A History of Heart of Midlothian Football Club
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Hearts had
considerable success in the early years of the Scottish Football League winning
the league championship in 1894-5 and 1895-6. They also won four Scottish Cups
in a 15 year period from 1891 to 1906.
The cup final of 1896 is the only one
to have been played outside Glasgow. Hearts beat Hibs 3-1 on 14 March 1896 at
Logie Green.
The club then went from 1906 to 1954 without winning a major trophy.
They then had their most successful years winning the 1958 League title with a
record 62 points, with 132 goals scored in 34 matches. They also won the League
in 1960 and during this period won the Scottish League Cup four times in 1955,
1959, 1960 and 1963. This successful period for the club contained many top, now
legendary, names such as Alfie Conn, Sr., Willie Bauld, Jimmy Wardhaugh, Dave
Mackay and Alex Young.
From the mid 1960s Hearts went into decline - like many
Scottish clubs outside the Old Firm, they found themselves unable to compete with
the wages English clubs offered top Scottish players - and with the advent of
the ten team Premier Division in 1975 spent several seasons yo-yoing back and
forth from the Premier League to the First Division & back again (a similar
fate was in time to befall Hibs). However, the arrival of chairman Wallace Mercer
- after the previous board finally resigned when Hearts failed to regain their
Premier League status - led to a revival in the club's fortunes, with the team
only failing to win the league in 1986 on goal difference on the last day of the
season, and finishing runners up again in 1988.
The early 90s were reasonably
uneventful for Hearts, as they struggled to settle on a manager. Within a 2 year
period, Joe Jordan, Sandy Clark and Tommy McLean were all sacked. One of the only
bright points in this period was the incredible run of 22 games in a row without
defeat against arch-rivals Hibernian. The highlight is considered by many to be
the 2-1 triumph in the Fourth Round of the 1994 Tennents Scottish Cup at Easter
Road, with Wayne Foster grabbing the late winner.
In the following years the
changing economics of football made it almost impossible for Hearts, or other
Scottish clubs, to compete with the Old Firm, but in 1998 Hearts beat Rangers
2-1 to lift the Scottish Cup under the management of Jim Jefferies.
In recent
seasons Hearts have usually been the third best side in Scottish football, but
in 2005-2006 they finished second. Since the Scottish Premier League introduced
an end of season split into two groups of six, Hearts have been the only team
other than the "Old Firm" to have been in the top six each season. They
finished third in 2002-3 and 2003-4 and reached the inaugural group stages of
the UEFA Cup in 2004-5, but finished bottom of their group despite a victory over
FC Basel. During the 2004-05 season, they finished fifth in the league.
In
2004, then club CEO Chris Robinson announced plans to sell Tynecastle, which he
claimed was "not fit for purpose", and instead have Hearts rent Murrayfield
from the Scottish Rugby Union. This move was deemed necessary due to the club's
increasingly large debt. The plan was very unpopular with supporters, and a campaign,
entitled ''Save Our Hearts'', was set up to try to block the move. But, as Robinson
and his supporters had a slight majority of the club's shares, a preliminary deal
to sell the stadium was struck with the Cala property development company for
just over £20 million.
In the midst of Hearts financial difficulties
in late 2004, Russian-Lithuanian banker Vladimir Romanov began to be involved
with the club in what was styled the "Romanov Revolution". After Romanov
began negotiations to purchase a large portion of Hearts' shares, the impending
sale of Tynecastle was called off, much to the relief of the majority of supporters.
In February Romanov purchased 29.9% of the shares, increasing his holdings to
80% by December and thus gaining full control of the club. Romanov also arranged
for the £4,500,000 Hearts were due to pay the Scottish Media Group to be
paid off by his investment bank. Romanov has said that his ultimate aim is for
Hearts to win the Champions League. His early actions included bringing on former
Rugby Union chief Phil Anderton as CEO in 3 March 2005. On 9 May 2005 popular
manager John Robertson resigned, a move which was greeted with much dismay among
supporters. Former Ipswich Town and Derby County manager George Burley was hired
on 30 June to replace him.
As the season began, the combination of Vladimir
Romanov's financial backing and the appointment of George Burley led many Hearts
fans to believe that they could win the SPL championship in 2005-06. Signings
such as Edgaras Jankauskas, Rudi Skácel and Takis Fyssas, allied to current
stars Andy Webster, Steven Pressley, Craig Gordon, and Paul Hartley saw Hearts
make an outstanding start to the season winning their first eight games, including
a 1-0 win over reigning champions Rangers.
After leading the Jambos through
ten undefeated SPL appearances, and guiding them to the top of the league table,
Hearts and Burley parted ways on 22 October 2005, just hours before their Premier
League match with Dunfermline Athletic (Hearts won the match 2-0 under the control
of caretaker manager John McGlynn.). A club statement after the game declared
that the departure of Burley had been mutually agreed and that there were "irreconcilable
differences" between Burley and the Hearts board. Throughout his short spell
in charge rumours persisted about an uneasy relationship between Burley and Romanov,
with Romanov having bought players without his consent. John McGlynn was put in
temporary charge of the team following Burley's abrupt departure. During McGlynn's
tenure of four games, Hearts lost their first league match of the season against
Hibernian. Following this match, the chief executive Phil Anderton was dismissed,
and the chairman, George Foulkes resigned in protest at Anderton's dismissal.
Romanov's son, Roman Romanov, was appointed as chairman and temporary chief executive.
On
7 November, in a surprise move, Graham Rix was appointed as head coach. Hearts'
title ambitions suffered a major setback when they lost 3-2 to Celtic on New Year's
Day. Concern at the fairness of refereeing became a developing pattern with Romanov's
Hearts, as there were major complaints after a controversial match with Rangers
in the 2004/05 season where the referee Hugh Dallas awarded a decisive penalty
late in the match on the basis of advice from his linesman Andy Davis. There were
also complaints after the dismissals of Craig Gordon against Falkirk, Edgaras
Jankauskas against Hibernian, and Saulius Mikoliunas against Rangers. "I
want a replay of all matches," said Romanov.
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On 7 February 2006,
reports from Hearts players surfaced indicating that Graham Rix had told players
who were apparently disgruntled at being left out of the team before a match against
Dundee United that Romanov himself was picking the team and "pulling the
strings". While it was well-known that Rix was not in charge of player transfer
policy, it had not previously been confirmed that he was also not in charge of
selecting match squads.
The agent of Andy Webster, the Scottish international
player, had indicated that Webster would not be extending his contract at Tynecastle,
which was due to expire at the end of 2006/7 season. In April 2006, Vladimir Romanov
put Webster on the transfer list, claiming that he could not trust the player
100%.
Graham Rix was sacked as Hearts manager on 22 March 2006 along with the
club's Director of Football, Jim Duffy, who had only been appointed one month
previously. Shortly afterwards, former FBK Kaunas coach Valdas Ivanauskas was
appointed interim head coach of the first team until the end of the season.
A
4-0 win over Hibernian in the semi-final gave Hearts a place in the Scottish Cup
Final on May 13. In a hard-fought cup final, Hearts triumphed over Gretna at Hampden
Park winning 4-2 in a penalty shootout following a 1-1 draw.
Towards the end
of the season, a 1-0 win over Aberdeen on 3 May at Tynecastle guaranteed 2nd place
and hence a Champions League second qualifying round place next year, making them
the first Scottish club outside the Old Firm to play in the UEFA Champions League.
Hearts' victory meant that their cup final opponents Gretna played in the UEFA
Cup in 2006/07.
On 30 June 2006, it was announced that Valdas Ivanauskas had
been appointed as head coach on a permanent basis.
Just days before the first
SPL game of the season, Hearts were the only side in Scotland yet to have signed
a player, contrasting with their 11 signings the previous January. This statistic
worried the Gorgie faithful who had seen top players such as Rudolf Skácel
(Southampton) and Andy Webster (Wigan) leave the club. However on the eve of the
SPL season they announced the signing of Chile Striker Mauricio Pinilla on a season-long
loan. PAOK Salonika's Christos Karipidis was followed by Tiago Costa, a full back
from Benfica. The final week of the transfer window saw another transfer bonanza
with a Lithuanian trio - Marius Žaliukas, Kestutis Ivaškevicius and
Andrius Velicka - bringing the tally of Lithuanian players at Tynecastle to seven.
Hearts fans still anticipated the arrival of "two World Cup stars" but
were left disappointed when the club announced that the final piece of business
of the transfer window would be to bring top goalscorer Roman Bednár to
the club on a permanent deal.
Hearts played their home 2006/2007 European Champions
League games at Murrayfield Stadium rather than in their spiritual home of Tynecastle.
A combination of Tynecastle falling short of UEFA requirements in terms of pitch
size and hospitality facilities, and Murrayfield's greater capacity, meant that
Murrayfield was the preferred choice for the Tynecastle board.
Hearts won their
Champions League 2nd round qualifier against Bosnian champions Široki Brijeg
3-0 on aggregate (3-0 first leg, 0-0 second leg). In the first leg of the following
round, Hearts were beaten 2-1 by AEK Athens at Murrayfield. The Greek side won
with two goals in the last 5 minutes. Hearts faced a daunting task in the return
leg in Greece, requiring to score at least twice in Athens' imposing Olympic Stadium
to maintain their interest in the tournament. AEK won the second leg 3-0 against
a Hearts side that had two men sent off, with three goals in the final twelve
minutes. The loss remanded Hearts to a place in the UEFA Cup against Sparta Prague.
The first leg of the initial Cup tie was a 0-2 loss at a muddy Murrayfield on
14 September. They were then eliminated at Prague on 28 September in a 0-0 draw.
During
their failed European campaign Hearts league form was inconsistent, with losses
at Ibrox and to St Mirren at Tynecastle and victories at Fir Park (1-0) and Pittodrie
(3-1).
On 23 October 2006 head coach Valdas Ivanauskas took a "two-week"
break due to illness, with owner Vladimir Romanov saying "I have full confidence
in Valdas and look forward to his return". Sporting director, Eduard Malofeev,
replaced Ivanauskas for the two week period.
On 27 October 2006, Vladimir Romanov
warned his players that they were all for sale if they didn't win their match
against Dunfermline Athletic the next day. Hearts captain Steven Pressley responded
with a statement voicing the players' unhappiness at affairs at the club. At the
pre-match media conference ahead of Dunfermline's visit, Pressley revealed that
there is "significant unrest" in the dressing-room The game was drawn
1-1. On 13 November 2006, Pressley was left out of the squad for the match against
Falkirk, while Paul Hartley, who flanked Pressley when he read out the statement,
was dropped to the bench. On 19th November Pressley returned to the squad as an
unused substitute in the 1-0 home defeat against Rangers. Hartley was given the
captaincy for the game.
Hearts failed to win a game during Eduard Malofeev's
tenure, with defeats at Celtic, and capital rivals Hibernian - a result which
eliminated Hearts from the CIS Cup - and at home to Rangers. He remained as caretaker
manager until 20 November 2006, when he left the club to pursue further coaching
credentials. During Malofeev's brief tenure Hearts confirmed that Eugenijus Riabovas
would take charge upon Malofeev's departure, but on 24 November Hearts announced
that head coach Vladas Ivanauskas had returned to the club and would resume his
duties as manager on 27 November.
On 9 December Steven Pressley and Hearts
of Midlothian parted company. Press releases attendant to this development stated
that this was " amicable " but supporters may not be convinced.
This
history is up to the end of 2006.
Hearts have won 4 Scottish League Championships,
7 Scottish Cups, 4 League Cups, 1 World Championship and 2 tennants sixes.
And have been runners up in 14 Scottish Championships, 6 Scottish Cups, 2 League Cups,
And have been 3rd in the league 15 times.
And in 1 European Quarter Final.
1901 Totenham Hotspur 0 Hearts 0 They drew the 3rd ever world championship first leg
1902 Hearts 3 Totenham Hotspur 1 They won the title, in the return match at Tynecastle, of the 3 EARLY world titles I have found Scotland won 3 out of 3
1989 Hearts 1 Bayern Munich 0, they win but end up being knocked out, their best eever result in Europe, and furthest they have reached, become the ninth Scottish team to reach a European quarter final upto the end of season 2005-06, Scottish teams have reached 22 European Semi Finals, plus had 1 team in a Group Stage that was second, out of 4 teams, of which the top played the other of the 2 groups of 4 winner, to become European Champions, so 23 in a way, that will also count as a Quarter Final for me, from 37 to 38.
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