The Blood Lust - Rangers and Hearts

[chilledbear 16]

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/keith-jackson-harsh-treatment-hearts-3015628?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=tw

 

IS the treatment of Hearts fair? Absolutely not.

 

Must it continue unabated and without mercy? Sadly, there can be no other way.

 

What we are currently witnessing at Tynecastle is unedifying, bordering on inhumane.

 

Gary Locke has been forced into a position where he has no choice but to flog the life out of his youngsters who are now dropping to their knees in the utter exhaustion of fighting what has been, from the outset, an impossible task.

 

They are only half way through but Hearts are goners already.

 

And the more squeamish may very well feel like looking the other way for the second half of this season as they stagger and stumble towards their own demise.

 

This is heartbreaking cruelty in every conceivable way.

 

But Scottish football must not be allowed to avert its gaze. Not for one single second.

 

Rather, it should be strapped into a seat and forced to sit through every gory moment of this collapse.

 

Scottish football has done this to Hearts and now it must watch every last consequence of its actions, no matter how harrowing it may become.

 

Promising young players may be left broken in spirit and body. They may be cast aside and unable ever to fully recover from the traumas of this campaign.

 

So be it. Locke too may never be the same again given what he has had to endure in this, his first ever managerial post.

 

Already his credentials for the job are being debated and dissected. In some cases, he has been dismissed as some wet behind the ears, lame duck of a boss who has neither the know-how nor the work ethic to save Hearts from their fate.

 

This picking on Locke is savage and unnecessary and almost wholly unfounded. After all, how can any reasonable assessment be made on Locke’s qualities or otherwise as a manager when he has been placed in a position which leaves him almost entirely unable to manage?

 

Unlike his peers, he can neither buy new players nor even loan them, which means he must make do with what little he has on the books.

 

 

And yet, so sparse is his squad that Locke is not afforded even the most basic managerial prerogative of choosing a starting XI. He has no choice but to count heads and send them out. No matter if these players are suffering from loss of form or even fitness.

 

Locke’s only option is to run these youngsters into the ground until the time comes when either Hearts are unable to fulfill their fixtures or, in order to keep up the pretence that they are still a functioning football club, filling up maroon shirts with school children and sending them out to be humiliated by grown-up professionals. All in the name of sporting integrity.

 

Under these circumstances it is simply not possible to judge Locke’s managerial merits one way or the other. He is not managing Hearts. He is merely enabling them to keep up this pretence until the club has taken its last breath in the top flight.

 

Anyone who cannot acknowledge that their fate was predetermined before he had given them his first team talk must be a fool. Yes, Locke is learning on the job and will have made mistakes along the way. Of course he will.

 

But by depriving him of so many of the fundamentals of football management, we make his human error almost redundant. The truth is, there was never any hope for Hearts. That was part of the deal.

 

When this club limped over the line last season to stay in the top division at the expense of Dundee, they knew administration was on its way. We all did. It’s all been a charade ever since.

 

The new rules which were drawn up to deal with insolvency events were designed not just to punish offenders but to throttle them.

 

It had to be this way because of the appalling blood lust with which Rangers had been treated the previous year.

 

Had level heads been applied to the financial meltdown at Ibrox then Rangers would have been helped back up from the gutter in which Craig Whyte left them. Instead, they were trampled down and kicked to the kerb.

 

The urge to maximise the damage Whyte had done quickly became overwhelming and, in many cases, it was led by downright malevolence.

 

Neil Doncaster, the chief executive of the then SPL, wished to apply some logic and reason to the debate for no other reason than it made business sense to protect Rangers. Perish the thought, maybe even to help them in their darkest hour.

 

But he was shouted down by the baying crowd that had gathered around him.

 

And now, as a result of this mob mentality, Hearts are paying the heaviest of prices for the roguish actions of their own former owner. There would be uproar among Rangers supporters in particular if it were any other way.

 

 

This residual need for revenge is understandable. They believe their club was wronged and so they will demand parity across the board. Even if it reduces Scottish football to a bloodbath.

 

In fact, so bitter have some of them become that they would wish it to be so. They make no attempt to hide their delight at the suffering of others and nor should they be expected to as Rangers is their only concern.

 

But if Scottish football is to correct itself then it must transcend this kind of small-minded tribalism.

 

For the greater good, it must also be prepared to accept that mistakes have been made and that, now they are being repeated, the youngsters of Hearts are being brutalised.

 

With more than half a season gone, they have still not unshackled themselves fully from the 15-point penalty with which they set out.

 

Twenty-two games into this mission impossible, with just 16 more to go, Hearts are marooned on minus two. Locke is unable to call for reinforcements. It’s about to become unwatchable. But watch on we must.

 

And maybe when it is over – when Hearts have been crushed, lying there, limp and lifeless on the floor – then Scottish football will have cause to reflect and to confront itself.

 

To ask itself how it got into such a dark and mean state of mind. To look inside itself in search of empathy and common sense.

 

And then to find a better way for the future before more vulnerable clubs and more innocent young players are forced to suffer as Hearts have this season.

 

Yes, there must still be stiff deterrents in order to keep the game safe from the next Whyte or the next Romanov. But there must also be a realisation that the current penalties are draconian and hurting all the wrong people.

 

While Whyte and Romanov escape unscathed, the players and supporters they left behind continue to pay for all of their sins.

 

And while so many old scores are being settled, Scottish football continues to hate itself to death.

[andy steel 0]

I stole that final line from Darther and sent in in to Radio Scotland, where it was read out in response to Commissar Spence's latest report from the Revolutionary Movement in Kilmarnock. Whoever wrote this has nicked it from us all!

 

My sympathy for Hearts is limited because, had they accepted the inevitable, gone into admin last season and been relegated, they may well have found their young players developing far better in L1 than in the top division. To an extent they invited this experience upon themselves in order to, well, I really don't know what their rationale for staying the top league was. Money? Hubris? I don't know.

 

Still, that said, I'm certainly not reveling in their misfortune. I don't care much either way, to be honest. But let's not get too carried away with this 'sending kids over the top' routine - Januzai has been turning it on for Man United, a slightly more pressurised environment, all season and he's still 17. Sterling at Liverpool, Gnabre at Arsenal and so on. Granted they can be rested, but if kids can survive in one of Europe's strongest leagues, I think they'll manage to stagger through a season in what is, bluntly, a complete backwater.

[barca72 440]

Too late Jackson. You make some salient points in this article but where were you when we needed you to say them 18 months ago, you and your MSM colleagues. You gave us no quarter then and we will give no quarter now.

One thing you say is very true though - "And while so many old scores are being settled, Scottish football continues to hate itself to death."

One thing you cannot say is that Rangers or her fans are culpable for that . Look to the corrupt cabal that all of you in the MSM supported for the actions taken then, and the horrendous league reconstruction. You know who the leaders are. Make them face their responsibilities now. For God's sake man, find a conscience.

[SteveC 150]

I stole that final line from Darther and sent in in to Radio Scotland, where it was read out in response to Commissar Spence's latest report from the Revolutionary Movement in Kilmarnock. Whoever wrote this has nicked it from us all!

 

My sympathy for Hearts is limited because, had they accepted the inevitable, gone into admin last season and been relegated, they may well have found their young players developing far better in L1 than in the top division. To an extent they invited this experience upon themselves in order to, well, I really don't know what their rationale for staying the top league was. Money? Hubris? I don't know.

 

Still, that said, I'm certainly not reveling in their misfortune. I don't care much either way, to be honest. But let's not get too carried away with this 'sending kids over the top' routine - Januzai has been turning it on for Man United, a slightly more pressurised environment, all season and he's still 17. Sterling at Liverpool, Gnabre at Arsenal and so on. Granted they can be rested, but if kids can survive in one of Europe's strongest leagues, I think they'll manage to stagger through a season in what is, bluntly, a complete backwater.

 

Especially not when kids of the same age are sent over the top in combat zones, or work long hours stacking shelves, doing manual labour etc. Anyway, the usual self-centredness of the football world aside, he makes some good points here. Pity he had not been so strong re what happened to us when it started to happen though.

[Tumshie RFC 0]

Hearts were one of the first clubs to stick the boot in. I've shed no tears regarding their demise. Other clubs showed that they hate our club more than they love their own.

[Juancornetto 1]

The hate came from one section of Scottish Football, and from one club. Eventually it spread to other clubs with an axe to grind with Rangers but it has been and was driven by Celtic "fans". This is their legacy.

[ian1964 10,409]

The fact that the fans of all other teams got to decide our fate, through hatred and bigotry!, was where it was all lost, and everyone,including Jackson, knew that, but instead of being sensible and try to help a member club, the biggest and most successful club in Scotland, they all were enjoying our demise too much at the time to say anything.

[aweebluesoandso 290]

What's this a ransom demand from the Record. That Rag along with the usual Celtic minded suspects, kidnapped the truth on what happened to our club during our administration event, then lied about the resulting financial meltdown. Have they finally found some remorse now another club is being beaten to death from the same culprits?

[amms 0]

Hang on, I thought getting rid of the expensive seasoned professionals and playing the kids was what half this message board want us to do? You're not telling me it doesn't work surely...

 

Joking aside I'd concur with the criticism of the usual journalistic hyperbole. These 'kids' are playing football and being paid for it, you'll forgive me if I don't call the UN to intervene, whatever their league position it's still the best job in the world.

 

Still, credit where it's due to the author for pointing out the chickens coming home to roost.

[pollok-loyal 0]

Hearts were one of the first to jump into bed with Timbo putting the boot into us, not one ounce of sympathy for their plight.

The media have given them an easy ride throughout this debacle.