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?