Planet Hearts - (Page 3)

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Many people are laughing at the club now and that is sad.” Communication or lack of it from within the club in recent weeks has created anger and apprehension among sections of the support and Ford can appreciate why dissenting voices are being aired against the regime. “I have to say I’m deeply concerned at the lack of PR both from within Tynecastle and Lithuania,” says Ford. “But I’m not surprised because in Lithuania they operate in a different ethical framework from Scottish people and I feel Romanov has shown total disregard for the supporters and the players. “If you were a quality employer then as soon as Steven Pressley, Paul Hartley and Craig Gordon said what they said, instead of taking the jackboot solution by firing one, warning another and giving the third a slap n the hand, he should have been straight over to talk to them about it. “But there appears to be no PR exercise at all. He will not tell supporters what his plans are, or why he does things. “I don’t know how Campbell Ogilvie must fee. He’s been a pillar of Scottish football for 30 years and this must be awful for him.” As to matters on the pitch, Ford remains equally perturbed about team selection, though the former Scotland international can see a ray of hope in that new skipper Craig Gordon is at least retaining a homegrown presence in the side. “There still seems to be the problem that Romanov is determined to decide who plays and who doesn’t, irrespective of Ivanauskas, which is unforgivable. “He may know how to run a business but he can’t have any cognisance of what is required to run and control a football dressing room and make sure guys are in the right frame of mind for the Saturday. “Robbie Neilson appears to have been cast aside. Paul Hartley to be fair hasn’t shown his form of last year – but can you blame the guy after what’s been happening? He’s still potentially the best midfield player in Scotland and yet he’s sitting on the bench, which is again unforgivable. “The lack of Scots in the team also worries me. We have players who are showing better form than some of the Lithuanians. Mikoliunas, for instance, has done very little to impress, yet seems to be the first name on the teamsheet. “There must be a few lads at Tynecastle thinking ‘What am I doing here? Where am I going?’ because they seem to be being squeezed out. By our great good fortune we have the best keeper that Scotland has maybe ever seen. If not now then I’m sure he’ll prove that in the next five years. If it weren’t for Craig then I’m sure we’d have a Lithuanian in goal. “The other thing is that Romanov has no psychological conception of what effect this is all having on the dressing room. It doesn’t matter what sport you play, the art of winning is 60% skill and 40% psychology. “If you don’t get the team in the right frame of mind for a game they have no chance of winning it. Everything that has happened in the last four months at Tynecastle has destroyed any positive psychological benefit that came from winning the cup and finishing second in the league.” Ford actively supported the Save Our Hearts campaign which battled against Chris Robinson’s proposal to sell Tynecastle. So would he favour the group being resurrected, and would he back a new consortium that proved it had the funds to launch a takeover? “Save Our Hearts did a great job when Chris Robinson was about to carry out his threats and built up a tremendous swell of rightful opposition to what was happening. “The difference this time is that they’re dealing with someone who doesn’t want to talk to them and if he does talk you can’t believe a word he says. “Something like Save Our Hearts would be brilliant but I fear it would be absolutely and totally powerless this time. “If there’s a consortium in existence then I’ve no doubt they’ll tell the fans, players and press exactly what they intend to do and that would be a breath of fresh air. “But they’d need a huge amount of money to take over the club, assuming Romanov is prepared to sell his shareholding. “Then they must have enough funds to either persuade a bank to act as guarantor for the debt or absorb it themselves – and finally they need additional funds to make the team better and redevelop the stadium. “So is there a way to fix the problems under the current regime? “It could all be sorted if Romanov had the courage and vision to say, ‘This is what’s happening, this is why it’s happening and this is where we are going’,” reasons Ford. “Supporters will listen to that. But they are hearing nothing.” In common with many, Ford would like some answers. Day of glory thatʼs been overlooked DONALD FORD played a lead role in helping Hearts hammer a Hibs side considered to be one of the best to ever emerge from Easter Road. But to his eternal frustration he knows the result will never get the credit it deserves because of what preceded it nine months before. On September 8 1973 the Linlithgow-born centre-forward struck Hearts’ third goal in a 4-1 rout in front of a 29,000 crowd at Tynecastle. Bragging rights assured? Well, no – because that victory will always be overshadowed by the record derby defeat Hearts had suffered at Tynecastle on New Year’s Day. “In the late 60s and early 70s we were playing against the best Hibs side since the Famous Five era,” Ford recalls. “They had a wonderful team and sadly we suffered at their hands, myself included because I didn’t do particularly well against Hibs at all. “The one game that does stand out was when we absolutely walloped them just nine months after the infamous 7-0 game at Tynecastle when we had our new 4-2-4 formation out with wee Kenny Aird on the right, Bobby Prentice on the left and Drew Busby and myself up front. “We thrashed them but no-one remembers it DERBY EXCITEMENT:Action from early 70s because it doesn’t have the same ring as 7-0. “As I say, I didn’t have a great record against Hibs but there’s nothing to match the build-up, atmosphere and the excitement of an Edinburgh derby. It’s just impossible to beat.” Season 1973/74 was the highlight of Ford’s career. “By that time we had Drew, Kenny and Bobby in the team and were playing really well,” recalls the 62-year-old who is now a landscape and golf course photographer in Angus. “Drew created a lot of chances which I was lucky enough to be on the end of. We led the league for 13 or 14 weeks until everyone worked out what we were doing and hemmed us in.” Ford was at the peak of his powers, earning Scotland caps against West Germany, Wales and Czechoslovakia. He also went to the World Cup finals in West Germany though he was denied a team place by the presence of Denis Law and Joe Jordan. “It was a fantastic experience, but there were people of greater ability than me who should have been there but were either hurt or out of favour,” says the modest Ford, who also got to the fringes of the national side at cricket. “I was just so pleased to be in the frame in West Germany. It was something I’ll never forget.” Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning : Unknown : Failed to write session data files . Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct /var/lib/php/session in Unknown on line 0

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Planet Hearts

Planet Hearts