Hearts defender Jamie Hammill has revealed the grim reality of the club’s plunge into administration.
Hammill has accepted a 50% pay cut to help the club but the only other option was to be made redundant.
Hearts look on course to sell 3,000 season tickets to start the new season but it could be two or three months away from putting a CVA forward to creditors.
While they remain in administration a registration ban prevents the Edinburgh side from signing new players making the task of recovering from a 15 point deduction almost impossible.
After a decade of high spending reality is hitting home at Tynecastle with Hammill revealing the ‘options’ available to him.
“If we didn’t accept pay cuts then basically we were out the door so it’s been difficult for everyone involved with the club,” the former Kilmarnock defender explained. “We nearly lost our jobs.
“There were people at Tynecastle we’d usually have a conversation with in the morning and when I arrived they were no longer there so you sometimes have to count yourself lucky.
“When the administrator was appointed you think, ‘Am I going to be OK here?’ You hear 14 people are made redundant and you hope it doesn’t happen to you.
“I’ve managed to come through it and keep my job. The manager didn’t beg me to take a cut. He phoned and said he really wants me but the ball was in my court. He told me he wasn’t going to stand in my way of anything.
“That was great because he never forced the issue and it made my decision a little easier. It took me a while to get my head round being asked to take the cut. It wasn’t a decision I could just have taken off the cuff.
Hammill added: “Why did I do it? It was everything. You look at the fans and the fact we could’ve been days away from closure.
“It’s a big cut we’ve taken. Not everyone is earning £15,000 to £20,000 a week. But it is to help the club out. I am happy with my decision.
“There are no guarantees in this situation of being recompensed in the future. I have signed this deal and I still don’t know when we are going to get our next salary or wages.
“We are still due ‘X’ amount of money and things are no clearer on that front. We will speak to the administrators on Thursday and discuss these things and hopefully it will be OK.”
John Sutton has rejected the pay cut ‘offer’ and is expected to leave the club in the next few days.
Former Hearts assistant manager Peter Houston and defender Danny Wilson have put money into the club by paying for season tickets that will be given to charities to use.
It sounds terrible at hearts ……hahaha no joy that’s what happens to smelly Huns couldn’t be happier big Huns last year wee Huns this year HH great being a Tim
Mate its comments like that, that make me sick. Keep the secterist comments to yer self.
If the other scottish darby dies then its not good for scottish football, which affects our champions league qualifications. Don’t know if you know this but the reason we have 3 qualifiers this season instead of the 2 we had last time, was because rangers dropped out the league whch made scottish footballs uefa seeding points go way down along with other things like revenue. N if the league gets even worse this season, our rankings go down even more, making it more difficult for us to qualify.
Sometimes I wonder how ignorant people can people be.
I hope Hearts survive. Whether I like their fans or not doesn’t come into it.
Unlike the other mob, they weren’t trying to cheat; they just had a crazy man in charge. And unlike the other mob, Hearts are trying to do the right thing. There’s no denial, no arrogance, no friends in high places, and no blaming everyone else but themselves.
Besides, we do need the competition.
The two comments, a take it you don’t go to tynecastle when the hoops are there, there scum like there Glasgow cousins and its shocking to think Celtic fans have any sympathy for these scumbags they hate us with a passion and I for one hope they die for me it’s all about Celtic HH
So wit? That’s their fans and their political/religious views. Its about football. not who u like better. It is damaging our national league when the whole country is in ressesion and clubs are dying. Are u that stupit? It effects us big time if hearts die. N aye, a huv been to tyncastle n am not a fan of their fans either but its not about how much you hate a teams fans. Its football !! hink use are to stupit to even understand what it would do us. Only reason we got a tv deal this season was because scottish football sold them on the fact that we still have celtic and then there’s the edinburgh derby. U think we’ll be getting such a deal next time when 50% of the teams actually worth watching aren’t there? Nae chance ! Use yer heed son!
Do u know about the uefa seed rankings and how it all works? because I think you should look at it and stop complaining about how u don’t like their fans n that they’re rangers ugly cousin. Sound stupit mate.
And yes I do know stupit is spelled stupid so don’t try any sh!&t comebacks.
Yawn bla bla bla heard it all last year the old Armageddon patter, we don’t need anybody we live within our means thats how we will survive. Hearts finished 9 or something so a wouldn’t worry about the European points they don’t bring anything to the table and the tv deal isn’t that great for us money wise so a wouldn’t worry about that to much HH
Hearts did cheat. hey cheated by buying players they couldn’t afford to steal the Scottish Cup.
Let them go to hell and let another better more honest club take their place.