Hearts are falling apart

The Hearts Annual General Meeting is a must-see fixture on the Scottish football calendar these days, guaranteed to set off a few fireworks. Of course, unless you have the dubious pleasure of being a Hearts shareholder (and there are still around 400 of them, with less than 20% of the company between them), an invite can be hard to come by, but the stories of the meeting always tumble out into the open soon enough.

The official AGM business took 5 minutes - no great surprise, given that the majority shareholder is in such a dominant position - and then the meeting opened up to questions. And that's where things got spicy: Roman Romanov (with daddy again nowhere to be seen) was apparently belligerent and snippy from the off, and the answers tumbling from his mouth caused mounting anger and confusion. For example, while last year's AGM was told that a £40m level of debt was "no problem", now it seems cost-cutting was needed to bring down the debt to more manageable levels (it's currently around £32 - 37m, depending on who you believe).

On every issue from the appointment of a new manager to the redevelopment plans for the stadium, Romanov was confusing and contradictory, before launching into a familar rant against the "conspiracy" against Hearts.

None of this is new. Since George Burley was sacked back in 2005 it's been clear that the Romanov regime is rather less than it appears, or rather there is an agenda pushing the project that is not the one told to the fans. Equally, the paranoia - either genuine or contrived - has been apparent almost from the outset, with a whole host of villians, from the SFA to journalists, identified as the people who are keeping Hearts down.


What is new is the fans' reaction, and the feeling that the Romanov story really has reached a tipping point. As news of the meeting filtered out, there was undisguised fury across message boards and in pubs as Jambos digested this latest, crazy episode. It's clear that many fans were pinning their hopes on this meeting as a chance to find out what is happening at their club - instead they feel the people in charge are treating them with contempt.

Hearts seem to be in disarray. On the one hand, Romanov argued for the caretaker "coach", Stephen Frail, to be given a chance, but then later another director, Sergejus Fedotovas, said that the search for a new manager (announced in January) was continuing. When the huge cost of the proposed new stand was questioned, l'il Roman suggested that perhaps plans would be drawn up for a cheaper option - which would mean starting the planning consent process all over again, and adding the £1m or so already spent on the plans.

Of course, the Romanovs "saved Tynecastle", and for many fans, Hearts IS Tynecastle and wouldn't be the same club if it ever moved from there. This, and the fear of what could happen should they pull the plug, has encouraged many Jambos to keep the faith during an increasingly bizarre 3 years. Hearts' problems didn't begin with the Romanovs, either - the club has been mismanaged for at least a generation, always spending more money than they had in the belief that there would always be another pot of gold to dip into if necessary.

Without a doubt, though, dissenters are now far more vocal, no longer being shouted down by the ranks of "believers". Most would seem to want the Romanovs out of the club, but are unsure how to do it. With season ticket sales in full swing, it's a crucial time... will the fans put their money up again, or not renew their season tickets in protest? How much appetite do they have for a fight?

Celtic close the gap, but it's too late

It was a perfect night for Celtic - a first Old Firm win for 19 months (first for Gordon Strachan since the Uncle Watty n Super Ally show arrived back at Ibrox), an absolute belter from Nakamura and the last gasp goal from JvH closing the gap to just one point.

Strachan reckons the title isn't lost yet, and the equation's simple for Celtic now - win every remaining game in the SPL and they may, just may, win the title.

They won't, though. Rangers have got mounting problems with injuries, suspended players and a fair fixture backlog to negotiate, but they're not gonna mess it up now. Uncle Watty may claim he's not prioritising any competition over any other, but he knows without question it's the SPL title that Ibrox craves. Letting Celtic get 3-in-a-row would be simply unpalatable.

Katie Thomson and Bazza Ferguson are banned for the first leg against Fiorentina, making their selection in remaining league games a no-brainer. Rangers will have to cope without player of the year Carlos Cuellar after his sending off, and David Weir also misses a match for his handbags with Gary Caldwell at the end of last night's game (as does Caldwell). Injuries to Lee McCulloch, Charlie Adam and Allan McGregor don't help. But they've got a big enough squad... if Kris Boyd starts against St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup, it will be a clear indication that Uncle Watty is spreading resources in order to keep the League Title in sight.

So a thrilling match last night, full of competitive spice. But it doesn't really change anything.

If Celtic can win the next Old Firm game, though, then things really will get tight.

Fury as Aberdeen implode

What is it with the Scottish Cup? As soon as the authorities starting talking about taking away the automatic UEFA Cup place from the runners-up, as has been done when the winners have already qualified for Europe through the League, than the competition seems determined to throw lambs to the slaughter.

First off Gretna, who lost on penalties to Hearts in the 2006 final, and then were into the UEFA Cup, distracted (their minds were on a promotion push from Division 1) and quickly found out. Then Dunfermline, runners-up last year, went to Europe having been relegated from the SPL, and with the best will in the world, were not well prepared for it. And, come late summer, it's very possible that it will be Queen of the South who take up the mantle of representing Scottish football in Europe.

Yup, Queen of the South are through to their first Scottish Cup final. Congratulations to them - they deserve it - but it has to be said that Aberdeen threw it away. Calamity defending allowed QoS to score 3 times. Aberdeen hauled themselves level each time, but then QoS scored a 4th and Aberdeen had no reply.

Jimmy Calderwood, the Dons manager, is as passionate about the Scottish Cup as anyone, but he's also a brutally honest manager who calls it how he sees it. He was scathing about his team's performance after the game, almost lost for words as he attempted to explain how bad they were. Chick Young, the Beeb's man at Hampden, gave him a route to defend himself by reminding Calderwood that his team created further chances to level the match, but he wouldn't take them.

"We got what we deserved. Losing 4 goals... is a joke. We brought 14,000 people here. We let them down at Tynecastle in the CIS Cup and we've let them down again."

You could hear the man's hurt in his voice, but who knows if it will be enough to repair the damage. Much like Gordon Strachan at Celtic, Calderwood has plenty of critics on the terraces, and this latest blow has opened torrents of abuse across fans' messageboards. The fans have had enough of the "tactical tombola" (endless personnel changes) and reckon plenty of the signings just aren't good enough.

The strange truth is that Calderwood agrees with them, and the one certainty is that there will be a clear-out at Pittodrie this summer. Calderwood has said before that some players just aren't up to the task, and earlier in the season hinted that he might well leave if he doesn't get a big enough budget to rebuild the squad.

He was persuaded to stay, and Director of Football Willie Miller remains supportive in public, but the man who will decide the budget is chairman Stewart Milne, the construction mogul, and there are no guarantees he'll come up with the goods. Milne is seemingly filthy rich, but has so far been reluctant to pump more of his own cash into the side. To be fair, you can see why - the stadium issue remains unclear, the club is millions in the red, and the fans have, on the most part, been staying away. As an investment opportunity, the club hardly looks gilt-edged.

It would be tempting to describe Aberdeen as a sleeping giant, although it's hard to know if they qualify as being a giant anymore. The Alex Ferguson era is a very long time ago now, and it becomes harder and harder imagining Aberdeen ascending to those heights again.

Calderwood might decide he's taken the club as far as he can. Or that decision might be made for him. Either way, it will be a critical summer for AFC.

Are Rangers great or just fucking lucky?

Rangers are into a European semi-final for the first time since 1972 after their second leg win over Sporting Lisbon tonight. Ok, it's the UEFA Cup, not the big one, but still... nae bad for poor wee Scotland, eh?

For an outsider, it looks like a club from one of the poorer leagues in Europe heroically over-coming the odds and sticking it to the big boys. But to those of us who've actually watched them this season, its seems inexplicable. They eventually won 2-0 this evening, but for the first hour Rangers were being battered by a visibly superior team. Then Jean-Claude Darcheville scored an (admittedly fine) break-away goal, and the ITV commentary started talking about a famous mugging. Needing 2 goals, Sporting poured forward, created plenty of chances, but couldn't score. Then substitute Steven Whittaker danced through a tired defence and scored another.

So Rangers are lucky, and they've had their fair share of luck all season, from the last Old Firm game to countless other matches throughout the season. They've frequently played poorly and with little guile, yet managed to put away their chances and keep the opposition out. They turned in possibly their worst performance in 10 years at Easter Road in December, for example, yet had the fortune to face a leaderless Hibs who played even worse.

Yet there is more to it than that. Firstly, Walter Smith has built a big squad that has a bit of talent but a lot of experience. People like Barry Ferguson, David Weir and Christian Dailly have seen it all, while Carlos Cuellar really deserves to be Scottish Player of the Year. But there is also the Uncle Watty and Super Ally show - the managerial duo have got the magic ingredient to making Rangers tick, all right.

First of all, Uncle Watty employs his familiar tactics... five across midfield, centre backs at full back, that sort of thing. Rangers are hard to break down. And then there is the Rangers affect... the boss and his sidekick are both confirmed bluenoses, and they've ensured the rest of the squad are too. The players seem willing to run through walls for the cause... and as the results have come in, the commitment has increased, keeping the run going. It's been a virtuous circle of Proddy graft (that's not sectarian, by the way) and a sense of grievance that this club went for two seasons without a single trophy.

How long will it last? Well, thanks to their extended European and domestic cup adventures, plus a catalogue of postponed fixtures, Rangers now face an immense backlog of matches that will test that squad and those tactics to the limit.

Well, it will if Celtic turn up for the final two Old Firm games. And if not them, surely Fiorentina will prove too much, with Barry Ferguson and Kevin Thomson (two thirds of the first choice midfield) suspended.

But then, who knows? If Rangers really are lucky, a quadruple is on the cards.

Game over - Rangers will take the title

Be in no doubt - Rangers will win the SPL this season. For Celtic to retain their title, Gordon Strachan will have to do what he has so far failed to do, and work out how to beat Uncle Watty's light blues. He'll then have to do the same again in the last Old Firm derby of the season. And then he'll have to hope that Rangers drop more points than them in their remaining 3 fixtures. Never gonna happen, in other words.

Only the most blinkered Rangers fan would deny that they've had a decent slice of luck this season, but that doesn't matter now. You could list at length the games in which Rangers have played poorly, but won because the opposition have been even worse, but it doesn't change the table. They are in driving seat, and that's all they will care about.

So Celtic's 3-in-a-row title aspirations are over, and the inquest will begin as to what went wrong, and whether Strachan is still the man to lead them. Celtic have - with the possible exception of the Champion's League - underperformed this season, after decent investment over the summer. Strachan strengthened the squad, but some of his acquisitions have disappointed - Donati, for instance - while others are forgotten already. The team has frequently been boring to watch, and ground out results against teams they should have steam-rollered.

This weekend, Derek Riordan went public on his "Celtic hell", accusing Strachan of refusing to play him now because he might do well, and therefore embarass the manager for having given him such limited opportunities up until now. Scott Brown - another ex-Hibee - looks a shadow of the player he was at Easter Road, arguably too restricted at Celtic to play his natural game.

It looks like a major re-build is required this summer, rather than some gentle tweaks. Will Strachan be the man to do it?

Dons dreaming of silverware

There isn't a happier man in Scotland today than Jimmy Calderwood. They say that to truly appreciate the highs, you have to experience the lows, and the Aberdeen manager can certainly claim to have had more than his fair share of bad days this season.

Consider this: after finishing 3rd and qualifying for the UEFA Cup last season, Calderwood lost some vital members of his squad and went hunting in the sales for some bargains. He had mixed results, and this term Aberdeen are currently languishing down in 8th place and struggling to make the top 6 before the split.

If Aberdeen do play out their final round of fixtures in the bottom half of the table, it will reduce the crowds still further, the fans already hacked off by lack of investment from the chairman, indifferent performances, and the "tactical tombola" which made it impossible to predict the line-up and system from week to week.

The criticism has hurt Calderwood, who has long felt under-appreciated in Scotland, aware that he is no longer a young, up and coming manager, but one whose career has not reached the heights he had hoped for. This season, he has felt let down by the board and let down by his squad. First he threatened to leave if not given certain assurances about his budget. More recently, he threatened a mass clear-out at the end of the season, saying that some of his players "weren't as good as they thought they were".

In contrast, the UEFA Cup campaign was generally regarded as a success, its high point coming when Aberdeen held Bayern Munich 2-2 at a rocking Pittodrie, reminding everyone of the passion the club can generate when circumstances are right. That evening was one to be cherished, though, because Aberdeen then got spanked in Munich, ending the adventure in no uncertain terms.

And then to the Scottish Cup, a competition that Calderwood reveres. Aberdeen were minutes from a shock win over Celtic, before a late equaliser took them to a replay in Glasgow. Calderwood seemed crushed - Aberdeen's chance had surely gone.

So it seemed last night, as the first half was pretty much one way traffic, with Celtic on the attack and Aberdeen on the rocks. Calderwood may be a passionate and animated character on the touchline, but this masks a surprisingly reflective and observant side to his personality, and he was honest enough to admit that Aberdeen "rode their luck at times". Yet the luck held out, and a rare attack in the 68th minute yielded the only goal of the game, as Darren Mackie put Celtic out.

Aberdeen's prize is a semi-final against 1st Division Queen of the South, who are combative but limited. Aberdeen are clear favourites to go through, probably to meet Rangers in the final, assuming they dispose of Partick Thistle and then St Johnstone.

To lift the Cup, then, Aberdeen will probably have to beat both sides of the Old Firm. Not easy. But what an opportunity.

European success undermines Old Firm's moaning

Rangers might have benefitted from goal-keeping errors last night, but the 2-0 result against Werder Bremen gives them a great chance to get through to the UEFA Cup quarter finals. Walter Smith will have been pleased by his team's defence, with Christian Dailly and Brahim Hemdani in midfield snuffing out the opponent's attack. Rangers have now gone 19 games unbeaten, with a big enough squad to challenge both in Europe and at home at the same time.

Meanwhile, Celtic were clearly second-best against Barcelona, but the club still saw signs of progress, with Chief Executive Peter Lawwell saying he saw "no reason" why Celtic could not go one better next season and get through to the last eight of the Champions League.

Of course, once you are in the quarter finals of a knock-out competition, anything can happen.

So if Celtic and Rangers both think that getting to the latter stages of the Champions League or UEFA Cup are now realistic rather than hopeful ambitions, what exactly have they been moaning about all this time. The argument was that the SPL was holding them back, that they would never be able to reach their potential while "forced" to compete in poor old Scotland. They lobbied and lobbied to be allowed to join the English Premiership so that they could provide the success that their huge fanbases deserved.

Of course, there is no chance of them doing that now, and it turns out that the SPL isn't all that bad after all. It's not the most exciting or richest league in Europe, but it doesn't seem to be doing too badly for the Old Firm at the moment.