Farewell Christian Nade: our man of the season

We've seen the last of Christian Nade in a Hearts shirt, and while the Jambos are by and large glad to get rid, boy are we gonna miss him.

Nade spent three years in Scottish football, and was laughed at by fans and derided in the press for much of that time. But in so many ways, the big man sums up the current state of Scottish football in 2010.

His arrival from Sheffield United in summer 2007 was yet another example of the insanity of the Hearts regime. Vladimir Romanov sanctioned a transfee fee of £500,000 and a weekly wage of around £10k a week - and it quickly transpired that, yet again, another big-money signing had gone badly wrong.

(If you think only Hearts are prone to this kind of folly, just remember the £2m Celtic blew on Robbie Keane this season to achieve absolutely sweet fuck all.)

Frequently injured, when Nade did play he looked desperately unfit - he may be French, but he's the very embodiment of Scotland's attitude towards exercise.

According to Sky, his manager at the Blades, Neil Warnock, expressed an interest in taking him back to Crystal Palace in 2008 - but for whatever reason, that transfer didn't happen, and Nade stayed at Tynecastle for the duration of his contract.

Unsettled and unhappy (and rumoured to be seeking solace in online, er, chat), Nade entered this season a mess, but at a press conference in October claimed to be putting his problems behind him.

Note that even the BBC can't resist a pun about the man's weight. And note also that Nade comes across as a genuinely open and likeable guy.

There was even, despite his miserable lack of goals (he scored 10 in total for Hearts in three years), talk of a new contract.

Because here's the other thing about Christian Nade - out-of-shape and unfashionable he may be, but, like Scottish football itself, he's nowhere near as bad as his biggest critics make out. He's got genuine technical ability, and a game awareness that enables him to hold the ball up and bring team mates into play. There were some signs that, after Csaba Laszlo's deathly dull rigidity, more positive tactics might bring the best out of him.

Sadly, though, those personality frailities caught up with him once again. Getting sent off against Rangers on 23 January didn't help his cause, but then after playing Celtic, he got into an argument with Ian Black and did what many right-thinking people would do - he punched the little tosser.

The Hearts hierachy then suspended him, and then told him he had no future at the club.

He provided more copy for the papers a few days later, after arranging to play a five-a-side match with some random punters through Facebook. It seemed he was just lonely and wanted some company.

Nade claims that he did in fact sign a new contract before the argument with Ian Black, but the fact that he does not have a signed copy is unlikely to help his case. However, he has certainly helped to shine a little more light on the bizarre way Hearts is run. Although initially reluctant to sign, he claims he didn't want to say so because the club would just drop him, as they did Jose Goncalves.

So what next for our hero? He's still only in his mid-20s, so should have many more years ahead of him as a professional player. But he would need to sort his head out, and become a dedicated athlete - and Scotland probably isn't the place to do that. He also seems to be someone who needs an arm put around him, so he can feel secure and confident. At Hearts the players simply don't get that.

Whatever happens, we wish him all the best. Scottish football is going to be a slightly duller place without him