete and utter lack of anything approximating competence in the art of football which had the fans rushing to the exits. Please don't misunderstand me, it's not as if many of us really believed that the SPL's 3rd highest paid squad was actually the third most talented, but when the worst of the deadwood was chopped away around the time of Csaba's arrival in Gorgie this summer, perhaps we thought we'd already seen the players at their very worst. We were effectively left with a patchwork quilt of a squad comprising a handful of talented types such as Kingston, Berra or Driver, and the remaining maroon jerseys were filled with players who might not be huge stars but seemed adequate for the task in hand. At the start of the season, they put in some decent workhorse-esque performances and we had a few pleasing results. Things were looking slightly rosier in the Gorgie garden.

But then we went to Tannadice on 27th September and all of a sudden, our modestly competent workhorses were found to be lame, Andy Driver picked up an injury, Larry Kingston started preparing for winter hibernation and poor old Berra was left to try and shore up a team who seemed to be about as 'together' as quicksand in a string vest. The result wasn't just the crap football on show, it was an attitude which manifested itself much more deeply in the players and later, also in the fans. The players were slow, disjointed, apathetic, spiritless and uncoordinated; and the fans were all of these things plus a few extra ailments in the form of frustration, anger, fear and despair.

Dundee Utd humped us 3-0 that day and a week later, Kilmarnock compounded our misery by beating us 2-1. The fans were not feeling supremely confident as the derby approached and the nervous anxiety was only slightly alleviated by the news that Hibs form had also started to slip. So derby day arrived and to cut a long story short, both sides put in typically frenzied derby-esque performances which might not have been the most skilful displays of football but inspired the Jambos to believe that the slump in form may have been a temporary glitch and that better days were on the horizon. But then we made extremely hard work of holding a struggling Aberdeen to a draw before promptly falling apart again a week later and losing to Celtic in a game that might well have ended up with a more embarassing score than 2-0 had their players not been suffering from Champions League lethargy.

So amidst rumours that the club was on the verge of hurtling head first into the administration abyss (again), the Jambos were busy contemplating what appeared to be a very long season ahead. But then it all became a little bit weird and in only 7 days, Hearts have picked up 12 points from 3 wins on the trot. Admittedly, these fixtures all featured teams languishing in the lower half of the SPL and could well have relied partly upon occasional bits of luck but there 's no doubting that a remarkable and pleasant change has occurred. The players might not have morphed overnight into budding Ronaldos or Messi's, but there's no mistaking the emergence of a new, gritty, tenacious and motivated approach. They seem stronger and more robust, and I don't know if the jaffa cake technique is back in use but they're definitely looking like they have bags more energy than they did last month.

This team have managed to dig out three 1-0 wins in the space of only 7 days and while the football itself might still be a bit crap, there's a real sense of dogged determination amongst the players which, if nutured, may well end up being the reason behind us doing not too badly at all this season. Admittedly, the 10 non-OF teams are fairly closely packed together on the current league board but with the exception of perhaps Dundee United, none of them look like teams we shouldn't be able to handle comfortably. As Csaba so eloquently explained:
"You cannot win ugly or pretty, you can win and if you win, you are always beautiful."

Wise words indeed and while the longevity of this change in attitude remains to be seen, I would certainly be more than happy to sacrifice pretty football if it means picking up 3 points on a regular basis. We're currently working with a very young team and if we happen to land that lucrative European spot, we can then maybe give more attention to the aesthetics of the football that they're churning out, but in the meantime I'm happy to stick with ugly. Jambos don't do flair anyway.

Seeing red

I'm really not sure whether or not I should be angry about Mikey Stewart's antics on Saturday at Love Street. I have no doubt whatsoever that had we ended up losing, I may well have felt very differently when the final whistle went, but as we took three points (at last!), once my heart rate calmed to a more healthy rate my feelings on the red card issue were predominantly of disappointment. Being charitable is much easier when you've won.

So what's the deal with him? He had the potential star card slapped on him by Sir Alex and spent some time at Old Trafford, only to end up back in Edinburgh with little to show for his time with the 'big boys'. Unremarkable periods at both Easter Road and Tynecastle demonstrated that while he has talent, he was never really a first pick for any manager when occasional glimpses of decent play were all too often overshadowed by displays of indiscipline and petulance. So he comes back to Tynecastle for the second time and occasionally did rather well for us, but again, the main reason for discussing Michael Stewart was normally an off the ball incident. He even shouted at the fans. But then Csaba arrived and we thought we were in for a real treat.

The sullen, indisciplined player that we knew had found a new lease of life and put in performances that deservedly brought him to the attention of the Scotland manager George Burley. He was given his chance and to all intents and purposes, he didn't really do all that badly for the national team. Most importantly, back at Tynecastle, his inspiring performances on the pitch were coupled with the emergence of real leadership qualities as he took on a more vocal, pushy role than Christophe Berra and became the team's engine in more ways than one. Csaba Laszlo sang his praises, he was invited on to various football programmes as a pundit, and he was even asked to be an ambassador for Poppy Scotland. He had it all there in his own hands.

Friday saw him speaking of the importance of respect and of winning the weekend's fixture as a tribute to those that we then commemorated at Haymarket on Sunday. But on Saturday, his good intentions were rather less than obvious as he lashed out at Hugh Murray and was then sent packing by the 4th official for violent conduct. While he demonstrated little respect for his opponent, his team mates, his manager and the travelling fans, he lost much of the goodwill that had been built up over the past few months and gave credence to all those doubters who had questioned his ability to ever really live up to expectations.

The man is a conundrum of weird proportions. He comes across incredibly well, he's thoughtful, perceptive, articulate and clearly brighter than the average footballer. So why does he have this incessant need to press the self-destruct button? While it makes very little difference in terms of the weekend's events and the damage caused to his reputation, I have no doubt that right now, he'll be mulling the very same question over and over in his head, because while we might be disappointed in Mikey, it probably doesn't compare with the disappointment he must feel with himself.

He could be such an asset to Heart of Midlothian, and has the potential to be a real influence both on and off the pitch, but there will come a time when people stop bothering to wonder about him or ask why he does the things that he does. That goodwill hasn't yet run out completely, but it's diminishing at a rate of knots and the only person who can do anything about it is him. He could be a player we talk about for years to come, but only if he demonstrates respect to the club who employ him, to the fans who pay his wages and most of all, to himself.

The prawn sandwich fugitive turns himself in...

According to the official Hearts website, Lothian and Borders finest can sleep easy in their beds this evening safe in the knowledge that Strachan's mysterious, uncouth critic has finally been identified. Given the severity of the crime, it might come as a surprise that the club have sentenced the culprit to a mere 12 week ban - a fate which some might consider to be more of a blessing in disguise should forthcoming matches be of a standard similar to that witnessed at Tynecastle last weekend.

Still, given the number of pledges from grateful Jambos offering to purchase pints for the perpetrator, he's likely to be far too busy for football over the coming weeks anyway. Which is a real shame considering that the other half of the ugly sisters are visiting on November 29th....

The mystery of Gary Glen

So here we are, a mere day away from learning which lucky players will be chosen to pit their wits against St Mirren this weekend and as ever, much of the Jambo discussion focuses on the current problem we have in finding the back of the net. Last weekend's Celtic disaster excepted, our midfield has been looking stronger and goal scoring opportunities have been created - the only problem is that very few actually result in actual goals.

Nobody can surely criticise Nade for the considerable improvements in his all-round play, and he has done remarkably well in the lone striker role, but even he has been guilty of the occasional cock up in front of goal. Jamie Mole's workrate also cannot be faulted but his first touch is frustratingly clumsy and despite claims from those at Riccarton that he has an excellent finish, his eye for goal hasn't been obvious to those who sit in the stands. Juho Makela may have scored against the mighty Barcelona but since his return from a loan period at FC Thun, he also appears to be finding it difficult to make any impact in the reserves league and looks an unlikely prospect for the first team at any point in the near future and Mike Tullberg remains an unknown quantity thanks to the injury which has kept him largely on the sidelines since his arrival in Gorgie.

And so, we arrive at Gary Glen. Much has been made of the talents of this youngster and until fairly recently, the Hearts faithful were often regaled of his exciting exploits in the reserve and under 19s. Every cloud has a silver lining as they say, and last season's slump into the bottom half of the SPL saw us trying out some of the youth players, with Glen getting a run of 6 appearances in which he scored against ICT and St Mirren before finishing off his season as a first team player with a red card in Gretna. However, since Csaba Laszlo's arrival at Tynecastle last summer, there has been no sign of Gary in any of our SPL encounters.

With our ongoing goal problem in mind, some Hearts fans are screaming for his reinstatement and demanding his inclusion in first team affairs for the simple reason that he surely 'has to be better than what we currently have'. Me? I'm not so sure. There's no doubting that the youngster has talent and going by what has been seen of him, he's certainly not awestruck by the step up to the first team and the encounters which that brings. However, combining reports that his recent performances in the reserves have been rather lacklustre and the comments made by Csaba Laszlo about Glen at a fans Q&A suggesting that his attitude might not yet be of an ideal standard,I'm tempted to think that he may not yet be the goal scoring Messiah that we're looking for. Not right now, anyway.

We all saw what happened to Callum Elliot and while some might think that he has simply found his level at Livingston, I'd hazard a guess that the lack of pressure from the stands in West Lothian has undoubtedly contributed to his recent improvement in form. Like any young player, progress will be characterised by a period of performance peaks and troughs and unfortunately the weight of expectation can sometimes take its toll, and often to the detriment of their continued improvement as a player. Current circumstances at the club coupled with an antsy group of supporters would suggest that the burden upon Glen may be too much and I'd hate to watch the slow and methodical destruction of another youngster's confidence.

Of course, there's every chance that I make far too many assumptions about this young man, and should he appear in maroon this weekend or at any point in the coming weeks, I wish him nothing but the very best of luck. If he fails to score or to impress the onlookers, I only hope that any criticism is given in a considered and weighted fashion and that his desire to feature in the first team isn't affected. Csaba Laszlo's desire to protect younger players is evident,but this doesn't appear to affect his decision making and Lee Wallace, Eggert Jonsson et al continue to improve on a weekly basis under his tutelage - so perhaps it's fair to assume that the same would happen for Gary if and when he is given the chance.

Alternatively, if he does play and he also scores, once I've been scraped back down from the ceiling I'd be inclined to try and remember that he probably isn't going to do that every week and that our expectations should be tempered with the knowledge that his development is ongoing; he's in no way the finished article. Wonder kids coming along so rarely that it's unfair to burden him with the expectations of a group of supporters whose mood has the tendency to swing from utter despair to a euphoria borne of relief within the space of a few seconds. If we need reinforcements in any position, it's up front and while we can only hope that Vlad buys us a shiny new striker for Christmas, focus should really be on the collective improvement of the current crop and not on one sole youngster.

However, should he turn out to be the new Robbo...I'll be more than happy to say that I was wrong...

Are we expecting too much, too soon?

It's probably never a good idea to kick off a blog with a moaning session but it's impossible to avoid one after watching Hearts wither like chocolate in an oven on Sunday when they turned out against Celtic. There's no denying that as football fans, we've been through the mill in recent months (or years) and the appointment of Csaba Laszlo appeared to inject the club, players and to a certain extent the supporters with a renewed sense of vigour. Progress has been made since the beginning of the current season and improvements are visible across the board, from the club's communication with the fans right down to the squad's team spirit, and to our surprise, we've even seen the press writing some vaguely nice things about us of late. Add a cracker of a derby against Hibs and a courageous performance against the Dons to that mix and you can maybe see why, for a moment, we were thinking things might be on the mend down Gorgie way.

But then we played Celtic.

I was full of positivity and superstitiously concealed hope before the game. I cast my eye over the news in the days leading up to the match and noted that a few of their key players were injured and bolstered this little seed of confidence with the fact that their recent performances in the SPL have been a little less than brilliant. I made my way to Tynecastle on Sunday with a spring in my step, convinced that even if we didn't take 3 points, we were sure to give them a game. I was oh so wrong.

From kick off, we seemed lethargic and disorganised. Our defence which had held so well against Aberdeen the previous week looked fragile and disorientated, our midfield which had controlled the previous few SPL encounters with such confidence was disjointed and sloppy and our lone striker was very, very alone. I'll exclude Janos Balogh from any criticism given that was rarely troubled by Celtic, couldn't have done anything about Maloney's goal and Caldwell's second was the result of scrappy antics at the goalmouth which should perhaps have been ruled out anyway, but most of the outfield players just didn't seem to have turned up at all.

Our lynchpin players such as Stewart, Driver, Berra and more recently added to this list, Bruno Aguiar, all seemed to choose the same date for their 'off day' and most were anonymous throughout. We perhaps only have inconsistent refereeing to thank for the fact that Mikey managed to stay on the pitch for the whole 90 minutes given that his discipline appeared to disintegrate as the match went on and his frustrations started to bubble over into his attempts to win the ball back from a greedy, ball-hogging Celtic. However, I was just glad to see that at least one of our boys in maroon hadn't completely given up so I won't slate him for that. The only other individual worth a mention would be Christian Nade who continues to look more like the striker we thought we had bought all those months ago. He harried, nipped, bustled and at times, seemed like the only Hearts player capable of controlling a football or making an accurate pass. Gold star for him, and I look forward to seeing his continued improvement in the coming weeks. So, yes...it wasn't the most enjoyable 90 minutes I've ever spent in Tynecastle and the only reason I really managed to stay for the duration was the knowledge that it probably really couldn't get any worse.

Post-match comments from Csaba were a little odd, given that he seemed reluctant to direct any sort of criticism at the players but I'm working on the assumption that his aim here was probably damage limitation of some description, given that his comments on the club website since then have been rather less kind. Understandably, Jambos everywhere will be gutted at the result, but reactions to the team's performance are likely to be borne of a much more deeply held concern that some of this current crop just are not good enough. It has to be said that we're weaker in some positions than others, I'm hoping to see the defence bolstered by new recruits in January and regardless of how Tullberg does when he recovers from injury, I still want to see reinforcements brought in there too. But other than that, I'm quite prepared to treat last Sunday as a glitch if we can get back to the kind of performances we witnessed in the weeks prior to that. Improvements are visible and progress has been made, so maybe we need to be a little restrained and try not to expect too much too soon. By Christmas, we'll know whether or not we really do have a renewed sense of direction or whether this is the shape of things to come. Seatbelts on, it's looking like it might be a bumpy ride.