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.

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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.

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